People are hurting all around the world. The hungry, people living in war-torn regions, those who are caught up in human trafficking, and people who feel unloved for any reason are just a few examples of hurting people. How can you shine brightly for these people in need?  To begin, you can say a prayer for them. Then ask God to lead your heart to find out if He wants you to do more. Can you donate time, food, clothes, or money? Your name may never be known to these people, but they will be forever grateful to you for your help - and to God for sending that help through your efforts. From that point, these hurting people will know God's love . Because God works through us to get to these people who are experiencing these hardships. God shines through us. And His love through us  and in us is the beginning of leading others to Him. Daniel 12:3 NLT says: "Those who are wise will shine as bright as the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars for

I hope all of you had a blessed Thanksgiving and Christmas and are having a lovely New Year. As for me, I have lots of plans for 2023 - especially for the readers of this blog. I have some ideas for a couple of small books that I want to write for you. And after I finish a current Upwork job, I will also be planning several new posts for this blog. God has been showing me these plans and ideas for a few months, so I hope you will find them to be endearing and helpful in your life. It will take 2-3 years to complete all the projects that I currently have planned, so I'm very happy you'll be along on this journey.  I call this plan my #WomenHelpingWomen mission. If at any time, you have questions or anything you want to add as I follow through with these plans (blog posts, creations, books), you can always leave a comment below or send me an email through the contact form on the right side of this page. I have no idea where the starting point will be, but I will start soon . I h

 After Saul (Paul) was converted from Judaism, in which he was a trained priest, to Christianity on the road to Damascus, he spent a few years learning how to be a better person for God's new work in Christ. After God prepared him, Paul started preaching the Good News to people in different cities. One of those cities was Corinth in Greece. When Paul needed to correct - or praise - some teachings of the churches that were established in these cities but couldn't get back to them right away, he would write them letters. One of these letters (often called epistles) is called I Corinthians in the Holy Bible.  The message I want to bring to your attention today is what Paul was telling this church about love. He told them in verse 16:14 to, " Do everything with love. " (NLT) The NKJV read as, " Let all that you do be done with love. " What a difference we could make in the world if we could all follow this beautiful advice.  In the same Book of I Corinthians 13:

Slow down tomato ripening Do you ever wonder why tomatoes are displayed with the top side down at the grocery store or farmer's market? That's because it prevents the tomatoes from ripening too quickly at room temperature. And when you get them home and set them on the countertop with the top side up, you promote faster ripening. That's great if you actually want the tomatoes to ripen faster.  However, if you want to slow ripening for up to 2 weeks, you can actually place the tomatoes in the fridge with the top side down. Remove them from the fridge and place them top side up on your countertop at room temperature for a day or two before you need to actually use them. I just recently did that with one that had been in the fridge for 10 days, and it was perfect 24 hours later when I needed to use it. Image courtesy of Leilani Angel via Unsplash Slow down lettuce rot To slow down lettuce rot, buy a full head instead of packaged lettuce. Packaged lettuce starts turning brown w

We all know how busy life can be. And there seems to always be several interruptions along the way. The most important thing to remember is to just let life happen. Some days, you won't feel like being busy, so take the day off as best as you can. That sounds too simple, but that's the best advice I can give you.  As most of you can attest to as well, I can't count the number of times I've had to put off the plans in my life because something else came up. I'm not a selfish person, and as I will discuss more at some point, that made me feel like I had to be a people pleaser. And I'm not lazy, so I've always felt like I had to be busy doing something. Guess what? Reading a good book is something that I enjoy doing on days I need to give my muscles and/or brain a day off.  God, after all, did give us orders to rest 1 full day each week.  So, I am starting to do that now. That doesn't mean that I don't do anything on that day of rest, but I make our mea

If you have a big job ahead of you, and you really dread it, my secret is to just start small. Work in small areas daily until the chore is completed. For instance, if you have several windows and blind sets to clean in your house, start by cleaning one or two sets of blinds and the windows those blinds cover on day 1. The rest of the blinds and windows can follow in short bursts of progress.  Image courtesy of CDC via Unsplash Another example would be carpet cleaning. What a hard job! It requires lots of energy and time. So, I start by moving a piece of furniture away from the wall and I clean that section on day 1. Then I move another piece of furniture the next day to clean the carpet under it and so on until all of the furniture that can be moved has clean carpet beneath it and behind it. Then I can move to the simple parts - the area where no furniture needs to be moved! Let me stress that not all furniture needs to be moved. And if it's too heavy to move, then don't! Kee

If you're looking for a way out of your stress, hobbies are a great way to release the unpleasantness that comes with stress. Perhaps there's a craft you have always wanted to learn, such as painting, cross stitch, quilting. Or maybe you never learned how to play the piano or the art of photography. Maybe you just want to be at one with nature. Maybe yoga or hiking are activities you would like to work into your life. Perhaps it's a combination of a few of these hobbies. Image courtesy of   Zeynep Sümer  via Unsplash The thing you need to learn about a hobby is to not let it stress you because it isn't moving along as fast as you think it should. Learning is a process in itself that should be calming, and once that hobby is accomplished, it should continue to calm you. A good hobby is something you do that makes you feel relaxed, as though you've been lying around all day. But on the contrary, you accomplished a few brush strokes on a free-style painting, hiked for