Tom Hanks in “Toddlers and Tiaras”

As the dad of the best girl ever, I especially enjoyed this Toddlers & Tiaras spoof starring Tom Hanks and his six-year-old “daughter,” Sophie. It aired

Doors Everywhere

Do you want to see evidence of God’s presence? Open your eyes. Open your mind. Open your heart. God is everywhere and in everything you see. Paramahansa Yogananda promised his devotees that they would find God by following the trail of beauty. In this poem from his book, Whispers From Eternity, Yogananda beautifully conveys the omnipresence of the divine.

DOORS EVERYWHERE

O Father, when I was blind I found not a

What Is Beating at the Doors of Your Soul?

Shrink from your calling, your destiny, and you not only deprive yourself, you deprive the world of the contributions you came here to make. Keep life’s call at bay and you will never be able to tap into the full majesty of your true nature.

Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.
Horace Mann

With so much at stake, life

Peace and Happiness Wilt Away

Drift away from your divine purpose and you drift away from your authentic self. Peace and happiness wilt away under the hot sun of inauthenticity.

Sanity may be madness but the maddest of all is to see life as it is and not as it should be.
Miguel de Cervantes

If you feel boxed in by life, know that many have risen

My Mother’s Hands

Lori Anne Yang

I was impressed with this post by my friend, Lori Anne Yang. In it, she poignantly shares the very different perspectives of a mother and her daughter.

A LOVE POEM FROM MY DAUGHTER

I had always been very self-conscious about my knobby-knuckled, hard-working hands. Then I was given this poem. It was written by my then twelve-year-old daughter, Piper.

Though this poem was written to me, it is really a love letter to everyone who lifts children up, supports them in fully becoming their truest selves, and creates a soft spot for them to land in troubling times. We may not always hear it expressed in this beautiful way, but it is how our love is received more often than we know. There is truly so much divinity in the everyday.

MY MOTHER’S HANDS
by Piper (at age 12)

Soft and

God’s Garage Sale

It’s said that coincidence is just God’s way of remaining anonymous. Check out this story by Joy Sadler Wattenburger of Cushing, Oklahoma, and make up your own mind. It was featured in a Guideposts e-letter. Click here to sign up for Guideposts‘ free Mysterious Ways newsletter. You’ll also be able to download a free e-book, Mysterious Ways: 9 Inspiring Stories That Show Evidence of God’s Love and God’s Grace.

SUITCASE FULL OF HOPE
An inexplicable coincidence convinces a grieving woman she still has something to hope for.

They say God has a plan for everyone, but sometimes I wondered.

Like when my husband died 11 years ago. Or when my mother and brother passed away a few years later. If it hadn’t been for my second husband, Jon, I don’t think I could have gone on. He came into my life just when I needed him, helping me get past my grief.

But even he had trouble lifting my spirits the day in March when I waved goodbye to my oldest daughter and her children—my grandchildren—who were moving to Phoenix. Arizona was a long way from Oklahoma. Was I destined to have the people I love leave me?

To take my mind off things, I decided to

You Were Born With Wings!

There are those who intuitively grasp their life’s purpose but turn away from it for any number of reasons—family obligations, low self-esteem, the desire for stability.

A smooth life is not a victorious life.
Paramahansa Yogananda

Yes, there are many sensible, logical, and valid reasons why resisting change is a good idea. Write them all down. Then

It Is Not the Critic Who Counts

When pursuing your life’s calling, the reasons why others say you should not do something are often precisely the reasons why you should.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.
Theodore Roosevelt

Only you can detect and decipher the

Music From Afar Is Coming to My Ears

The more ardently you throw yourself into your life’s work, the more effortless the work becomes. As your mastery deepens, so too does your understanding of the role you came here to play, the work you came here to do, and the urgency of your mission.

Travelers, it is late. Life’s sun is going to set. During these brief days that you have strength, be quick and spare no effort of your wings.
Rumi

Your destiny takes root in your mind, body, and soul, and you methodically

Why Were You Not Zusya?

Do not make the mistake of comparing your life’s work with anyone else’s. With gratitude and humility, do what you can with the talent you have, knowing that all destinies are equal in God’s eyes.

Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.
Henry van Dyke

Your skills were designed to perfectly correspond with your circumstances and yours alone.

In the world to come, I shall not be asked, “Why were you

Your Heart Dreams of Spring

What kind of life do you envision for yourself? Where there are dreams, there is hope. Where there is hope, there is the recognition that there is something worth hoping for.

In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;
And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.
Kahlil Gibran

Whatever is worth dreaming of and hoping for is worth working toward. Destiny demands that the

Take Aim for the Farthest Reaches of the Sky!

Do you have a vision of your life’s work? Nurture it. Become one with it. Know that every dream, no matter how insignificant it may sound to others, is a sacred agreement between you and God.

Every calling is great when greatly pursued.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

Your destiny is nothing more than the organic unfolding of

A Drive From Heaven

I love this shiver-inducing story by James Chappell that was featured in a Guideposts e-letter. Click here to sign up for Guideposts‘ free Mysterious Ways newsletter. You’ll also be able to download a free e-book, Mysterious Ways: 9 Inspiring Stories That Show Evidence of God’s Love and God’s Grace.

A DRIVE FROM HEAVEN

A visit to Dad’s grave on Mom’s birthday gave us an unexpected gift—one that proved the strength of God’s love.

February 19th, Mom’s birthday. She had only one request for the family. That we all accompany her to the family plot, where my father had been laid to rest a little over a month before. So on an unseasonably warm afternoon, we all gathered around the well-kept plot to pay our respects.

I missed my father so much. It seemed like just yesterday we’d been out on the golf course, playing a round. Up until the day he died, golf had been his passion. “I’m a golfer who practices law on the side,” he’d often joke. In recent years, with his bad back, he’d lost the ability to drive the ball well, but he never missed a putt once he reached the green. I smiled thinking about the time when I swung and missed the ball and he told me, “Praise the Lord. That stroke

Instant Karma

Yesterday, I dialed a phone number (well, I actually cut-and-pasted it into Skype) and was startled to hear Bill’s voice on the other end. I thought I was calling somebody else so it took a few seconds before I regained my equilibrium and told Bill I had called him by mistake. “No problem,” he said cheerfully. I don’t even know Bill very well; he’s my contact for writing newsletter articles for the Minnesota bank he works for. After disconnecting, I realized I had

Nadin Khoury Faces Down His Bullies

Nadin Khoury hugs his mother, Rebecca, who has supported him through his fight against the bullies who attacked him (Photo by Rob Tringall for ESPN.com)

Susan B. Anthony and Rosa Parks are just two courageous souls who initiated lasting cultural change by standing up for themselves and others like them by saying, “No more.” Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Nadin Khoury’s courage turned the tide in the battle against school bullies?

NADIN KHOURY ON THE JOY BEHAR SHOW

When Nadin and his mother visited The View, he was in for the surprise of his

Act As If It Is Impossible to Fail

Clarity about your life’s work triggers an enduring call to action. Devotion to your calling liberates you from the rhythms and routines of an ordinary life.

Every sort of mastery is an increase of one’s freedom.
Henri Frédéric Amiel






No longer held hostage by the expectations of an unsympathetic world, you answer only to the authority of