2022 The Year of Optimism

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills I’m ready for this 2022 New Year to be wrapped in optimism. For that to happen, I must make a conscious decision (sometimes moment by moment) to declare joy in all things: ups, downs, and in-between times. It’s easy to write out that declaration, but to enlist optimism and joy, I need help—supernatural help and a …

How to Keep the Christmas Spirit

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills ‘Tis the Christmas season, and with all the hustle and bustle, we sometimes lose our Christmas spirit. When moments of irritation and frustration threaten your joy, look at these ten ways to bring hope back into your Christmas. Change your music selections to Christmas carols. As you sing along to the familiar classics, think about the …

Thanksgiving Quotes

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills This week reminds us of our many blessings, gratitude, and the love of family and friends. Below are twenty quotes and Scripture that help me value Thanksgiving. “Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind.” – Lionell Hampton “Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your …

The Meaning of Family

DiAnn Mills @ DiAnnMills Guest Blogger: Deborah Sprinkler @DebbieSprinkle About two months ago, I asked a simple question: How do you define family? The answers proved to be complicated. One reply summed up the difficulty in finding a definition. She wrote, “We have the family we are born into, the family we chose, and the family we join.” Is one …

5 Keys to Navigating a Life Pause

DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills Guest post: Candy Arrington @CandyArrington In this age of high-speed Internet, search engines, and cell phones, we have access to instant information at our fingertips, or by asking a voice-activated assistant like Alexa or Siri. Because we are so conditioned to immediacy, waiting has a negative connotation. From traffic snarls to drive-thru lines, we chafe at delays. …

Slow Down and Experience Life

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills This summer we took a family vacation to the Rocky Mountain National Park, a favorite respite for my husband and me. This time, we had our son, daughter-in-law, and three enthusiastic grandkids to hike and enjoy park activities. One morning I took a walk outside our cabin along the Fall River near Estes Park, Colorado. I …

Hope in the Unknown

DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills Guest Blog: Darlene L. Turner @DarleneLTurner Hope. The word raced into her mind. She needed to place her trust and hope back into the One she now realized had never left her, even during everything. With God, the unknown shouldn’t be feared. There was hope in the Eternal. Madison peered up through the well as a cloud …

Replacing Chaos with Order

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills I’m ready to replace the chaos in my life with order. What about you? Have you experienced enough disease, world crises, country dissent, state issues, and personal problems that range from A to Z? While normal can change daily, sometimes hourly, a means of establishing order takes a commitment to guidelines that help us maintain our …

Are You a Survivor?

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills A survivor is someone who has lived through a tragic event. Survivors aren’t only those who lived while others died; sometimes resurfacing after enduring physical, emotional, or spiritual turmoil also makes us a survivor. Using the acronym for SURVIVOR, we can look at a few qualities needed to walk through fire and endure the heat. S …