Short and Sweet

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What To Do When Your Dog Eats Your Charger + a Giveaway

The truth?  There's nothing you can do when your dog eats your charger except purchase a new one.

I know.  I know.  That's not the answer you wanted to read.  You wanted to read a way or ways that you could save yourself from a $75 electronics bill on your credit card, but the reality is that's just about the only thing you can do.  I mean, I suppose you could try to use electronic tape and try to secure the two pieces together, but let's be real.  Is that really a possibility?  Probably not.

But, even though it may seem like it at the time, that chewed up cord will only define your day if you let it.  It's an inconvenience to be sure.  It's a burden on the wallet.  (How is it possible that one small little cord can cost $75?)  But the end of the world?  Far from it.

The quickest way to turn your grey clouds blue is to start thinking of others and doing everything you can to encourage them.  It's funny how that small $75 cord matters less and less when you put others first.

You could...

1.  Send a card to a college friend. (Here's some beautiful cards from DaySpring.)
2.  Invite a friend over for tea or coffee.
3.  Send a text to a friend you know is down.
4.  Place a bright potted plant on your neighbors door step.
5.  Randomly surprise a friend at work with an afternoon pick me up.
6.  Pay for the person behind you in the drive thru.
7.  Mow the front of your neighbors yard.  (Make sure to follow their lines. :))
8.  Purchase a piece of jewelry for a friend.
9.  Print off a picture of a friend, frame it, and take it to them.
10.  Make dinner for a new mom.

These are just a few ideas for you.  I've joined up with DaySpring to do 21 Days of Encouragement.  So far it's going pretty good.  Several days I've found myself come to the end of the day and really not have done much.  I feel guilty and quickly do something to be an encouragement to someone.  The idea of this challenge is not to encourage guilt.  It's to help us think.  This challenge is encouraging me to think a little bit less about myself and a little bit more about someone else.

I have a friend, Alisha, who has been doing to challenge with me.  She's an Encourager Rock Star!  She sent me a text telling me she decided to write a note to her pediatrician who she was seeing that day.  I asked her after the appointment how it went.  Her doctor had tears in her eyes!  That's what it's all about!  Not the making someone else cry, but the making someone else see how important they are.

If you haven't already, join us on this challenge.  Let me know in the comments if you're going to be partnering up too.  Tag your social media posts with #liveyourfaith, #DaySpring, and #2Thes511. Find out more about 21 Days of Encouragement here.

Use your influence to brighten someone else's day.  You'll forget all about that charger.

Here's a chance for you to win $200 in store credit from DaySpring!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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the Blue House on the Corner of Washington and Division

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Several months ago I spent a couple of days in my college town.  I drove around her streets.  I went to all my favorite places.  I saw a few friends.  I even stopped for a few minutes in front of my dream house.

I used to love that house.  It's the second house on the right of the corner of Washington and Division in Springfield, Missouri.  It still has it's huge, mature trees and the wrap around porch.  It's a two story house probably built around 1920.  It's beautiful.  Ten years has changed my house.  It's not quite the same.

I used to love the color of the house.  It was a periwinkle blue--really more blue than purple--with white trim.  The gutters and shutters were also white and each window had a white flower box bursting with yellows and blues and purples.  I had dreamed of sitting hours and hours on the oversize white chairs that lived on the porch.  I planned on adding some white hydrangea bushes to the front.  (That was before I knew of peonies.  If I had known of peonies, hydrangea's would have never been an option.)

In my mind, I saw my children growing up there, walking to school and riding their tricycles up the little paved side walk.  I saw this house in all the seasons...both of life and of nature and I wanted to be a part of it all.  Right there, just like that, with the house frozen in time and me growing old with my family living in the embrace of it's walls.

I dreamed of living in that beautiful blue house on the corner of Washington and Division in Springfield, Missouri.  Even now, sitting here writing, I feel it's pull.  Only problem is, the house isn't blue anymore.  It's green.

It's not kelly green or hunter green.  It's more like a sea foam green only darker.  The shutters are still white and so is the trim, but the chairs are gone from the places that used to hold them.  The flower boxes have been removed.  And it's just not the same.

In some ways, that makes me a little sad...that the house isn't the exact same.  It looks different and I'm sure there is a different family that lives there now, so of course it's different.

I don't have a right to, but in some ways I mourn for that blue house with the window boxes.  I mourn the lack of little children spending hours playing on that wrap around porch.  I mourn beautiful orange leaves of fall.  I mourn for the raised vegetable garden beds just around the back of the house.  (To be clear, I have no idea if there ever were raised vegetable garden beds.  I assume that there were or are because that's what I would do.)

Yes, my delusion was grand.  But it was
beautiful while it lasted.

We all have dreams.  We all make plans and expect them to occur exactly how we visualized them.  But in reality that very rarely happens.  And really that's ok.  If our dreams are not actualized the way we imagined them, that's ok.

Tweet: We all have dreams. But in reality they very rarely happens. And really that's ok. @danettedillon http://bit.ly/1VVnxRx

And sure, we'll grieve their loss.  We'll always want that reality imagined in our mind.  But while reaching our dreams and goals is important it's the journey to our dreams and goals that makes us who we are supposed to be.

It's the struggle,
the fight,
the push...
It's the passion that changes us.

Tweet: "It's the journey to our dreams that makes us who we are supposed to be. It's the struggle, the fight, the push." @danettedillon

It molds us.  It makes us strong.  It makes us want to win.  The struggle should make us want to be better--at least a better form of ourself--so that we can be and do what God created us to do.  The struggle makes us brave because we have to be brave.  We have to take risks to see our dreams come true.  We have to be brave to see the impossible become reality.  We have to be brave enough to trust that God has a plan and will see us through to the end.  We have to be brave to give up control and trust God to give us what we need when we need it.

I'm reminded of a quote from Amy F. Downs book Let's All Be Brave.  (By the way, DaySpring's books are all 25% off.  I'm going to purchase some.  You can to here.)  She writes,

"Courage looks different for each of us.  If we want to see God glorified all over the world, we need to be brave enough to see courage in its different forms.  And we need to do the thing [God is asking you to do].  I can't see into your life to tell you what that thing is today--but I know enough to understand that the brave decisions you make at fifteen affect the brave choices you make at twenty-five--and they are different from the brave moments you face at thirty-five and fifty-five.  To see yourself the way God see you is the first step in being brave."

Looking back on my college experience I can easily see that the choices I made have defined my life.  And, at this moment, I'm fine with it.  Tomorrow may be different, but today, I'm fine with it.

I'm fine that I may never own or live in that blue house with little children playing in the yard.  Is that what I want?  No.  But I'm choosing the road of the Brave.  I'm choosing the path of trust.  I'm resolved to be more than I am, to do more with God than I could ever do on my own, and to live a life of complete trust.

And maybe, just maybe, I will live in that blue house with children playing in the front yard.  They may be foster kids or they may be adopted or may be they are even my grandchildren.  But maybe, just maybe I'll paint that green house blue again.  I'll fill those window boxes full or yellow and purple.  Maybe I will fall into those huge white chairs and drink in the rain as it slips down off the roof.  Maybe...but that can only ever happen if I live on the path of the Brave now.

What about you?  Are there any dreams that you feel are dead but you desperately long for them to live again?  How are you living brave now?

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Intentional Encourager

Recently I got the opportunity to participate in a community theater project in Sand Springs, Oklahoma.  It was a lot of fun.  I made many good, good friends. (All that's another story for another time.)  But there is one new friend added to my circle that truly amazes me.  She is absolutely the most thoughtful, most gracious, most intentional person I have ever met.  

She brought gifts and cookies to celebrate each cast members birthday during the production.
She brought gifts for everyone opening night.

She invited us over to her house after one of the performances.

She took time out of her busy, successful professional life to create a game for the cast party unlike any other game.

She invited her entire acting class she teaches and purchased their tickets.

She is completely encouraging while being completely honest.

She perfected the character she portrayed to the highest standard.

Like, seriously, the list goes on and on and on...

I don't think I've ever met a person who lived out Paul's admonishment to the church at Philippi more completely.  "Don't be selfish; don't try to impress others.  Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves" (Philippians 2:3).

This lady, only a little younger than myself, puts me to shame.  Humble, thoughtful, detail oriented.  Everyone loves her because she makes everyone love themselves.

The way you make other people feel about themselves is the way they will feel about you.

Tweet: The way you make other people feel about themselves is the way they will feel about you.@danettedillon http://bit.ly/1sbxvSP #liveyourfaith #dayspring

Sitting at my desk now, overwhelmed with emotion and conviction and a little bit of shame, I recognize that I want my life to be marked with intention.  And yet, I remember Paul's words to the church at Rome, "I don't really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don't do it.  Instead, I do what I hate" (Romans 7:15).  So many times I feel like Paul.

I want every single action to be executed with one purpose.  Not for selfish gain or ambition, I want to encourage people.  I want people to believe in themselves.  I want people to see that they have infinite potential.  I want to be able to encourage people to reach the greatness that is possible.

Investing in others takes time.  It takes thought.  It requires a sacrifice of yourself.  But investing in others is always worth the cost.

Tweet: Investing in others takes time, thought, & sacrifice. But investing in others is always worth the cost. @danettedillon http://bit.ly/1sbxvSP #liveyourfaith #dayspring

I've decided to join with DaySpring for the 21 Days of Encouragement.  For the next 21 Days I'm going to intentionally do something to encourage someone else.  DaySpring has so many different resources to help me on my encouragement journey.  You can check them out here. 

I hope that you will join me on these 21 Days of Encouragement, but even if you don't remember that when you encourage others suddenly you find yourself resting in contentment and joy.

Tweet: When you encourage others suddenly you find yourself resting in contentment and joy. @danettedillon http://bit.ly/1sbxvSP #liveyourfaith #dayspring

What are some ways you can encourage others?  I've been told it's all in the details.

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