Coleens Business

Mountains to Climb The month of June is quite a month for me....filled with birthdays, our anniversary, and not to mention Fathers Day! Thinking about the great men in my life, especially my husband Bret and my dad, I feel gratitude as I realize both of these men have lived a good part of their life to make mine better. Each of them would climb the highest summit for me. I love and pay the highest tribute to both of these great men. As I studied this week I began to feel as though I have mountains to climb! It seems daunting that just when I begin to feel comfortable where I am, I find that I am given new challenges that force me to climb higher. My husband is great at reaching out with encouragement and is ready to travel with me on life's journey. He makes it exciting!  I think of my dad...(Here we are together when I was little. I was born when he was 45...and it was 10 years after my other siblings). ...He had a passion for nature and it seemed he enjoyed the challenge of doing...

I interrupt this Blogging session to run and babysit because...  WE HAVE A NEW GRAND-BABY!   This was quite unexpected...she wasn't due for another 4 weeks. But she made it here safe and sound and although she is still in the hospital, they only expect it to be a couple of days. I am feeling so blessed...To see my children welcome children into the world is such an amazing thing. It sends fireworks of Love throughout the entire family!   Finding The Way... Before my unexpected announcement, I wondered how I was ever going to fit everything I have to do into my schedule. I would like to share that the Lord is so very aware of our needs. Somehow this was the week that my studies was a little lighter load...Is that just a coincidence? I pressed forward even with my busy schedule and find myself ahead of the schedule, giving me time to help my family. I have my older granddaughter here to help me. She is just old enough to begin learning how to babysit. While she is help...

  Keep Reaching! I have a feeling the rose in this picture had no idea that it would grow so much higher than the rest of the roses on this bush. I can imagine it just kept reaching... up toward the light. It just did what it does. Grow and be beautiful. There may be scientific reasons this happens. Perhaps it had a better source to the nutrition in the plant or maybe it was protected on the outside by all of the other roses. But for some reason it grew heads above the rest. Bret saw it first ... the picture does not show its velvet beauty the way we saw it. I didn't even have the heart to pick it to make the bush look even...I just let it have its moment. I was thinking, "This rose found it's calling!" How do we find our calling?...We keep reaching! What I have learned I learned that I should never give up searching for my calling. That it isn't the destination, it is the change in me that will matter in the end. This week I watched a video "A Hero's Jou...

  What Matters Most... I went for an early walk with a friend recently. A pond near my house had some goslings with their parents waddling around the bank of the pond. The parent geese stayed really close to their little ones protecting them from any danger. No one had to tell them that their family was the most important thing to them. It was instinctive, the need to keep their little ones close and prepare them for the day they begin to fly.  What I Have Learned This week I have learned that I live with a lot of unnecessary fear!  As part of a class assignment I was asked these  Reflection Questions:  1. If you pursue your calling with discipline, intentionality, and the help of fellow travelers, what are the chances that your worst case scenario will really happen? Really when I think about it the chances are really low. One of my fears is not being able to learn a new language if I was called with my husband somewhere outside the country on a mission for our...

Be True...to you! This week we celebrated my sons birthday by going on an adventure with him, our daughter and some of their friends. I couldn't help but relate my hiking experience to what I have been learning the past few weeks in class.  The hike was a continual upward quest along a river path that ultimately lead to a pure spring of water coming out of a mountain consisting of sheer cliffs  hundreds of feet high. Shortly after we began hiking we were coaxed by our children to wade up stream through the water rather than to follow the trail on the side. Both lead to the same place.  Hiking in late April early May is considered late spring where we are and we enjoyed the cool water as we waded up the stream. It was beautiful! I began to reminisce my childhood when I would wade in local streams and explore. Many of those places are no longer open to the public or are just simply not there any more, so sharing this time with some of my kids really meant a lot. We began cl...