Life Coaching...Life Changing

Recently I have had the opportunity to develop a friendship with a wonderful life coach, Terri Babers.



She reigns from the great state of Alaska and has had me journaling about life. My world...meet Terri. Terri, meet my world.

This past week I was prompted to look at the relationships in my life and how they relate to my dreams. I posted the following as a reply. My husband encouraged me to share this post with you all!



"Friendships are extremely important to me. I thrive on interaction and find I get pretty down if I do not have that "certain" friend to chat with.

For the first 6 months or so, after moving to Oklahoma, I felt isolated. I had not yet developed close friendships and while I still maintain my relationships from back home, it just isn't the same from a distance.

My husband and I are careful about who we surround ourselves with. We distanced ourselves from what we call toxic family and friends long ago. Not that we don't love them, we just don't love the impact they have upon us.



My husband is my best friend, my cheerleader and my realist. Although I must say, realist is a stretch as we are both dreamers. We encourage one another in accomplishing our goals and in some ways we are opposites. This keeps us balanced. He is my thinker-through-er and I am his spontaneity. Even with his realist tendencies, he is a dreamer through and through.

When you dream big, when you dream in living 3-D color, not many people understand. Finding people to actually relate to your dream is next to impossible. For a people person like myself, I have found myself associating with people who support me dreaming although they may not understanding the dream itself. They are still encouraging to the point they are a positive influence and not a drain of my energy and my focus."

If you are interested in ten weeks of free journaling with Terri, head to her website.

Here you go:

http://www.positive-changes-coach.com/

Mission Possible

Mark 1: 1-5 In the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, As it is written in the Prophets.

“Behold, I send My messenger before Your face. Who will prepare Your way before You.” The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord, Make His paths straight’.”

John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Then all the land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem, went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.”

I want to share today a little something that has been on my heart. I’d like to write about John the Baptist and how the five verses above fit into our lives today.

First, John the Baptist was not a mistake. He was born with purpose. He was born to proclaim the truth. The wilderness he baptized in and preached in was a place of loneliness. There weren’t many hanging out with him. It wasn’t the popular place. It wasn’t the comfortable place.

He was regarded as a freak, as an anomaly. He did not fear man, for he would not have preached repentance. He knew his job and he didn’t let circumstances, lack of money, lack of talent or any other excuse keep him from accomplishing his purpose.

He knew his place. He was in the limelight but a short while and didn’t let the attention go to his head. He never thought of himself more than he ought. His sole purpose was to glorify the Son.

He did not have to chase people down; they went out to him. They knew him and they heard his message.

What do we have in common with John the Baptist?

Well, we are supposed to be preparing the way for the second coming of Christ. The question is, are we?

Each one of us has purpose. We are all supposed to be proclaiming the truth. If we choose to accept our mission, it will be a lonely place, for it is not popular to preach repentance. We will have those that tolerate us, those who disassociate and those who out and out attack us for taking a stand for Christ.

We will be freaks, anomalies. If we choose to fear God instead of man, we will preach the forgiveness of sins, which leads to salvation. Love will have its part in our messages, but it will not be the entire message. We will not know the definition of, nor care about, being politically correct. If we choose to accept our mission, we will do so through every circumstance the enemy is allowed to throw our way. We will face forward, not looking to the left or the right. We especially will not look behind. We will put one foot in front of the other, walking in the direction of our purpose and not let anything sway us or distract us.

We will know our place. We are here to bring Glory to the Father. Period. We only have worth through the blood of Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit will direct those with ears to hear to stand in the path of our message.

So, I’ll ask the question again. What do we have in common with John the Baptist?

Everything. Or nothing. It’s up to you.

In this New Year of new beginnings, will you accept the challenge? Will you go out and prepare the way of the Lord?

It's Turtle Time!

(Not this kind!)

It’s that time of the year. Time to make the most luscious of Christmas treats, the turtle. Thick, gooey, homemade caramel loaded with fresh pecan halves and covered with a delectable blend of the best chocolate.

Sound dreamy? If you’ve had them, then you know they are.

I have been making them for roughly twenty-five years. They have been shipped to relatives and friends all over the place. I have to admit though, this year I’m a little nervous about making them. You see, for the last 25 years, I have been making them in Wisconsin. Now, we’re in Oklahoma. What’s the difference you say? Well, I’ll tell you.

Chocolate is a finicky. Yeah, it’s delicious but all that “delicious” can be difficult, especially when used as an ingredient. If you are using chocolate as a coating, and you don’t want to use the plastic chocolate (bark etc.) then you have no choice but to deal with it.

You see, if you don’t melt the chocolate perfectly, it will not behave for you. This process is called tempering. If you heat the chocolate too much you will burn it. If any moisture gets into the chocolate, it will seize. Basically it will develop the look of cottage cheese…which is not a pretty site on turtles.

I have seen chocolate which has turned white or has spots of white. This process is called “bloom” and is caused by the cocoa butter rising to the top in aging chocolate. It also happens when chocolate gets too warm. Using fresh, quality chocolate is a must!

See? There are many factors to perfecting chocolate. Temperature and humidity also play a huge part in getting your chocolate just right. While humidity is not so much an issue in Oklahoma, 80 degree days in December are. That is what I am trying to factor in before I attempt the turtles.

The good news is, I see cooler days in the forecast. As soon as we go below 45 degrees I am doing nothing else until the turtles are safely tucked away in my refrigerator!

Because I am a writer and because I am a Christian, my mind drifted to tempering and how it affects our every day lives.

What, in our Christian walk, must be tempered? I can think of a few things but what comes to mind is love. Of course it does…I’ve been on a “love” kick lately!

And by tempering love do I mean love less? No. Do I mean love carelessly? No. Recklessly? No. Tempered love, to me, means responsible love. When tempering chocolate the correct amount of heat has to be applied in order for the chocolate to turn out right. With love, we must use the truth as our tempering agent.

The world’s definition of love never offends or points out the truth. It means we embrace anything and everything without condition.

And to an extent, I agree. We must love everyone. It is commanded that we do. The difference though is God’s definition of love is not the same as the worlds.

Just last week I was told that it is pharasetical for a Christian to judge another Christian. The person that said this calls herself a Christian. My question is, how does a Christian come to this understanding?

I will tell you why. Because as Christians we have drifted to the world’s definition of love and we are no longer tempering love with Truth. Love all by itself is not love. And speaking truth without love as the motive leaves a distaste in one’s mouth. The two must be combined, tempered with one another so to speak, to be lasting, unconditional and effective.