Musings from Jim Stovall's The Ultmate Gift

Of work
-there is a certain type of love that comes from a job well done

Of Money
-loving money leads to empty hollow lives. It is learning to love people and USE money that gives everything it’s proper perspective

Of Friends
-If you only think about yourself you’ll always be disappointed

Of Learning
-if you have the gift of learning you are really quite wealthy

Of Problems
-A problem is given to you for the lesson it will teach you

Of family
-People become a family when they love each other

Of Laughter
-In order to love life you have to enjoy it, laughing at both the good and the bad

Of Dreams
-Dreams and goals are the outward manifestations of the love we feel inside

Of Giving
-I use to think that if you gave something away you were left with less than before. In reality when you give out of love…both the giver AND the receiver have more than they started out with

Of Gratitude
-The golden list (of gratitude. Create this list each morning before you get out of bed to assure the best day

Of a Day
-If today was your last day on earth-how would you spend it?
When you contemplate your own mortality you realize how much life you have lived…not just how much you have left. Life is nothing more than a series of days and if we learn to live each one to the fullest, our lives will be rich and meaningful
Then best day is on e that is filled with the people I love

Of Love
-Love makes you a different person

Group Workcamp-Brighton. What I learned!

For those of you who don't know me, I suffer from insomnia. I can generally fall asleep quite easily but frequently wake up sometime during the night and remain awake for several hours at a time. A snoring DH doesn't help matters much. When this occurs, I will spend my time praying or when the time lapse become too great, I will resort to reading a novel.

I am an early to bed (9:30-10pm) early to rise (5:30am) kind of of girl.

Work camp taught me a good lesson how to have a good night sleep with no insomnia. A person's day should consist of hard work, for the lord and worship. Because each work camp day included a healthy dose of each of these components, I never woke up during the night! Now to reproduce that at home!

1) Work Hard. Physical labor makes a body sleep all night through
Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:58

2) Make time for Worship and Prayer daily (it not several times a day)
So if you worship me, it will all be yours." Luke 4:7

3) Eliminate distractions. At work camp I didn't have any access to e-mail, the Internet, television or newspapers. I had limited cell phone service. I had limited things (especially those that I could do nothing about like the state of the economy, the Gulf Oil Spill, Afghanistan)intruding into my thoughts
My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught. Psalm 55:2

SO...if sleep eludes you, try my work camp remedy. Turn off the technology, clear your schedule of all but the MOST pressing items (your work, whatever that may be and daily worship). And let me know how well you slept!

Good night!

Group Work Camp trip-Brighton Tenn

I will be leaving with a group of high school students from my church and the other adult chaperone's to attend a Group Work Camp week in Brighton, Tenn to provide home repairs to local residents. It has always been an awesome event and I expect this to be no different! We're leaving at 5:30am Sunday and will return about 4pm the following Saturday! Might be hot and exhausting but I know I will come back filled up as God works through me and in me

E-mail me at http://www.groupworkcamps.com/Workcamps/Pages/EmailaCamper.aspx
select Brighton Tennessee
Diana Maslowski
I'll post about the trip when I return and get caught up at work and home!
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Blessings!
Diana

"We live our lives before an audience of One!"

Os Guinness says "We live our lives before an audience of One!" And that one is our Heavenly Father. He cares immensely about you. He knows every thing you do...every ounce of extra effort you put in as well as every shortcut you take. He never turns His head to look the other way. He never goes on vacation, so the idea of "the cat's away, so the mice will play" just doesn't cut it. He's always in the audience...smiling...pulling for you...watching what you do and how you do it.

Imagine if there was a real live "God-Cam" installed in your office...in the break room...in the employee cafeteria, your home, your car, at your computer... We'd be working pretty hard and focused on doing it right wouldn't we!

Well, there is a "God-Cam" in all these locations. There's also one in the break room, in your car, at the restaurant where you have lunch, and over your computer where you access the Internet. Your "audience of One" is always tuned in...watching...pulling for you to make good choices, and wincing in pain when you don't.

So the next time you think no one cares about what you do, remember that you have an audience...a very important audience...who's there with you and for you in everything you do. That audience is One...THE ONE! Make Him smile.

My boss is a Jewish Carpenter!