Greetings From The Front Porch!
Many people have asked me recently about how I keep myself focused on the God stuff over the good stuff. So, below is what I call my Daily Dozen taken from one of my favorite authors/speakers John Maxwell. This is a list I keep close to me at all times, going over it, reevaluating why I do and making sure that my what’s line up with my why. Feel free to have fun with the E’s!
The Daily Dozen
• Examine your life at the moment. The first step toward making your dream come true is to find out where you are right now. That takes close scrutiny.
• Exchange all of your little options for one big dream. Every dream has its price.
• Expose yourself to successful people. It is true that birds of a feather flock together.
• Express your belief in your dream. Write it down or talk about it frequently.
• Expect opposition to your dream. Every nitpicker who doesn't have a dream will oppose yours. Regretfully, there are ten nitpickers for every person with a dream. You will never rid yourself of them. As long as you understand that, you won't let them hinder you. Remember that those who have no dream cannot see yours, so to them it is impossible. You can't have what you can't see.
• Exercise all of your effort, all of your energy, toward the dream. It's worth it. Pay that price?
• Extract every positive principle that you can from life. Constantly be on the lookout for anything that will enhance that dream.
• Exclude negative thinkers as close friends. You're going to have some friends who are negative thinkers, and no doubt some are members of your family. But if their negative thinking drags you down, which it will, you don't need to spend much time with them. There are people in my family and in my wife's family who are spirit-dampeners. We have chosen, for the sake of our kids as well as ourselves, not to spend a lot of time with them. You may need to put some distance between yourself and your negative-thinking friends.
• Exceed normal expectations to make your dream come true. If you're to reach your dream, you'll have to do that which is beyond the normal. Dreams are not achieved by average energy.
• Exhibit an attitude that is confident. I believe that if you are outwardly confident, you will become more confident inwardly. The way we act outwardly affects what we are inwardly.
• Explore every possible avenue to reach your dream. Don't let any detour or dead-end street stop you on your way to a dream God has given you. There are more routes up a mountain than just the east side. Go around to the south side. See what else you can do.
• Extend a helping hand to someone who had a similar dream, and both of you will climb together. Mountain climbing is not an individual sport. It's a team sport. One holds the line for the other. As we hold the lines for others, we can all make it to the top, and our dreams can come true.
Be All You Can Be.
Question: How many of you could implement just one E a day?
Please feel free to leave a comment below, I love hearing from you!
Cris Nole
Rise and Shine!
Greetings from The Front Porch!
One by one they arrived on The Front Porch. The crust of sleep barely off their eyelids, “it seemed like a good idea at the time,” came from one of the voices in the group in regards to their yes just days before.
If we were in the middle of the country I believe a rooster would have been crowing at the very moment we chose to step of the sidewalk and into the street.
Rise and shine, 6:30AM, fun run from The Front Porch, why? Because 85% of life’s problems can be solved with momentum and two are better than one, they have a better return for their work.
What would bring a group of folks to The Front Porch at such a ridiculous time of day? Why would people possibly say yes to something most would say no to?
I believe people said yes because deep inside each of us we long to be connected to a community of others who long to be more then they are in the moment. I believe deep inside each human soul longs and yearns to be connected, challenged and stretched beyond their own comfort zone.
Some of us were runners, others joggers and others walkers but that did not matter, it was not about how fast we ran, walked or jogged, it was about the journey. We were all pounding out the pavement following the same trail with the goal of reaching the same destination, a group of ordinary people having an extraordinary experience together for the sake of community with the benefit of connecting.
The chiter chatter of the group brought a smile to my heart as I listened to some of my nearest and dearest friends connect, sharing their morning, their week and their plans for the weekend.
There is something profound about working out the body that can teach us much about working out our faith. Our muscles were made to be stretched and our bodies were made to move, how we do it and when we do it is all on an individual basis but in order to stay healthy it must be done.
The funny thing is that for me it takes about twenty minutes into my workout for me to start feeling good about what I am doing and then I am always glad I did it.
In fact, many said today when we were finished how good they felt once they started moving, confirmation that 85% of change, growth and problem solving comes in the form of momentum and movement. The problem at first was we didn’t feel like moving, yet the more we moved, the more we were able to move.
This to is the same with working out our faith. If we choose only to walk by faith every once in a while instead of exercising our faith we will suffer pain and fatigue every time. We were created to walk by faith not when we feel like it but all the time. This takes practice and perseveres to do what doesn’t feel right, believing that the end result will bring you closer to your creator and a place of health and wholeness.
We also need the encouragement of others who have gone before us, mentally, physically and spiritually to cheer us on and give us hope and faith that it is possible to run the race set before us. This is done in true community where no one is out for their own good but the good of the other person, knowing when we help others grow we will naturally grow ourselves.
The amazing result of choosing to connect in community through saying yes to a challenge is that we are given through the process a new set of eyes, which become the actual gift of understanding what the prize really looks like.
Even the Pit Master who chose to get up early with his faithful right hand man was being stretched as they stepped up to say yes to feeding those who chose the challenge. We met on The Front Porch at 6:30AM but they started the food preparation at 5:00AM and what was in it for them? They were not being paid, no trophy or award. If anything they were left with a mess to clean up, so what made them say yes to the challenge as well?
Community, connecting through an experience of being stretched to grow beyond our wildest dreams, starting small and realizing we can and we will if we choose to do it together. The prize, the ultimate gift comes when we actually witness the power of the living God in each other when we believe in ourselves not because we see greatness in us but because we see greatness in others.
So, to those who ran, walked, jogged, cooked, served and cleaned up, my hat goes off to all of you for running your race well, for not turning back, giving up or even giving in to what might have appeared to feel uncomfortable at first. You are all a gift to this community and beyond and your influence will reach many as you continue to say yes to being stretched.
Until next time, be blessed and don’t forget to tie your shoes.
See you on The Front Porch!
Cristina Nole
Feet on The Front Porch!
Greetings from the Front Porch!
Feet on The Front Porch, that is the best way to describe what it felt like to enter into my morning with a dear friend who said yes to an invite.
Tap, tap, tap, came the noise from the Front Porch window, it was just a few minutes past the changing of the guard when I looked up and saw the biggest smile and brightest eyes looking through my window and waving at me as if to say “so glad to see you, are you coming out to play?”
I had just recently posted an invitation on Facebook, looking for someone who might be interested in joining me on an early morning run. Of course, when I posted the time to meet, I got mostly laughs and jeers, go figure, people laughing at me for wanting to run at 6:30AM, I just don’t find that funny! OK, there would have been a time I would have, but today it brings me joy, I love starting off my morning with a run and I just thought it would be nice to begin it with a friend.
A friend finally responded with a “I will meet you on The Front Porch at 6:30.” Because she had not put AM or PM I wanted to clarify the morning time and make sure she was still willing to be my running partner. To my surprise, she was and her arrival this morning was a sweet surprise but not as sweet as the run and the conversation, we had.
We took off from the front porch and jogged into and throughout our neighborhood, we chatted about school and kids, parents and friends. She spoke truth into my life about the way I was raising my son and she allowed me to encourage her in her life and the way she was choosing to find her voice.
It was like we had taken the Front Porch with us on our run, our shoes had become our lawn chairs and with every step we took, we entered into one another’s stories at times almost having to stop because laughter had taken over. My friend has a smile that is contagious and her laughter is like a hug to the soul, her energy alone helped me set my pace.
As we finished the run, I found myself thanking God for the way He had intentionally placed this friend in my life so many years ago, knowing that we would be running one day through our community laughing, sharing, and preparing to connect with others who are in our community as well. Watch out for the date, a fun run coming to your local community.
Thank you my sweet running friend for tapping on my window this morning and for putting feet on The Front Porch, you are amazing!
Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work:
Ecclesiastes 4:9
Challenge:
Do you have an activity you enjoy doing? I challenge you to reach out to those in your circle and invite them in, see what will happen when one becomes two! We were created to live in community, either for a reason a season or a lifetime.
Thank you for visting The Front Porch!
Cris
Feet on The Front Porch, that is the best way to describe what it felt like to enter into my morning with a dear friend who said yes to an invite. I had just recently posted an invitation on Facebook, looking for someone who might be interested in joining me on an early morning run. Of course, when I posted the time to meet, I got mostly laughs and jeers, go figure, people laughing at me for wanting to run at 6:30AM, I just don’t find that funny! OK, there would have been a time I would have, but today it brings me joy, I love starting off my morning with a run and I just thought it would be nice to begin it with a friend.
A friend finally responded with a “I will meet you on The Front Porch at 6:30.” Because she had not put AM or PM I wanted to clarify the morning time and make sure she was still willing to be my running partner. To my surprise, she was and her arrival this morning was a sweet surprise but not as sweet as the run and the conversation, we had.
We took off from the front porch and jogged into and throughout our neighborhood, we chatted about school and kids, parents and friends. She spoke truth into my life about the way I was raising my son and she allowed me to encourage her in her life and the way she was choosing to find her voice.
It was like we had taken the Front Porch with us on our run, our shoes had become our lawn chairs and with every step we took, we entered into one another’s stories at times almost having to stop because laughter had taken over. My friend has a smile that is contagious and her laughter is like a hug to the soul, her energy alone helped me set my pace.
As we finished the run, I found myself thanking God for the way He had intentionally placed this friend in my life so many years ago, knowing that we would be running one day through our community laughing, sharing, and preparing to connect with others who are in our community as well. Watch out for the date, a fun run coming to your local community.
Thank you my sweet running friend for tapping on my window this morning and for putting feet on The Front Porch, you are amazing!
Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work:
Ecclesiastes 4:9
Challenge:
Do you have an activity you enjoy doing? I challenge you to reach out to those in your circle and invite them in, see what will happen when one becomes two! We were created to live in community, either for a reason a season or a lifetime.
Thank you for visting The Front Porch!
Cris
Healing Rain!
Greetings from The Front Porch!
Healing rain is a real touch from God. It could be physical healing or emotional or whatever.
Michael W. Smith
The cold hard cement pressed against my hot sweaty back as I lay down to stretch the muscles in my legs, I hoped as I laid there that I wasn’t in an oil spot left from the car, but my muscles needed stretching more than my clothes needed to be kept clean.
I felt like a sunflower with my face pointing and reaching towards the sky hoping to catch a glimpse of the sun peering through the clouds. I told myself that God had held back the storm just for me so I could finish my run with out the rain.
At first disappointment hit me, I saw drops coming down towards my face as if someone was holding a water can just above my head. The drops bounced off my sunglasses and dripped down my cheeks and my disappointment quickly turned to joy.
I reached for my mp3 player, tucked my ear buds in my ears and turned up the music. I started to sing aloud towards the heavens as I watched the rain continue to come down on me.
I love how God has repeatedly turned my disappointments into delights and given me the desires of my heart even before I ask. I love how He does not take the storms away but rather enters into them with me.
Sitting there on my back, letting the rain come down on me was a gentle reminder of how healing comes out of the rain, without the storm there is no rain.
The rain represents truth, healing and hope, for the physical, the emotional or whatever!
Cris
Healing rain is a real touch from God. It could be physical healing or emotional or whatever.
Michael W. Smith
The cold hard cement pressed against my hot sweaty back as I lay down to stretch the muscles in my legs, I hoped as I laid there that I wasn’t in an oil spot left from the car, but my muscles needed stretching more than my clothes needed to be kept clean.
I felt like a sunflower with my face pointing and reaching towards the sky hoping to catch a glimpse of the sun peering through the clouds. I told myself that God had held back the storm just for me so I could finish my run with out the rain.
At first disappointment hit me, I saw drops coming down towards my face as if someone was holding a water can just above my head. The drops bounced off my sunglasses and dripped down my cheeks and my disappointment quickly turned to joy.
I reached for my mp3 player, tucked my ear buds in my ears and turned up the music. I started to sing aloud towards the heavens as I watched the rain continue to come down on me.
I love how God has repeatedly turned my disappointments into delights and given me the desires of my heart even before I ask. I love how He does not take the storms away but rather enters into them with me.
Sitting there on my back, letting the rain come down on me was a gentle reminder of how healing comes out of the rain, without the storm there is no rain.
The rain represents truth, healing and hope, for the physical, the emotional or whatever!
Cris
Preserving Porches
"Porches are as synonymous with American culture as apple pie.
While not unknown in colonial times, they rose to nationwide popularity
in the decades before the Civil War, and remained in fashion for almost
one hundred years. Ironically, the very social and technological forces that
made them both popular and possible were eventually responsible for their decline."
-- from Kahn, Preserving Porches
While not unknown in colonial times, they rose to nationwide popularity
in the decades before the Civil War, and remained in fashion for almost
one hundred years. Ironically, the very social and technological forces that
made them both popular and possible were eventually responsible for their decline."
-- from Kahn, Preserving Porches
Sometimes I thank God, for unanswered prayers!
Greetings From The Front Porch!
When a sad song is not sad anymore, when putting one foot in front of the other does not cause me to freeze and when I finally love being me that is what 42 years young looks like!
Today I celebrate 42 years of life on this great big ball called planet earth. When the words celebrate leave my fingers and form on my screen, I cannot help but smile to myself and chuckle out loud as I remember not to long ago when the words fake, fraud, and imposter would have been more like it. When someone would wish me a happy birthday I would think to myself “if they only knew the real me, they wouldn’t be wishing me anything.”
As a broken, abused and used child, my view of God was distorted, wrapped around a false belief system that said, “I must be bad because bad had been done to me.” Therefore, I believed that God created me to teach everyone else what not to do. I use to believe that death was away of God getting back at me, every time I experienced a loss of life, it just clarified what I believed from an early age.
As I grew up, married and had kids, the fear of being found out, the fear of someone knowing about my past, caused me to panic anytime I tried to leave the house. I thought, “if I leave this house, I just might die and if I stay inside, I knew I would.” I was a walking contradiction, wanting the freedom that I saw so many people have but fearful of finding out how I could get it. Fear of falling, fear of failing kept me from ever trying to embrace the very faith I taught others on a daily basis.
I cared more about what others thought about me then what I thought about myself. I use to think that this world would be better off without me and I tried to find ways to get rid of myself, thinking I was doing this world a favor. It was on my birthday eight years ago when I prayed that God would just end my life.
Sometimes I thank God, for unanswered prayers
Remember when you’re talking’ to the man upstairs
That just because he doesn’t answer doesn’t mean he don’t care
Some of God’s greatest gifts, are unanswered prayers.
Garth Brooks
I waited in the sanctuary of the spa, just minutes away from my name being called out, a birthday facial had been prepared, a gift from my best friend and husband. He made sure that this year I was pampered beyond anything I could ever imagine. Cuddled into a fuzzy, floor lengths rob, fitted into fuzzy slippers with a cup of hot tea by my side and fresh fruit on fine china, all for me, I felt like Queen Esther.
As I sat in the oversized chair, it felt like I was resting on clouds as I waited for my name to be called. I was captivated by the view from the window, I could see the snow capped mountains of the Olympic Village just a few miles away and I had an overwhelming feeling of gratitude that came from the very core of who I am.
In that moment, I realized that God did not answer my birthday prayer so many years ago; I sat there and gently whispered out lout, “thank you for not answering my prayers to die.” Tears started to flow, the faucet had been turned on and I was hoping that a staff member would not arrive to call my name while I was having a moment of gratitude with just me and my maker.
Suddenly my life flashed in front of me as I kept saying thank you over and over again. I saw all I would have lost and all who would have been hurt if my life would have ended under such horrible circumstances. I saw my husband and children, my family and friends, gone all of it lost because of my false belief system thinking they would be better off without me.
Today I realize that I represent reversal of destiny, what happed when I came to the end of myself and the beginning of my maker. He snapped my false faith in half and handed me the real deal. My life has become proof that God is bigger then my pain and my past and that he can take and will take my greatest misery and turn it into my greatest ministry. He is a God who turns impossibilities into possibilities and who promises to show up best in my weaknesses.
Funny how God has asked me to do the very things I use to think I would die in and in fact it is in doing those very things I fear that make me become fully alive. Instead of freezing in my fear and running back inside, I find myself drawn to those in my community who God has placed within my reach.
Instead of feeling like I was the mistake that others could learn from, He has given me the gift to inspire and encourage others to be true to who they are in Christ. My life has truly become a reversal of destiny, not because of who I am but rather whose I am.
Sometimes I thank God, for unanswered prayers!
Cris
“Living In The Moment”
When a sad song is not sad anymore, when putting one foot in front of the other does not cause me to freeze and when I finally love being me that is what 42 years young looks like!
Today I celebrate 42 years of life on this great big ball called planet earth. When the words celebrate leave my fingers and form on my screen, I cannot help but smile to myself and chuckle out loud as I remember not to long ago when the words fake, fraud, and imposter would have been more like it. When someone would wish me a happy birthday I would think to myself “if they only knew the real me, they wouldn’t be wishing me anything.”
As a broken, abused and used child, my view of God was distorted, wrapped around a false belief system that said, “I must be bad because bad had been done to me.” Therefore, I believed that God created me to teach everyone else what not to do. I use to believe that death was away of God getting back at me, every time I experienced a loss of life, it just clarified what I believed from an early age.
As I grew up, married and had kids, the fear of being found out, the fear of someone knowing about my past, caused me to panic anytime I tried to leave the house. I thought, “if I leave this house, I just might die and if I stay inside, I knew I would.” I was a walking contradiction, wanting the freedom that I saw so many people have but fearful of finding out how I could get it. Fear of falling, fear of failing kept me from ever trying to embrace the very faith I taught others on a daily basis.
I cared more about what others thought about me then what I thought about myself. I use to think that this world would be better off without me and I tried to find ways to get rid of myself, thinking I was doing this world a favor. It was on my birthday eight years ago when I prayed that God would just end my life.
Sometimes I thank God, for unanswered prayers
Remember when you’re talking’ to the man upstairs
That just because he doesn’t answer doesn’t mean he don’t care
Some of God’s greatest gifts, are unanswered prayers.
Garth Brooks
I waited in the sanctuary of the spa, just minutes away from my name being called out, a birthday facial had been prepared, a gift from my best friend and husband. He made sure that this year I was pampered beyond anything I could ever imagine. Cuddled into a fuzzy, floor lengths rob, fitted into fuzzy slippers with a cup of hot tea by my side and fresh fruit on fine china, all for me, I felt like Queen Esther.
As I sat in the oversized chair, it felt like I was resting on clouds as I waited for my name to be called. I was captivated by the view from the window, I could see the snow capped mountains of the Olympic Village just a few miles away and I had an overwhelming feeling of gratitude that came from the very core of who I am.
In that moment, I realized that God did not answer my birthday prayer so many years ago; I sat there and gently whispered out lout, “thank you for not answering my prayers to die.” Tears started to flow, the faucet had been turned on and I was hoping that a staff member would not arrive to call my name while I was having a moment of gratitude with just me and my maker.
Suddenly my life flashed in front of me as I kept saying thank you over and over again. I saw all I would have lost and all who would have been hurt if my life would have ended under such horrible circumstances. I saw my husband and children, my family and friends, gone all of it lost because of my false belief system thinking they would be better off without me.
Today I realize that I represent reversal of destiny, what happed when I came to the end of myself and the beginning of my maker. He snapped my false faith in half and handed me the real deal. My life has become proof that God is bigger then my pain and my past and that he can take and will take my greatest misery and turn it into my greatest ministry. He is a God who turns impossibilities into possibilities and who promises to show up best in my weaknesses.
Funny how God has asked me to do the very things I use to think I would die in and in fact it is in doing those very things I fear that make me become fully alive. Instead of freezing in my fear and running back inside, I find myself drawn to those in my community who God has placed within my reach.
Instead of feeling like I was the mistake that others could learn from, He has given me the gift to inspire and encourage others to be true to who they are in Christ. My life has truly become a reversal of destiny, not because of who I am but rather whose I am.
Sometimes I thank God, for unanswered prayers!
Cris
“Living In The Moment”
Living In My Why!
Greetings from The Front Porch!
The weeks leading up to the conference brought me to my knees, good thing He promises to show up best in my weakness. A bomb threat, news of a friend’s terminal illness, the loss of a life an almost head on collision and revolving illnesses throughout the home with my children.
These were just a few of the trials that led up to the day of the conference where I had pressed in and prepared to give my best, sharing from the place I am most passionate about, going all in and all out, no matter what the cost.
These were just a few of the trials that led up to the day of the conference where I had pressed in and prepared to give my best, sharing from the place I am most passionate about, going all in and all out, no matter what the cost.
As the trials became larger and more frequent, I thought to myself, “maybe I had missed the mark; just maybe I was not suppose to be speaking at this event.” It was not that I was surprised by the frequency of the trials and the severity of the hits but I was tired of being knocked down and beat up.
At one point a phone call to one of my nearest and dearest was made or I would have quit, this conversation led to tears being shed and prayers being spoken. The very thing I needed to here was “you can do this!”
Of course, through it all I found myself living right in the middle of the message I was preparing to share, I was created to be in community, a passion and a life purpose that I live by, why? Because it is not good for man to be alone, or woman in this case?
If one falls down, they can help each other up and by the end of the preparation time, falling down seemed like the only place to go and I needed my community to help me get back up.
There is something powerful about living in the message just before delivering the message. I sit back today and I realize that the message of community was just another gentle reminder to me that God has given me an answer to a long awaited question birthed out of the process of preparing for this particular event.
As I sit back in my sanctuary, sipping on my coffee and watching my community out my front window, I pause in the moment to reflect on all the preparation work that led to the most amazing answer that came to me early this morning as I walked and talked to God.
Why is so much more important then the what. Our passions and purposes come out in our why, we motivate and sometimes intimate by the why in our life.
Example, what I did today was sat on my front porch, why I did this, to connect with my community, why, because it is not good for man to be alone. Not if but when we fall there will be someone there to help us up.
I finally figured out my WHY! I understood my what and I knew there was a why being formed but only after this past event was I finally able to articulate my passion for people and the reason why I delight in the connecting of people in community, either for a reason a season or a lifetime.
Why do I do what I do? Because it is not good for man to be alone, because, if only for a moment I could be a part of someone not being a lone, if just for a moment I could be a connection for someone to feel like they belong, that they have value and that Jesus loves them, then I will do it.
Today I choose to live in my why, embracing the who, what and where it will lead me.
“Living In the Moment”
Cris
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