We pray that your new year is full of excitement and personal growth! May you be constantly exposed to new ideas, new ventures, new people, and new experiences.

We’ved decided to take a break from our monthly posts. We are continuing to build as we endeavor to strengthen people and families. Onward and upward. Be blessed!

Empower to Engage Team

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

It’s December again! Can you believe it? The years are flying by and there is nothing we can do to slow down time. So, as you look back on 2023, how did you do?

In past blogs, we have encouraged you to assess and measure your own progress. This time, let’s see how you’re doing in service to others. Have you made new friends, did you join new groups, were you involved in meaningful projects? Did you help someone?

December is a month of hope! As we celebrate the coming of the Hope of the world, Jesus Christ, we too can see how we can represent hope to those who are not doing as well, or who don’t have as much. We have all been given the same 24 hours to utilize as we see fit. Hopefully some of that time has been allocated to making a meaningful difference by serving others in impactful ways.

Over these final weeks, think back to this time last year to see where you were, what you were doing, and what you were able to accomplish. As we get older, we should establish ways to not only better ourselves, but give back, and/or pay it forward. We should all be getting sharper, wiser, and clearer about the kind of person we would like to be and the difference we would like to make. Every day offers you a new opportunity to change lives.

While the world around us is facing a myriad of challenges, we are still required to care for the needs of those who depend on us, and to become the best people we can be to provide guidance and encouragement to them. People desperately need positive examples. When we help others, we give them a dose of hope just to keep going, to keep trying, and to keep believing things will get better.

Whether you want to support children, parents, couples, business owners, clergy, or someone trying to figure out what to do next, we have resources that can help. And, our books make a great gift! If you haven’t done much this year to support others in need, it’s not too late! There are needs all around us and enough hope to go around.

From our family to yours, we hope you have a peace-filled holiday season, and may you finish this year giving to others, stronger than you began. Happy Holidays!

Image by Muhammad Umar from Pixabay

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Holiday time is fast approaching. Families are already making travel arrangements and preparing the menus for the upcoming festivities. While we are entering the time of year that brings great joy, excitement, and many opportunities to see friends and family members, we must remember to take care of ourselves.

With the holiday season comes various feelings and emotions.

Some people are grieving the loss of loved ones. Others are grieving the loss of relationships gone bad. And still others are grieving the lack of people – a community of their own – to spend time with to share the holidays. They might find themselves spending the holidays alone.

Dealing with these various issues may cause stress.

Here are a few tips to manage your stress:

1. Help others: take the focus off of yourself and volunteer to help others in need. Giving to others is a rewarding feeling and it can bring personal joy and satisfaction.
2. Laugh often: Take in a comedy show, watch animals interact, or spend time with friends. Laughter does one good like medicine.
3. Get ample sleep: Find ways to help you relax so that you can fall asleep easier and sleep longer. Taking a shower before going to bed, or listening to soothing sounds (like the ocean, or instrumental music), can help relax you.
4. Watch what you eat: Food choices are important to help with mood. Do a little research to see what types of food can boost your mood, boost your energy, or help you think more clearly.
5. Exercise: Stretching, HIIT (high intensity interval training) routines, or weight-lifting helps to release stress and help with relaxation.

While stress is common, how we manage it will determine how it will impact our ability to function during this busy season. Take steps now that will help you manage your stress well.

We hope you have a safe Thanksgiving full of peace, self-care, and less stress!

If you let it, marriage can help you see who you are in the best and worst of times. In fact, in most marriage vows, the couples make a blind commitment to stay together through situations that they have yet to face. Now that’s courage!

What is it that makes couples think that they can weather any circumstance when they’ve never faced them together before? The short answer – because they love each other.

If love is all you need, why isn’t love working? The longer answer – because we fail to realize that the love needed to win in marriage is an action word, not a feeling.

For marriage to work, love must become a decision (take a deep breath, you can do it).

Without knowing your specific situation, people tend to make decisions around a few common themes: you are very thoughtful, you take your time, and you get advice. Right? That sounds easy enough! In fact, the recipe for the best decision-making should include a whole heap of knowledge, wise counsel, family and religious values, and a boat load of resources, as needed.

If love becomes a decision, instead of a feeling, we can become students of love – and marriage becomes our teacher.

When tough times come (and they will), when things go wrong, when you’re disappointed, or when you don’t agree, couples who choose to become students have a better chance of learning and growing through those hard times, instead of shutting down and perhaps walking away. As you encounter each conflict, you can take that opportunity to evaluate what worked and didn’t work based on how you and your spouse chose to respond to one another. If you’re honest, you’ll see that there is always a better way, you just have to choose it.

I invite you to reassess how you view your marriage when things look and “feel” bad. Instead of focusing on what your spouse isn’t doing or saying, examine how you respond when you don’t get your way.  Conflict shows us what we’re really made of and provides strong indicators about the level of our emotional maturity. While these learnings can be frustrating, cheer up! You promised each other a lifetime together…remember?

You have plenty of time to become an “A” student, just don’t give up.

At Empower to Engage, we have resources available to support your entire family. This month we’re highlighting our 31-day marriage devotional as part of a holistic approach to strengthening the relational dynamics in your family.

Our book, Marriage Done Right Is Hard Work, (But It’s Worth It!) is a great resource to help you love one another more soberly with a greater commitment to work everything out – together. Pick up your copy today!

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

The words of this popular prayer, which dates back to the early 1900’s, are still just as powerful today as they were about a century ago.  For those who are best able to endure hardship, there comes first a realization that one needs God’s help to face whatever challenges that may lie before them. Trusting God for help is the only assurance we can have to feel confident that we can and will make it through difficult times.

Let this prayer encourage you today as you prepare yourself for the tasks that lay before, as you start the new school year, accept a new career opportunity, embark on a new hobby or project, start your own business, decide whether or not to keep the business open, confront an ongoing conflict, embrace a deep conviction to get involved with something difficult, or to volunteer with something that requires you to stand up, stand out, and speak up.

With God’s help, you can know what’s the next best thing to do…or not to do. Having God’s presence in your life as you make such decisions is a game changer! Let’s pray…

Image by Tep Ro from Pixabay

Parenting has changed so much over the last decade. There was a time when parents were considered the backbone and the main ingredient to seeing children thrive. There was an ongoing effort by schools to encourage parental involvement in EVERYTHING from greeting children upon their arrival to the school, helping children get off of buses, lunch room help, assisting in the classrooms, chaperoning field trips, to taking leadership positions in the Parent/Teacher Association (PTA). Parental volunteerism was the ultimate hallmark of good parenting.

Not today.

Now, schools are working overtime to keep parents out of the classroom and out of the schools! Parents are competing for the affection of their children with social media, news media, progressive ideologies by teachers, and an “everything goes” emphasis on children tv shows. Parents are now labeled as a hinderance and nuisance interfering with the education and development of their own children!

Parenting is hard work!

As a parent, there is no way you can sit on the sidelines while complete strangers are trying to dictate who should raise your children.

At Empower to Engage we can help you with that. Whether it’s through utilizing our parenting coaching services, or the use of our 31-day parent devotional, our services and books can help parents with children of all ages stand more confidently in the most important job you will ever have.

Our book, Parenting Done Right Is Hard Work (But It’s Worth It!) helps parents navigate the stressful yet rewarding role of parenting. It serves as a go-to handbook to help address some of the toughest issues we face in our increasingly not so child-friendly world. Pick up your copy today!

As we prepare to celebrate the 4^th of July, it’s important to take a moment to think about what all of the excitement is about. Not from the standpoint of the historical fact that the United States became independent from British rule, but from the standpoint that people wanted to make decisions for themselves – so they did!

The word independent means, not being subject to the control of others: self-governing. Developmentally, children start practicing independent behavior between the ages of 4-6! This is where they start formalizing relationships outside of their immediate family members. From there, the need for independence only increases as they get older. And while we all may consider others in the way we make decisions or solicit the advice of trusted advisors about the people we choose to invite into our lives, as we mature, we should not be required to seek approval from others as we learn to govern ourselves. Being independent should mean something.

Independence is a bedrock characteristic that supports our ability to thrive. As people, we should always look for ways to encourage the independence of others. Whether it’s through learning something new or experiencing new people and places, we should embrace the freedoms we’ve all been granted simply because we exist.

Throughout this month, take stock in how supportive you are with your family, friends, and colleagues in your promotion of their independence. Their thoughts, ideas, likes and dislikes deserve respect and acceptance. Acceptance doesn’t necessarily mean agreement, however, it does mean freedom.

Happy Independence Day!

Image by Tumisu from Pixabay.

Leadership is an interesting word. When people talk about leadership, most often is from an external perspective.

The challenge right now is to change the focus from the external to the internal. Leadership should begin within. If people do a better job of leading themselves: being clear about their convictions, values, interests, and deal breakers, we’d see a society that engages more in critical thinking, and less in group think (going along to get along).

Here at Empower to Engage, we have a dynamic devotional called Leadership Done Right is Hard Work (But It’s Worth It): 31 Essential Disciplines to Becoming a Leader of Impact from the Inside Out.

This book is a great resource for individuals who want to focus on their own character development, who are in leadership and want to sharpen the way they show up, or who aspire to be good leaders with integrity.

The best demonstration of your ability to lead starts with your successful ability to lead yourself.

Pick up some copies of our Leadership book TODAY! It’s excellent for a book club or small group discussion, and it makes a great gift! Now that it’s summer, add this book to your reading list!

This and other resources can be found here.

It’s time to asses those family dynamics. As you gear up for summer break, what are your relationships looking like these days?

We’re dedicated to ALL THINGS FAMILY! Download this flyer and share it with your family and friends.

And don’t forget! Our books are also great resources for marriages, parenting, and personal development.

We want to EMPOWER you to ENGAGE more effectively in your home, in your community, in your career, heck, in the world!

First things, first though… let’s check the relational health of your family.

We’re here to help.

There is an African Proverb that says, “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together”.

We’re in a time in society where people are working hard to separate us based on our political stance, and divide families based on cultural dictates. Over time, this perspective and mission will not yield a positive outcome, promising to leave a trail of broken, angry, and despondent people in need of care. As human beings, our strength will be best experienced in accepting and practicing interdependence.

Interdependence is the dependence of two or more people on one another. Why is this important? Because a house, a business, a nation divided against itself cannot stand.

As we grow, we start off dependent on those around us beginning with our parents. At a certain stage in our lives, that dependency becomes independence, where we start learning to do things on our own where we can boast of being able to “stand on our own two feet”. However, independence should not be our only goal. We should strive to become interdependent. With the right people in your corner, you can go farther than you’ve ever dreamed, and you can accomplish more than you’ve ever imagined!

The best families, communities, teams, organizations, companies, cities, and nations can point to their mission of unity and interdependence as the separating factors that allow them to soar.

So, if you find that you are struggling to get ahead in your life right now, assess the role you are playing in the lives of others, and vice versa.

If you are not as successful as you’d like to be, ask yourself, “Who am I working with to help me sharpen my skills?”

If your family is falling apart, consider how much time you spend together and whether or not you are intentional about the level of support you’re giving to one another in pursuing your individual goals.

No matter how much we may think we can make it on our own, it’s just not true. People need each other. We are better together. In fact, it’s our interdependence that strengthens us to stand as individuals.

Image by Jerzy Górecki from Pixaby