The PF Women Team at our Annual Team Retreat ~ 2018 Today on Seth Godin's blog, he said: It's tempting to decide to make a profit first, then invest in training, people, facilities, promotion, customer service and most of all, doing important work. In general, though, it goes the other way. Yes, it does. If you are waiting to make a profit before you do these things, in my experience you're not going to make a profit. So many organizations, ministries and churches are struggling with financial issues. I know your pain. As anyone who follows our story knows, our ministry was in a ton of debt four years ago when I came on as director. Since that time, we've gotten out of debt and turned a profit every year. God has done amazing things through out team, for which we give Him the glory! I find that what Seth is saying here is absolutely true, with one disclaimer. For Christian leaders, spiritual disciplines must always be first. Before we started inve
things are absolutely beautiful. Larry and I are in Miami for the women's retreat I'm preaching at this weekend. Due to the distance involved, I came in a night early and there is actually quite a lot of free time at this event. That mixed with the fact that the hotel we're at is literally right on Miami Beach (as they say here, "the hotel where the beach is your backyard...) it makes for a perfect time to spend some time with my man as well. I definitely wanted to try and work it out for him to be with me on this one and thankfully, everything gelled together.
Spent 4 and 1/2 hours on the road to get here and it was bliss for me to work all that time and get things done that have been hanging over my head. Although I've spent time with the Lord lately, the amount of projects I'm working on has sort of zapped my creativity and affected my clarity. There have been times I sit at my desk and just have a huge blank 
because I don't know where to start and just when I do get started, I've got a phone interruption or a meeting, or what not. Being on the road, I put my headphones on, have Hillsong intstrumental on low, and viola! The creativity just flows and I bang projects out like there is no tomorrow. When I get tired of typing, I stop and talk with Larry about stuff we need to plan and decide for work. Everyone assumes when you co-pastor that means you have eons of time to do that at work. The truth is, if we don't do it over lunch we rarely have time to talk at work, because too much else is going on. Time in the car is very valuable. Usually we make more decisions to and from work than any other time. Anyway, suffice it to say I got an incredible amount of work done today.
We got in late this afternoon and after checking in, headed straight for the beach where we spent all our tim
e til' dinner. I took a long prayer walk on the beach by myself and got in the water about up to my knees which was all I wanted to do today. (Tomorrow's another day...) It's so easy to get in the zone with God when I'm somewhere like this. I didn't appreciate the outdoors like this until I moved to Florida.
After my walk, Larry and I just sat for a while taking in the beautiful view. I was hoping we'd find something good within walking distance for dinner and it couldn't have been more perfect that Carrabbas
(my favorite place) was just two blocks down. It's the most gorgeous one I've ever seen, with windows everywhere, fountains inside the restaurant, and more. After dinner it was dark, and we took a long walk on the boardwalk and took in the beautiful sights. Like I have said many times before, I love Tampa but Miami is my second favorite place. I love the surroundings, the people, everything about it. Not to mention I always get the most colorful shoes here. (Did I mention I'm in a very nice hotel, and my room is bright neon blue? Only in Miami.)
Well, it's like this...Larry has just lit all the 
candles. It's time for me to get off the computer. :-)
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