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Showing posts with the label Insight Columns

What To Do First to Make a Profit

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 i...

When People Whose Kids Are a Mess Criticize You
For the Way You Raise Yours

For seven months now I've been writing an advice column I was asked to write for Insigh t, a Tampa Bay newspaper. Then two months ago, another newpaper, Epoch , asked if they could cross post the advice column. From time to time I publish some of the questions and answers here on my blog. Here's one that published last month. It comes from a reader who is getting hassled by family for the way she's raising her kids. Dear Deanna:  I am often criticized by my family for how my husband and I are raising our kids who are   teenagers. The ironic thing is - some of their kids have gone off the deep end, so to speak, yet they criticize me for being strict. It’s very frustrating. ~ Dawn Dear Dawn: My best advice to you is to get yourself a blindfold and a good pair of ear plugs. You'll need it to block out what family members and friends who don't share your values will say. My husband and I often heard these things over the years: “Aren...

What Should An Unhappy Small Business Owner Do?

This marks the sixth month that I've been writing the advice column I was asked to write for the Tampa Bay newspaper, Insight. Things are going super well! So well in fact , that yesterday, their Editor-in-Chief, Alisha Perella, as ked me if I would consider doing an advice column for their sister-paper, Epoch. So now I will have not one, but two advice columns running in Tam pa area newspaper s! So cool, huh? And, on top of that, I've been asked to contribute some fea ture articles aside from the advice columns. It just keeps gettin' better and better. I love writing, if you couldn't tell... Once they publish the paper, I have been posting a copy of my columns here for blog readers who don't live in the Tampa area. If you are interested in reading previous colum ns, click here . This month in Insight, I tack led the th e problems of an unhappy small-business owner. Dear Deanna: I own a small business and to say I’m feeling strained right now is...

When Friends Invite People Along (And You're Not Happy!!)

My post today is from the relationship column that I write for Insight, a Tam pa newspaper . This month I tackled several questions and this was one of them . I'd love to hear your thoughts about how you handle this when it happens to you.   Dear Deanna: I am having problems with a friend who invites me to do things with her and then after I have already agreed, invites someone else to join us. This may not appear to be any big deal, however my discomfort with the situation is that she often asks people I’m not particularly fond of and don’t want to spend an evening or an activity with…people like my ex-sister-in-law. Yes, AWKWARD!!!  Once I’ve agreed to attend, I don’t like to back out just because she invites someone to join us that I’m not comfortable with. But I’m really tired of dreading these times together. What do I do? I don’t want to lose my friend but I also don’t want to keep dreading her events and invitations. Signed, Dreading Dear...

When Your Spouse Wants You...AND Someone Else

This month marks the fourth month of the relationship advice column that I write for the Tampa newspaper Insight Tampa . If you missed the previous columns and are interested in reading, go here .  Thanks to those of you who have given feedback on the blog and Facebook. K eep in mind as well, this is not a Christian paper and I am instructed not to answer from the Bible, or my role as a pastor.  Dear Deanna:  I write this to you with a broken heart as I’ve recently discovered an affair my husband of 22 years has been involved in.   I am willing to go to counseling and make attempts to put things back together but I am not sure he is willing to sever ties with the woman he has been involved with. There is always an excuse of why he needs to have some kind of contact with her even if it’s just to return something that was hers or make a phone call about mutual business dealings. (They both work in the same field.) I know more is going on than I ...