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Kindness before dawn

By John Certalic on January 15, 2020 0

I’m chomping at the bit for the start of season 3 of our You Were Made for This podcast. Only 7 more days to January 22 when we’re back on the air!

But in the meantime, I recently experienced an example of Colossians 3:12 (…clothe yourself with…kindness) I want to tell you about. Hopefully it inspires you as it did me. It all happened in the dark before sunrise. [Read more…] about Kindness before dawn

Trying to stop this in 2020

By John Certalic on January 8, 2020 0

One of the things I would like to do less of this year is stop answering every “How are you?” question with “Fine.”

Fine is a perfectly fine response to the 17-year-old barista at Starbucks, or to the bored-to-tears checkout clerk at Target. They’re complete strangers, and are just trying to make it to the end of their shift. Fine is an appropriate answer for them. Fine, how are YOU doing is a little better.

But to people closer to me, I would like to come up with a more honest answer. [Read more…] about Trying to stop this in 2020

The ONE New Year’s Resolution that Makes the Others Possible

By John Certalic on January 1, 2020 0

One of the core principles of our You Were Made for This podcast is that the secret sauce to finding joy in our relationships is to do less, not more. I touched on this in our very first episode back on November 28, 2018.

Doing less also makes for a good New Year’s resolution. Doing less of what hinders our relationships creates space to do more of what truly enhances them.

May we resolve in 2020 to do far less of the things that get in the way of the joy-filled relationships we were made for.

What does this look like for you? [Read more…] about The ONE New Year's Resolution that Makes the Others Possible

A Great Way to Start or End Your Christmas Day

By John Certalic on December 25, 2019 0

Maybe the activities of your Christmas Day haven’t started yet. Perhaps you’re in the middle of them. Or you may have already completed them.

In any case, I hope you can find a place of quiet for your heart to think, ponder, and treasure the true meaning of Christmas. Like Mary did 2,000 years ago.

One thing that helps me do this is to watch one of my favorite YouTube videos of all time. It could help you, too. It’s of a flash mob scene that begins with [Read more…] about A Great Way to Start or End Your Christmas Day

Relationship quote of the year

By John Certalic on August 28, 2019 0

This is the last blog post of the summer. As much as I hate to see it go, I’m looking forward to switching gears a week from today and moving into Season Two of our You Were Made for This podcast.

If you’ve listened to past episodes from Season One you may recall how each one ends with a relationship-related quote. My favorite so far
this year is from Walt Whitman who said,

“We were together, I forgot the rest.”

I experienced this first-hand this summer when Janet and I took our twin 17-year-old grandsons, George and Grant, on a vacation trip. It was our high school graduation gift to them, a summer before the fact.

While the places we visited were very interesting, the thing I will carry in my heart for a long time was [Read more…] about Relationship quote of the year

A Listening Mistake

By John Certalic on August 21, 2019 0

A missionary and You Were Made for This listener texted me recently.

“Did you ever hit times where you were tired of ‘worrying about your kids? I’m at that point this morning.”

I responded with “Sometimes its hard to turn off the worry, isn’t it?”

The listener wrote back: “Yes it is. Thank you for not saying ‘JUST pray about it'☺️.”

Yikes. They must have heard this before and it didn’t go well. I could easily have irritated this listener with advice like JUST pray about it. I’ve done so before. The advice could be a good response in a different situation. But certainly not this one. At this time.

I can smell the pungent odor of JUST that I think so bothered the listener. JUST pray about it can come across as: [Read more…] about A Listening Mistake