Coffee with Carole

Short-term or Long-Term Investments?

I live in an area of Georgia that is growing and changing daily.  It isn't surprising to me to drive through an area from one week to the next and see buildings and construction that seems to appear overnight. New commercial properties and new homes represent growth and future investments in our world.

How many of us focus on our personal growth, personal investments and personal goals?  Are we planning for retirement?  Vacations?  College educations?  Do we focus on our health and make decisions based upon the mantra that "Life is Short, live it to the fullest!"?

Yes, the decisions we make today affect our future.  But, are we focusing on short-term or long-term investments?

Short-term investments end when we die our physical death.  Long-term investments impact our life after our physical death.

God's original plan was for us to live here on earth in total peace.  in Genesis 1:1-28 we read how He created an earth that had no drama, pain, worry, depression, cancer, or hospitals.  In His+ original plan, there was no drug or pornography addiction, no human trafficking and no death. He set it up where there was no fighting, no democrats vs republicans, no stress or high gas prices- just a beautiful, place where everything we needed or wanted was provided for us by Him.  He created us for one purpose- to bring HIM pleasure and enjoyment.

Yet, here we are..struggling, fighting, arguing, worrying, stressing ....and walking around like we don't know our purpose.

Let's make an intentional shift today to get back to the original plan and focus on our long-term investments.

1- Let's aim to please God with every action, decision and thought.

2-Let's focus on reading and studying His word.

3-Let's recognize that our feelings of dispair, frustration, anxiety, worry, fear, doubt, etc., are because we are focused on things of this world (short-term investments) and not on things of God (Long-term investments)

4-  Let's start asking God for wisdom and direction for everything and get seriously obedient to whatever He says.

5-  Let's believe in the sacrifice of His son!

Revelation 21:1-5- (MSG)

2 I saw Holy Jerusalem, new-created, descending resplendent out of Heaven, as ready for God as a bride for her husband.

3-5 I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: “Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They’re his people, he’s their God. He’ll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good—tears gone, crying gone, pain gone—all the first order of things gone.” The Enthroned continued, “Look! I’m making everything new. Write it all down—each word dependable and accurate.

I think it is pretty safe to say that if you are listening to this, you speak English.  However, is it your native language?  If it is, do you speak any other languages or understand a little of another language?  We learned our native language from the culture and people we grew up with.  Our parents, teachers and friends taught us the language.  

Yet, do you realize that God never designed the world to speak more than ONE language?  Before there were more than 6500 languages, there was just ONE language and ONE culture in the entire world.  Can you imagine that?  

Genesis 11 explains how there became more than one language.  You see, men realized their power.  They built an enormous city and tower and never acknowledged God.  This angered God and He decided to confuse men by creating multiple languages and scattering man all over the earth.

We are not supposed to do anything without God and we are supposed to know our first language!  

How proficient are you in God's language?  Do you take the time to practice it, study it, speak it with others and translate every thought, idea and concept from the language you know to better understand and learn His?  This is the priority!  In fact, it is our ONLY priority.  

God does the how...we do the do.  Let's learn God's language and become bi-lingual!

Yikes!  Do you sometimes feel like there is NO WAY you can stop and talk to God?  Does the pull of the world and all the responsibilities you face suck you into action so you forget to ASK GOD to lead you?  

Today was one of those days for me.  I thought I could do it.  I actually thought I could just get started and bring God along.  This, my friends, NEVER works out well.  So, what do I do when this happens?  I stop.  I force myself to stop.  It takes intentional effort and honestly, it isn't easy.  Yet, I know that if I continue to rely on myself instead of God, I will end up having a horrible day.  

SO!  I stop.  I admit my shortcomings to God.  I apologize for getting ahead of Him and ask for a restart.  I ask Him to lead me and guide me from this moment forward and then I get back into alignment and just do what He tells me to do.  

Your life will not get better if you keep pushing harder.  It will only get better when you PRAY HARDER and seek God with 100% focused attention.  

God will show you how.  You truly just need to do the doing.  If you need to chat, just reach out!  Let's support each other and help each other to stay committed to living our lives by God's design. ♥  [email protected]

As leaders we are faced with decisions every single day.  For many leaders, some decisions are extremely difficult because the popular opinion may not be the best option.  Many times, today's leader will spend time surveying the pulse of the people and ultimately is either unable to make a decision or makes a decision that compromises their values.  For these leaders, it would seem their favorite color is plaid.  

When you are faced with a decision or you have a goal, do you stop and look at what your team or organization is doing or thinking about or do you stand firm in your choices?  Do you weigh the options and get other people's opinions or do you take your options to God and ask Him for guidance?  Do your choices and decisions compromise your values or do you remain convicted to them?  

Daniel is a perfect example of a leader who remained strong in his alignment and obedience to God' word & principles.  He was not swayed by the popular opinion and even when he was thrown into the lions den he would not submit to the thoughts that went against God's. He had only ONE favorite color and he was 100% committed to it.  

Will you decide to only accept the ONE opinion that matters?  When you take your decisions to God & search for answers in scripture, you can move with confidence with your decisions.  Even if they don't work out exactly as you had planned, God is faithful to bring it to an outcome that will benefit you and your team.  TRUST it.  

Valentine's day is not just for lovers.  When we are living by the world's design it may seem that way.  So many become sad or depressed because they don't have a significant other to celebrate with.  However, God is love and so no matter whether we are married or have a partner, LOVE is who we are!  

1 Corinthians 13 is called the LOVE Chapter and read at most weddings.  However, it is applicable to everyone and provides advice for every situation.  The Message Bible has a great explanation of this chapter:

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

2 If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.

3-7 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.

8-10 Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

11 When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.

12 We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

13 But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

So no matter whether you are in a relationship or not, make Valentine's Day about LOVE and serving others.  ♥

Philippians 4:8 tells us to think on things that are pure, honorable, just, praiseworthy, lovely, commendable, and excellent.  For years I have taken this verse to mean that I should be "thinking positive" in all things.  However, I never stopped to consider that it is written in the PRESENT tense, not in the future tense!  We are to focus on the present and on what IS happening and find things that are excellent, just, praiseworthy, lovely, pure, commendable and honorable in the current moment.  

I believe that the world has confused faith with optimism.  We often hear, "Have faith! & Think positive" in the same sentence as if faith and thinking positive are the same.  However, thinking positive is not having faith.  When we "think positive" we are actually forcing ourselves to go into self and rely on self.  Thinking positive is tied to a desired outcome.  Faith, on the other hand, is tied to an unknown.  Faith says, "I don't know how this will work out, but I do know who is in control of the outcome".  

Honestly, I had it twisted for most of my life.  Yet, every day I intentionally focus on God and ask Him to teach me more, I learn better how to live my life by God's design.  This is another area of improvement for me!  

Rather than saying, "Think Positive", I think I will start saying "Think Promises" and force myself to go to God in all things.  How about you? ♥

Do you own a business?  Have you decided to invest in an opportunity to increase your time freedom & financial resources or to better use your talents and skills?  

For most of us, especially women, who begin a business, we do so to help our family or our community.  We start a home-based business, for example to stay home and care for our children or work to help the less fortunate.  Yet, we don't always do the things that are required to run a business.

- A true business owner does the following:

Tracks the business, manages the money, uses a separate bank account, stays consistent in their efforts, and has a store front mentality (if you work from home) of specific hours of operation!  

As Christians we are to take this a step further.  We must remember that NOTHING is ours and we are simply stewards of God's resources.  Our time, money, resource, relationships, connections, ideas and entire business belong to God. 

Instead of asking how much do I need to give or do to honor God, we should be asking WHY God has given us the time, money, resources etc. and what does HE want us to do with it.  This type of conversation should happen daily.  

If we believe that God is who He says He is, then we must believe that everything belongs to Him.  

Deut. 10:14, Colossians 1:16, 2 Corinthians 9:10-11

Consider your tithe as a reminder of who the money belongs to.  Consider the service to your church as worship and praise for all the time He has given you.  

Let God do the how while you do the do.  ♥

We all know that if we want something different we must do something different.  This year I chose to commit to following Joshua 1:8 and put this verse into practice.  

As I lean into God's vision for me and my business, I see growth and increase.  It excites me , so I began to look at the things that I could do differently for my business to experience the increase as fast as possible.  Unfortunately, God has His timing and His timing doesn't always line up with ours.  Hebrews 13:5 says the we shouldn't be obsessed with getting more material things, but be relaxed with what we have and know that God will never let us down.  Proverbs 23:4 tells us that trying to get rich will ruin our health and if we are smart we will stop doing that.  Proverbs 22:1 reminds us that a respected name is worth more than silver or gold.  

The world encourages us to advance, level-up, and know our financial worth- to run after the money and fame!  It tells us that working toward these things is what makes a business grow and achieve!  God says that there might be uncertainty in knowing when He will bring the increase and growth. but that we should work on trusting Him daily and know it will come.  

God's vision requires a decision.  We must decide to listen to God's voice even if it isn't what we want or if it makes us uncomfortable.  

World or God.  You decide.

Building strong relationships starts with the words we choose.  As women, we tend to want to share everything.  We feel like it is our "job" to make sure things are known!  But, we should be more careful with the words we share.  Proverbs 21:23 tells us that those who are careful of the words they say will save themselves trouble and Proverbs 18:8 says gossip is like eating cheap candy!  

Here are the main questions to consider when you are going to tell someone something!

1- Is it vital to their position or role?  (they need to know it for a purpose related to them)

Finally, consider "VENTING".  This is a worldly term.  Venting was created by the world.  It is not from God.  In fact, if you look at the LEADERS of the Bible, you notice that none of them complained, shared their fears, discouragement, etc with men.  They went straight to God.  

Consider the word VENT.  It starts with a V.  The V is shaped in such a way that it goes from ONE to ONE.  Take your worries, fears, frustration, doubts, complaints, etc...to ONE person.  Take them to God.  

This is not always easy, but if you intentionally work at it, you will see great results!  

http://www.openbible.info/topics/

For most of us we believe that it is good to have options.  Our world tells us that we should keep our options open...like a foot in the door.  But, have you ever tried to reach something inside the house while your foot is in the door?  Not easy to do.  Sometimes, it is impossible to get what you want until you take your foot out of the door and go inside.

Many of us live our lives like this in our jobs and relationships.  We live with a temporary attitude.  "if it doesn't work out," we say, " I can always leave."  Temporary means to last for a limited period of time.  When we have a temporary attitude about our job or relationship, we are saying that it isn't going to last.  This attitude will always leave us searching for peace and happiness.  However, when we commit, take our foot out of the door and remove all options from the table, we experience true, lasting peace.

God tells us that He will give us a way out if a situation isn't going well.  We don't need to look for it!  (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Let's change our attitudes to permanent and committed and let God handle the details of things.  Trust that He will move you when it is time.  You don't need any options when you have Him.  His next step will always be perfect and will always bring peace.