Tag Archives: charity

Feeling Like A Little Kid On Christmas Morning!

Going into this weekend I feel just like a little kid on Christmas morning! I have waited 18 months for my daughter Ashley to finish serving her LDS Mission so she could come back home to me…and next week she is finally coming home!!!   YAYYYYYYY!!! I literally cannot describe how excited I am. It’s impossible to describe […]

If you think you are too small to make a difference…

If you have ever felt inferior, or powerless, or like you are simply too small to make a difference in the world, you need to hear this quote: “If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”- Dalai Lama Too often we feel like we are just an […]

Successful Mothers (and Happy Mother’s Day!)

“Successful Mothers are not the ones that have never struggled, they are the ones that never give up, despite the struggles.” This weekend we will be celebrating Mother’s Day. It’s a time we all take a moment to think about all the things our Mothers do for us in life. It’s also a time when […]

Don’t think of it as a Sacrifice, think of it as an Investment

Sacrifice – the act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy. Sacrificing isn’t easy and it sure as heck isn’t always a whole lot of fun. But we make sacrifices because deep down in our hearts we recognize that there is a greater cause at […]

Take the 14 Day Challenge to Love One Another!

February is upon us! Which means Valentine’s Day is only 14 days away (friendly reminder, especially to all the gentlemen out there who don’t want to end us as one of those men in the hallmark card aisle the night before desperately looking through the last remaining cards in the store). Whether you have a […]

The Best Feeling of Happiness is…

“The best feeling of happiness is when you’re happy because you’ve made someone else happy.” We all want to be happy. We read books and articles and we even go to seminars on how to be happier. We all want to have more happiness in our lives. It is a universal desire and a tremendous […]

“Charity is expecting the best of each other”

“If it is our nature to criticize or demean, we can cause the voices of gladness to be silenced. We need those who bring gladness into our lives. We need those who give encouragement and reflect optimism.” – Marvin Ashton What the world needs more of is people who are encouraging and optimistic. The world […]

Happy New Year to You and Happy Anniversary to Me!

Today is my last blog for this week since I don’t post on Holidays, so I wanted to take this opportunity to say Happy New Year to all of you!!! I hope you have an amazing New Year’s Eve celebration and I hope all of you have loads of fun and stay safe!  Most of […]

It’s What We Do For Others That Makes Us A Success

There is a fabulous quote by Calvin Coolidge that states: “No person was ever honored for what he received, but what he gave.” That is so true!  What impresses me most about people isn’t what they have received in their life, but for the fact that they use what they have to reach out and […]

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

And snow it did! The snow started coming down late last night and by this morning it was already more than a foot deep. Now I happen to love looking out the window at the snow but I cannot stand having to go out into the snow! I don’t like the cold and I don’t […]

It’s far easier to create good habits in life than to break the bad ones once they have formed

Bad habits. We all have them. And around this time of year many of us even start thinking about setting our New Year’s goals to help overcome them. Can you just imagine how amazing it would be if we had never formed our bad habits in the first place? Life would be so much better! […]

Ordinary People Can Do Extraordinary Things

“Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve…You only need a heart full of grace…A soul generated by love.” – Martin Luther King, Jr Speaking of those who serve, a few years ago I was able to attend a conference that highlighted ordinary people who had done some extraordinary things with their lives.  There was a […]

Can Compassion Contribute To Success? (Forbes Article)

Compassion. It is a word we often hear talked about when it comes to religion, but it is not a word used often enough when it comes to discussing what makes a business successful. Yet compassion can directly affect the bottom line. The Dalai Lama expressed it best when he said, “Compassion is not religious […]

You have one month to finish!

“You have one month to finish the book of 2015. Make the last chapter a perfect one.”  I can’t believe we only have one month left of this year! It is incredible how fast time can pass when you aren’t looking.  That’s why I had to make sure and point out to everyone that we […]

The Service You’ve Given Mankind

Supposing today were your last day on earth, The last mile of the journey you’ve trod; After all of your struggles, how much are you worth, How much can you take home to God? Don’t count as possessions your silver and gold, Tomorrow you leave these behind, And all that is yours to have and […]

Talk to each other rather than about each other

“A lot of problems in the world would disappear if we talk to each other instead of about each other.” Talking negatively about others is an easy trap to fall into. It typically starts innocent enough with a simple comment about something as trivial as the outfit someone has on that day, but then over […]

A Simple Gesture

Mark was walking home from school one day when he noticed the boy ahead of him had tripped and dropped all of the books he was carrying, along with two sweaters, a baseball hat, a glove and a small tape recorder. Mark knelt down and helped the boy pick up the scattered articles. Since they […]

We are all that person that can change the world

I don’t often share videos in my blog because I know everyone’s time is short and just the fact you take time out of your day to read my blog is such an honor that I try to keep them quick to read. However, I had to share this video with you today because it’s […]

Have Courage and Be Kind

That phrase, “Have Courage and Be Kind” is repeated multiple times throughout the new movie Cinderella (the real life remake of the cartoon classic).  It was advice given to Cinderella as a small child by her real mother before her real mother passed away.  Today in a meeting someone reminded me again of the phrase […]

It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving

Every Sunday when we sit down for our family dinner we have a tradition where we go around the dinner table and as we are eating each person in the family shares with the rest of us what they learned that day or week. We have done this since the time my children were little […]

Charity Is Expecting The Best Of Each Other

“Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other, when we don’t judge or categorize someone else, when we simply give each other the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet. Charity is accepting someone’s differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings; having patience with someone who has let us down or resisting the impulse […]

“If we aren´t laughing and having fun everyday…we´re doing it wrong!”

As those of you who follow my blog know, once a week I get an email from my daughter who is serving her mission.  This week she shared that her group set a goal this week to see if they could follow all the mission rules with “exact obedience”.   Now I don’t know about all […]

It’s Never Too Late To Start A New Tradition

Happy Christmas Eve to all of you! I want to wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday! Each of you touch my life and I am so grateful for all of you reading this. Thank you for being a part of my life and my life story as […]

Don’t Take A Single Moment For Granted

Yay! I am so excited that Christmas break has officially begun and both my kiddos come home from college tonight to spend the holidays back at home with us!  BEST PRESENT EVER!!! Having your family back together again is the absolute best gift in the world.  For me this will be our first Christmas together […]

Never Suppress A Generous Thought

In our cities so full of hustle and bustle it is amazing to watch how people are so absorbed in their own thoughts that they barely notice one another as they hurry past each other on the streets.  Often times we see someone lost or someone who dropped something on the ground and is struggling […]

Has Anyone Told You Yet Today That You Are Amazing!

Has anyone told you yet today just how absolutely, positively, incredibly, amazing you are?  If not then let me be the first one!  You are amazing!  Absolutely, positively, incredibly, amazing! Doesn’t it feel good to know that someone else thinks you’re amazing? It’s an awesome feeling, right? “In life, you will realize there is a […]

What Legacy Will You Leave Behind?

Four years ago, October 16th of 2010, I received a phone call telling me that one of my very best friends, Steve Gasser, had died suddenly while participating in a bike race down in St. George, Utah.  I was at Disneyland when I answered that call and I literally crumbled to the ground when I […]

You were born with the ability to change someone’s life

“You were born with the ability to change someone’s life. Don’t ever waste it.” We often hear that we must help ourselves before we can help someone else, and to some extent I believe that to be true.  But I also find it to be true that one of the best ways to help ourselves […]

Try New Things!

“Never be afraid to try something new, because life gets boring when you stay within the limits of what you already know.” Many of us are creatures of habit. We get into routines where we do the same things day after day and we get settled into our pattern of living our lives.  We can […]

Throwback Thursday – Forgive and Let Go

For some reason this week I thought it would be fun to go back in time to this very day two years ago to see what was on my mind back then when I wrote my blog that day.   When I finished reading my post from that day it hit me how important the […]