Monday Mantras!

Monday Mantras! Sometimes being extraordinary just means doing the ordinary. Join me in this Monday Mantra!

Focus:
–I may be tired from life and the weekend, but I will try my best today.
–I have things to contribute that are valuable to my office and my work environment.
–Today, I will try my hardest to put others first and lead with a smile.
–While I work hard in the short term, I will keep the long term good in mind.
–I will embrace the reality that all people are unique and loved in the sight of God.
–Monday is a day full of opportunity to be different and to choose the good course.

Random:
–At times I may be provoked to turn my garbage can into a basketball hoop in order to blow off steam.
–A mid-afternoon coffee run is never out of the question.
–If I completely botch my Monday, I do get at least 4 more chances to boost my productivity.
–Random humor by Will Ferrell is always allowed.
–Giving myself pep talks with menacing tough guy faces in my port-a-mirror is fair game.
–Daydreaming is a must!

Me:
–I am a human and a soul and I’m uniquely wonderful and precious to God.
–I will lend the same respect and dignity to others that I desire to be shown to me.
–I have my own place in history and I’m writing in its pages everyday.

You are beautiful and you are loved and you matter…drew 🙂

Follow @drewmanity on Twitter!

Find music here: www.drewrieder.com

Food for Thought!

There I sat frustrated the other night flushing my kids’ left over dinner down the garbage disposal in the sink. If you’re a parent you’ve been there before and you’ll be there again. You spend lots of time doing food preparation for your children and then they don’t end up eating it. From an adult perspective it can be very aggravating! This is because we understand the cost of food and have an actual concept of waste. We also have an even larger perspective on world hunger and its realities. How many of your parents used the whole “there are starving children in Africa” line? I’m betting quite a few of us heard that. Let’s leave this food episode here for a second, though, and visit another common occurrence.

You’re in the drive-through getting your “fast fat” at McDonald’s or whatever the place may be that tickles your taste buds (there are only a g-gillion choices) and you get frustrated because your fast food isn’t quite fast enough. Who hasn’t exited their right minds momentarily and been frustrated by this? You’re lying if you say it’s never happened. But here’s the perspective, peeps! We “get to” go through a drive-through in a car that we own (also a luxury in many nations) and use money that we have or don’t have (enter credit card) to purchase whatever we want. Due to our hyper-speed culture these momentary lapses in perspective happen, but hopefully we arrive at this stark reality. We have access to so much food and we have a surplus of it in the United States. This fact contributes to all sorts of things that I won’t touch on in this post as I’m trying to stay on topic. In that vein, here’s one more example of a food problem.

I’m at a potluck last night with 30 or so people and there’s a ton of food there that people have brought to share and consume. Obviously there’s nothing wrong with a potluck or with sharing food. But the reality, once again, is that I’m in a normal, social setting where there is an absolute abundance of food. So, why am I ranting so much about this? I only want to say this very simple thing. Don’t miss this. Here’s your “food” for thought.

The next time we have leftover food from our meal or we get to go through the drive through or eat at our favorite restaurant, let’s do two things. Keep in mind that I speak to you not as an expert but as a learner (I preach to myself). 1) Let’s be thankful to God for all that we have. An attitude of thankfulness is one that quickly spills into generosity. 2) Let’s consider how we can help with the hunger problem in our city, our state, our nation and our world. It’s everywhere, folks, and it’s not going away. So, there’s a challenge to me and a challenge to you as we head into Halloween weekend. I’d love to hear any creative ideas you might have 0n this very important topic. Talk to you soon.

You are beautiful and you are loved and you matter….drew 🙂

Follow @drewmanity on Twitter!
Find music at: www.drewrieder.com

Prayer Starts Early!

So I was going through our usual bedtime routine with the kiddos the other night.  We often help our kids through a few prayers as a part of the nightly “tucky-time.” It mostly consists of us saying a phrase and our children repeating it back to us. We have a Christian Worldview in our household and so our prayers are directed to Jesus. Prayer time happens after our loony book time which usually must include a wild tail about monkeys jumping on the bed or provoking a huge alligator in some way. My youngest little one is the least verbal at this point in her life and so we never know how much she is comprehending in her cute little mind.

Recently, however, when we broke off to the kids’ different rooms for respective kisses and hugs and other silly routines, my little princess had grabbed a little, blue & yellow, fake, plastic cell phone. As I was turning out the light and putting on here bedtime CD, I heard her talking very peacefully to herself into the phone. So, I felt compelled to ask her who she was talking to. In the cutest little voice under heaven she said, “I’m talkin’ to Jesus.” My little princess had made the connection somewhere between rote childhood prayers and her need to pick up the phone and call Jesus. Her small world included a reality where she knew that she could speak in her little language and be heard by God–on the phone, of course.

It struck me how early we have that universal need to make a connection with God. And how something within us needs completion and help in this crazy, busy, insane world that we live in. It’s so basic to our human condition. It’s so integral to the core of our being. So make a call. The phone lines are always open.

You are beautiful and you are loved and you matter…..drew 🙂

Follow @drewmanity on Twitter!
Find music at: www.drewrieder.com