Values – Page 20 – FindYourBuriedTreasure

The answer to a prayer makes a perfect holiday story

A friend of mine posted the details of a recent experience she had, and the story was so heartwarming and uplifting – not to mention perfect during the holiday season – I knew I had to share it with others. I told her I wanted to write about it, and she graciously gave me her permission. The story ended with someone’s prayer being answered. And it started a few miles away from a home improvement store. That’s where my friend first drove past an elderly, [...]

By bettyliedtke|December 18th, 2015|Columns, Faith, Holidays, Making a Difference, Values, Writing|Comments Off

Seeing your life in categories can make you more grateful

If you were asked to list some of the different areas of your life, what categories would you use to describe them? They could be as basic as “personal” and “professional.” Or you might include family, friends, and faith. Leisure activities, hobbies, or travel. Or health and well-being – physically, financially, mentally, or spiritually. There’s really no end to the number or names of categories you can choose to catalog the events and activities of your life. This exercise is something I often do with [...]

By bettyliedtke|November 26th, 2015|Coaching, Columns, Family, Organizing, Values|Comments Off

Focus on the best, instead of the worst

It was a conversation that made me want to crawl under a table and hide, and never come out again. It took place at a meeting I attended last weekend, when everyone was still in shock over the attacks that took place in Paris last Friday. Before the meeting started, several of us were discussing the attacks, each of us contributing additional information and details we had read in the paper or heard on the news. From there our discussion broadened into the subject of [...]

By bettyliedtke|November 20th, 2015|Columns, Faith, Values|Comments Off

Two steps will get things done – as long as you follow through

A book I am currently reading has a number of inspirational and relevant quotes in the margins. One that I just read, and had never heard before, is an Irish proverb that says, “Pray for potatoes with a hoe in your hand.” A few days after I read this quote, I was at Sunday Mass, where one of the readings – from the Book of James – was about the relationship between faith and works. Specifically, the message is that if you say you have [...]

By bettyliedtke|September 18th, 2015|Achieving Dreams and Goals, Coaching, Columns, Faith, Quotes and Sayings, Success, Values|Comments Off

Don’t just tolerate – celebrate!

Before last Sunday, I had never been to Lake Elmo. I also had never been to a Lutheran church service. Later in the day, back at home in my own church, I was chatting briefly with one of the deacons about the religious, racial, and cultural differences many of us can find not only in our communities, but among our friends and even within our own extended families. “Our differences shouldn’t just be tolerated,” he said. “They should be celebrated.” His words were music to [...]

By bettyliedtke|August 21st, 2015|Columns, Faith, Music/Singing, Respect, Uganda, Values|2 Comments

Powering down leads to powering up

I just returned from the retreat I mentioned a few weeks ago. If you read that column, you know there was a “silent retreat” portion of the weekend that had me a little apprehensive. Not that I didn’t want to honor the silence, or didn’t think I could. I was just afraid I’d forget and start talking to someone – or myself – or that without realizing it, I’d start humming a song that popped into my head for some reason. I’m happy to report [...]

By bettyliedtke|July 31st, 2015|Columns, Faith, Values|Comments Off

All fired up from an inspiring dream

This is going to sound like something I totally made up, but I swear I’m telling it exactly as it happened – in a dream I had a few nights ago. It was early morning, actually, because my alarm went off and woke me up before it was finished. But that was good, because it kept the dream fresh and vivid enough for me to write it all down before it drifted away. In the dream, I was attending a meeting of a women’s networking [...]

By bettyliedtke|July 24th, 2015|Columns, Respect, Values|Comments Off

A few mistakes can lead to our just desserts

We had friends over for dinner last weekend, and our meal included cheesecake for dessert. It was from a recipe I’ve had for a long time, although I’ve never actually made it before. It was labor-intensive and time-consuming, with a lot of prep work required and some tricky steps along the way. There was one point at which things didn’t look the way they were supposed to, and I started worrying that instead of cheesecake, we’d be eating cheesecake soup for dessert. But it turned [...]

By bettyliedtke|April 24th, 2015|Columns, Values|Comments Off

An emergency landing leads to a dream message

I got a phone call a few days ago from a very close friend. The call came early in the morning, and the first thing she said, other than, “Did I wake you up?” was, “I have to tell you about the dream I just had.” I love phone calls from her that start like this. She has vivid dreams that often seem prophetic in nature, and are always profound and inspiring. In this one we – as well as several other friends – were [...]

By bettyliedtke|April 10th, 2015|Columns, Values|Comments Off

Seeing the best can bring out the best

In an episode of a television show I enjoy, one of the main characters acknowledges that he seems to see the best in people even when nobody else can, and he speculates that this must be an asset in some lines of work, but may be a handicap in his. He’s a rookie cop, and the person he’s telling this to is his father, who is also the police commissioner of New York. Another television show has a character who sees the beauty in everything [...]

By bettyliedtke|March 6th, 2015|Buried Treasure, Columns, Gifts and Talents, Values|Comments Off

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