Write 31 Days-Day 2- Influence: What and Why?

Posted on by Mary

Influence

For today’s post I’m taking you back to a journal entry from last November when I began tossing the idea of this around in my head.  I know I promised Esther but I moved her to tomorrow in order to deal with these two BIG questions.  Influence is so Important and making our choices has a huge ripple effect that we are generally unaware of.  We live in a world today where the common phrase is I “this is my________.”  fill in the blank.  we tend to be so self absorbed that we are blinded by the fact that ALL of our choices have consequences not just for us  but for those around us.

Influence:What Is It?

well a quick visit to Dictionary.com tells us INFLUENCE is:

1. the capacity or power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of others:

He used family influence to get the contract.

2.the action or process of producing effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of another or others:

Her mother’s influence made her stay.

3.a person or thing that exerts influence:

He is an influence for the good.

4. to exercise influence on; affect; sway:

to influence a person.

5.to move or impel (a person) to some action:

Outside factors influenced her to resign.

So Why Influence?

Well after last years study  in my word for the year CONFIDWNCE (or God-fidence ) as I called it by the end of the year, I had come to realize these two concepts were closely related.You need God-fidence to radically  influence others for Christ.   You have to be solid on in who you are in Christ AND what He has called you to do.  Does that mean you won’t struggle? Absolutely not!  Because the reality go the matter is the, when you choose to be a Christian Influencer you get a big ole target on your back.     we will see that over the next few days as we look at Esther.

I have a real desire for women to understand their influence and the power it has.  When we make choices both in how we live and the words we speak it leaves a ripple effect and that ripple effect can cause positive or negative things to happen in other peoples lives….even people we may not see or know.

Introducing “Marie”

So to illustrate the very basic idea we are going to talk about my friend ….For the purposes of this blog post I am going to call her Marie.

Marie is the center director for our local pregnancy center.  I love watching her work.  She connects with our clients on an amazing level.  They are within her circle of influence.  

Marie has a choice as to the type of influence she is going to be on client A.  I already said that Marie is amazing with the clients BUT what if she wasn’t.  What would happen if Marie was critical and judgmental about what client A was going through.  Well client A would go to her friends and influence them by saying  something to the effect of “don’t go there, that center director is mean, she didn’t listen, she didn’t care and…..you know how it goes.  BUT in reality Marie is not like that at all so the model keeps growing and as it grows Marie’s circle of influence grows. Whether it is positive or negative.

influence

But as you can see in her circle of influence that the clients are not solely inside her circle because there are many other influences in that clients life….some good, some not so good while other influencers are awful.

Introducing Grumpy Gus and His Pals

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Happy Homemaker Monday- 10-1-2018

Posted on by Mary

Happy

Happy Rainy Monday!!!

As I look outside my window::: dark and dreary.  No moon.  no Stars. Rain running down my window.

Right now I am::: finishing this up and then heading to bed

Thinking and pondering::: I’m thinking a lot about Esther as I revisit my ladies talk I gave back in May on The Power of Your Influence.

On my bedside table:::books upon books upon books. cough drops and water

On my tv::: Faith, Love and Chocolate

On the menu for this week:::I haven’t really had a chance to finish planning that Thats on the list for first thing tomorrow.

Monday – Pasta

Tuesday – Chicken and Salt Potatoes

Wednesday –

Thursday -Lasgana

Friday – Family night

Saturday – Pizza

Sunday –

On my to do list::: clean the kitchen and bathroom down stairs

What I am sewing, crocheting, knitting or creating::: Curtains for the craft room

My simple pleasure::: SaltedCaramel ANYTHING!

Lesson learned the past week::: ummmmm 13  year old boys do not handle the restrictions that come with a concussion well….at all!!!!!!!

Looking around the house::: ugh that is all

From the camera::

:summer memories

Prayer List::: friends and family going through stuff!

Bible verse, Devotional:::

Pretty much the entire book of Esther.  That’s where I am camping for the next week as I write for the #write31days2018 writing challenge!

For more Happy Homemaker Monday posts Check out Diary of a Stay at home Mom!

Write 31 Days- Introduction to Influence

Posted on by Mary

Influence

Good Morning!  I’m Mary and I am excited to be joining in on this years #write31days2018 Challenge!  The influence of who we are can be the initial  impact on others.   How we look at our own lives speaks volumes to those around us.

So let’s go deeper into who I am before I tell you what I’m going to be writing about this month.

Who I Am

well I thought it might just be easier to do this in bullet points.

  • First of all I am a child of God and have been since I was 4 years old.   My relationship with Jesus has played an intricate role in my life and is the very reason why I do what I do!  At  16 I answered the call into full time ministry- at the time I thought it was missions but more on that later.
  • I am married to my pastor husband Ron.  we have been in our current ministry for almost  10 years.  we love our people and serve them with everything we’ve got.
  • we are parents to four amazing kiddos.  T is 13 (Boy) K is 12 (girl) J is almost 11 (boy) S is 8 (boy). J has autism Spectrum  Disorder and S has central Auditory processing disorder.  I tell you that for two reasons 1) it helps you, the reader understand the dynamics of our family. 2). when you read my blog you will understand that these are HUGE areas of influence in my life!!
  • As a teenager I lost partial eye sight.  I was diagnosed with age related Macular Degeneration at 13 and was the youngest documented child to have it in the United States at the time.
  • I’m not only a pastor’s wife!  I currently volunteer at a local Crisis pregnancy Center. mentoring in  two  areas  expectant mothers and Parenting.  I have there for 3 years and I love it.
  • I am a rafter.  I love all things creative.  I have been teaching myself to paint 9mostly watercolor) but I did my first acrylic painting last weekend.  I’m totally into paper crafting as well and have been  expanding my horizons by learning brush lettering. and I LOVE using my Cricut  for home decor. (that’s just a few things I love to create)
  • I love to Blog.  Though time and circumstances have played a huge role in me not blogging a lot over the past couple of years it is still a happy place.  I am currently working to bring this habit back into my life.
  • I LOVE to read and learn…..about anything really.  Though reading tastes have changed over time I love to be in multiple books at the same time.
  • I am an introvert.  I can be around people to but over time if I am involved with people a lot I can get burned out.  I have no problem being up front, and I actually prefer it.  I just need to recharge after  a lot of people contact.
  • I am an animal person.  we have one dog and 3 cats.  Rosie is our chocolate labradoodle and Daisy, Mia and Tia are our 3 cats.  BUT I have always secretly wanted some Crazy exotic pets.  Ya wanna know what they are….A chimp- as in a monkey. An otter.  Poison Dart Frogs (my fave animal of all in this entire world) a lemur.  cockateels.  a parrot.   a penguin.  On second  thought I should have just become a zoo keeper.
  • I have been on multiple missions trips.  3 to NYC and one that landed me half way around the world in a country that is closed.
  • I LOVE COFFEE!!  I have coffee pajamas, I have a donut coffee cup.  (but  my coffee MUST have creamer)
  •  I am severely lactose intolerant.
  • I have a Bachelors in Bible and Church ministries.
  • I love playing basketball!!
  • My favorite cities to visit are: Nashville, Washington DC, NYC, in that order!
  • I love to write….in journals,  on my blog, in my planner.   My fave is anything that involves a piece of paper and a pen bonus points if it’s pretty paper and a G2 pen.
  • my favorite household chore is laundry. (especially when the washing machine works..LOL)

The topic

Continue reading “Write 31 Days- Introduction to Influence” →

Cricut You Made My Day- My Rewards Points Story

Posted on by Mary

Cricut

Do you know what a Cricut  is?

I remember the first time I saw a Cricut..  It was 2009 and I was sitting on a hotel bed in Nashville Tennessee flipping through the channels when my inner scrapbooker landed on the Home shopping network or QVC or something.  And I was drooling!  NO JOKE.  See I have this problem.  I cannot cut things out with scissors!  they look HORRID! Well Cricut is a paper cutting machine, except since that day nearly 10 years agao it is SOOOOOO much more than that!  Fast forward about 7 years I had what is called a Cuttlebug made by the same company and it was a compact die cutting machine and I used that baby all the time (still do) and I was hunting for some dies for it . (they were getting harder and harder to find in stores so I took to Craigslist.

A sweet older woman I called said she was getting rid of all of her scrapbooking supplies and she was willing to sell them for all one price or individually.   So we took a drive.   When we arrived to this woman small suburban home I was in awe when I walked in her front door to a room filled with everything imaginable  papercrfating wise.  there were about 20 scrapbooks, paper to last a lifetime a HUGE friskers case, stamps, punches ink, .  You name it it was there, EXCEPT all the cuttlebug dies had been sold.  I have to admit I was kinda frustrated.   she looked at me and said I bought all of this brand new hoping to start a new hobby but I just never had time.  I will give it all to you for $200. My jaw hit the floor.  Hubby walked in as I am stammering like a fool.

What’s wrong? he said.

I explained

we talked about it it was too good to be true.

we decided to go for it as she said “don’t forget the Cricut. I nearly died. Never in my wildest dreams.  I got home and lugged everything upstairs.  I began to calculate and realized there was well over $1000+  in product I was floored and severely overwhelmed.  I quickly realized though that I couldn’t keep everything so I sorted and shared the blessing with others.

The downside with the Cricut was that I needed cartridges.  So I started collecting the ones I wanted that were on sale.   and the cool thing was that these image holding cartridges came with rewards points.  So I set up the account and started collecting them. 90 points here, 50 points there.  Yesterday I found a rogue  coupon from a cartridge soI hopped online to enter the code and collect yet another 50 points.

A few years ago I outgrew my Cricut I had ad hubby surprised me with one for Christmas…no cartridges needed.   you just upload your images you already had to design space and viola !

Well when I tried to get on the webpage it said there was an error, no sweat this has happened before! So I just called in.  Only to be told that Cricut rewards was no more.  I had not seen the email of this impeding shutdown.  I must admit I was kinda bummed because I felt like I had waster all those points (I estimated to the lady on the phone that I thought I had between 500-800 Points). She told me that they were honoring points on a case by case basis so she sent out a help ticket for me and that I would hear from her in the next 24-48 hours.

This evening I checked email and sure enough there was an email from the very mice lady who had helped me on the phone.  It said that I actually had 1,350 points which was enough points to give me Premium access for a YEAR!   That’s huge deal!  That is all the images on design space.  I have complete access to them for an entire year!

They didn’t have to do that.  I was late to figure out that they were closing the rewards program and yet they still  did.  I have loved working with this company on so many levels!  they fix their problems and they call or email prompt.

Last year I was working on a project and I bought a digital cartridge.  It was supposed to have 38 images but I could only access 12 of them.   I called them and I’m pretty sure the same very mice lady listened to my problem and then fixed it! and she called me back late the next day just to tell me it was all better!

What customer service!

5 Things.

Posted on by Mary

5 things

5 Things,That’s what I’m calling it fo at t least now.  Each week I’m going to post about 5 things I have learned.  I have been compiling a list all summer long and honestly I wasn’t quite sure what exactly what to do with this List..  I have been pondering it.  Basically these weekly 5 things posts are made up of tidbits.  Things that stood out while I was reading or listening to sermons or doing Bible study.

I really want to remember them and apply them. so each week I will share 5 from my list!  The cool thing is since I am constantly reading, studying and listening this shouldn’t be too complicated to keep going!

So here is this week’s five things!

  1. Reading Scripture out loud gets it into your brain 3 ways
  • speak it
  • hear it
  • see it

The point is th more you put in God’s word the more you will gain more from it.  Reading Scripture out loud just happens to get it in 3 different ways! (Speaker from Bible conference)

2.  Tell God your dreams and ask God how to get there. (Can’t remember where This one came from)

I guess I’m dense. No that’s not it.  So many times in our Christian circles we convince ourselves  or we are taught the its not “Christian” to have dreams.  That we must die to self and I agree, There are time though that God gives us dreams and we spend time floundering trying to make those God given dreams happen on our own.  But that is just all sorts of insane isn’t it?  God gives us those dreams wouldn’t it make a world of sense to ask Him to show us how and give us wisdom, strength and courage to follow him through with it!   Sometimes our dreams aren’t even really about us ( ok so they almost never are). They are about God.  He is writing our story in order to bring Glory to himself…..in a sense he wants us to make him famous! (Let. It. Go.)

3.When mentoring (or in life in general) don’t ask questions that can be answered with a “yes” or “no”. (Becoming a Woman of Influence by Carol Kent)

this was a concept I learned in counseling classes when I was in Bible College.  But sometimes we forget in our everyday lives, whether it’s with our kids or people we minister to!

4. Even if there is nothing to apologize for do a random act of kindness for her.  (yep totally don’t remember where this came from).  This is a fantastic.  I have never even really thought about this before, but what amazing advice and I really  watn to implement this in the future.

5. Schedule a whole day (or part of a day) alone with God  a week/ month, different from your daily devotions.  this is a new concept for me as well.  I LOVE THIS IDEA!!!   and I have picked a day!   I’m shooting for once month to start and to build up.   I have this desire to grow.  and as I have journeyed throughout my life I have continually had a desire to grow. and part of growing is being willing to try new things.  this is different for me and I am going to try!

So what 5 things have you learned over the last few weeks? Leave them in the comments below!