Because I know God as my Father, I am confident of who I am in Him. His fondness for me is unfathomable, reliable and true. On any day when the vortex of the world threatens to vomit fear, despondency and panic, I still. Grabbing a front row seat somewhere near nature allows me to breath deeply and remember my identity as a deeply loved child of God.

The audible Word of God is available for you and for me anytime we desire to hear it. Truthfully, I read my Bible out loud even when I am with myself so that I can use more of my senses to fully take in His truths. So often when I read, I am overwhelmed by God’s love for me as well as His power as Creator of this physical world that I live in daily. Our Father God designed me and you for relationship with Him. The great void in our spirit when we are not intimately connected to Him is satisfied when we hear the audible Word of God.

How much of life is lived in the shallows? Suddenly, life becomes deep as a tragedy, a death or even a birth sharpen our awareness. When my interests only go as deep as myself, I am shallow. A deep soul empathizes and sees others. A deep soul lives in awareness of who others are in God’s image. A deep soul exists in an everyday sense of eternity and God’s presence in all things. Remember, the stream is your soul and you are the keeper.

As an enthusiastic gift giver, I have recently reevaluated my gift giving patterns. Gift giving should not be a burden. Push back from this response. Buying gifts should be an expression of friendship and love. This year has encouraged some radical rethinking of gift giving.

Nobody is immune to the virus of stress. All of us are vulnerable to the bacteria of stress. We all have to deal with three things that just come with life and they all cause stress. The boundaries between work and leisure, public and private, are dissolving so that we have no rest and we are forced to be time jugglers and multi-taskers. We’re all rats in the rat race. We’re all overwhelmed by all we have to do and we struggle with priorities to remember and agendas to keep under control.” Check out these ideas to get the stress out when you are stressed out!

Take charge of this Christmas by planning to enjoy it thoroughly. This Christmas checklist offers ideas for more choices encouraging you to create Christmas intentionally for your family. Consider this checklist to create new memories for your family.

While traditions certainly hold value, they can also involve stress. Holding too tightly to unreachable expectations can evaporate all of the joy out of the holidays. Letting go of expectations can eliminate stress and create room for happy memories.

Perhaps the most important quality to success is grit. Grit is a strong determination to finishing. Grit is an unyielding courage to face hard things, danger or impossible odds. Grit is the stamina to complete a longer than anticipated project, goal or task. Grit is knowing the end game matters. Grit is seeing the finish line and lunging forward no matter the obstacles. Check out these 5 characteristics of grittiness.

Perhaps you have been thinking about making new friends? Perhaps you need to find better, healthy friends? Perhaps you need to be a better friend? Friendship with family and others is one of the most meaningful ways to spend your life. Vulnerability, honesty and loyalty are all features of a quality friend. Success in friend-making is partially determined by your discretion in knowing what NOT to do when making friends.