Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Happy Holidays from The D-Vine!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

from My Family to Yours


Tyler, Tracy, Reagan, B. J., & Drew

Enjoy this season with family and friends. Remember that the birth of Jesus Christ, the savior of the world and the Prince of Peace, is the REAL reason for the season.

Taking a break from blogging next week, but coming back with something NEW & EXCITING JUST FOR YOU! Get ready to kick into full gear in 2016 with my six-week series: ME23.

Before I go, here's some Christmas cheer for you to groove on. :)


Wednesday, December 16, 2015

You Can Win With What You Have Left

It's wintertime - the season when all that was once green and growing goes cold and dormant. To the naked eye, it's not a pretty picture.

Is that how you're feeling as 2015 draws to a close? Has this been a barren year for you?

Well, I bring you good news! You may be at the end of another calendar year, but that doesn't mean that you aren't on the verge of a personal revolution. That's right! And I don't mean a comeback of epic proportions either (although that would be a righteous surprise too). I mean an awakening in your soul, a shifting in your perspective and your level of expectation that will slowly but surely propel you forward. It can happen, even if you don't think you've got everything it takes to make it happen.

Let me paint a picture for you...

When I was a little girl, I remember going with my mother to the home of one of our elderly church ladies. She was hosting a quilting circle with some of her friends. At the time, I didn't realize what a time-honored tradition this was among our African-American ancestors, but I soon found out.

I can still remember them laughing and chatting away as they leisurely took what looked to me like old raggedy scraps of fabric and effortlessly sewed them into colorful patterns. It took them weeks to finish, and I wasn't there to witness all of their labor. But I can tell you that when they were done, that quilt was fit to be displayed at The Louvre!

Who would have thought that all those little scraps scattered around the floor would eventually yield such an amazingly beautiful and purposeful thing?


Maybe 2015 may have drained a lot out of you. You may feel like you're running on empty right now; like you're left with scraps. 

photo credit: www.absolutelysmall.com


But God looks at your scraps and sees this:

photo credit: www.weallsew.com

That's because He knows the awesome things He can do through your faith. So don't focus on what you don't have. When you do, it makes you blind to your potential and robs you of your promise. Smile over your scraps, girl! They're going to make for a great story someday.

Remember the Old Testament story about the widow who was facing a critical debt situation and had only one vial of oil left in her house? (2 Kings 4:1-7) Go back and check it out. You'll see that it wasn't about what she had. It was about what she was willing to DO with what she had.

So, I ask you, are you willing to use what you've got left?

"Because little becomes much as you place it in the Master's hand." ~ from the song, Ordinary People by Danniebelle Hall
Until next week, Overcomers...


Thursday, December 10, 2015

Back in Stride Again

(photo credit: augustaga.gov)

Hello Fellow Champion!

Does the holiday season tend to get you off your game? It happens to me almost every year. As you can probably tell by the dates on my last few posts, I've been M.I.A. for a couple of weeks.

That's how it goes with me. I'll be making great strides, firing on all cylinders - mind, soul, and body. Then as soon as Thanksgiving comes around, I tend to get distracted with all the sights and smells and sounds of the holiday season. And then the bottom falls out. I start eating waaaay to many sweets and getting off-focus and off-task.

But this year, I've made some improvements, I must say.

I set two primary goals. That's right, only TWO. Why? Because I'm old enough now to realize the importance of not biting of more then I know I can chew.

First up, my fitness. When our eldest went off to college at the end of August, I committed to doing a 30-minute workout, Monday through Friday, every week, and with only a couple of missed days due to illness, I've stayed on track. My handsome hubby is a BIG part of the reason for this because he keeps me accountable to what he knows is important to me. (Love you, Babe!)

Second, my writing. I've been writing for years, mostly for other people. But a couple of years ago, I committed to making more time to write for myself. I had a lot of creative ideas floating around in my head, including an amazing novel (which I intend to publish in early 2016), but I wasn't doing much with them. Then one day, I rediscovered the power of the plan. Plans are the road map for your good intentions. Without one, they simply have no where to go. 

My goal is to broaden my blog's exposure to like-minded women. So the first step in my grand plan was to become consisting in posting something relevant to The D-Vine once a week. Now granted, I'm still tweaking and fine-tuning this one, but I give myself a high-five for improved effort. To top it all off, I recently had a friend who was so inspired by seeing my consistent blog posts on Facebook, he reached out to ask how he could start his own blog. Imagine that... and I'm not even blogging at top form - YET! 

The moral of today's post: ENJOY THE SEASON, BUT DON'T LOSE THE REASON.

Yes, this is the time of year that we celebrate the birth of our Great Redeemer, Jesus Christ, but that's the whole point. He came to help you redeem what was lost in the garden - your faith, your strength, your stride.

So what if you dropped the ball for the umpteenth time? That's what grace is for. Take hold of it again and get back in focus. You don't need January 1st for that. You can start right now!

Until next week...

Hugs & Happy Holidays!

P. S. I've got a hot new blog series coming out in January 2016 called ME-23. You're gonna LOVE it! It's a new twist on an old classic that is just what the doctor ordered if you're tired of living a lukewarm life. Stay tuned!