It Starts With A Yes: Dr. King, Dreamchasing, and You
It Starts With A Yes: Dr. King, Dreamchasing, and You
Hello Ari Speakers!!!
As promised, I am sharing the link to my guest devotional blog post on the World Methodist Council’s Youth and Young Adult Website! I am so honored to have been selected for this. Please check out the post and tell me what you think! Feel free to comment here and I will respond! Thanks to all of you for supporting AriSpeaks.com. I am having a blast on this blogging journey!
–Ari Speaks
President Obama, Dr. King, and Inauguration: Oh What A Day!!!
Image Credit: http://www.gospelconnoisseur.com
Hey Ari Speakers!!!
It was so amazing to watch the Inaugural activities today!!! Four years ago, I could not get off work, so I missed virtually all of the television coverage of that historic day. This year, I was determined to let nothing stand in my way. I got up this morning totally pumped to sit on my couch in front of the television to watch the magic happen. What made it so beautiful was that our country’s first African-American President was taking his public oath of office for his second term on the National Day of Observance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday!
The symbolism was nearly too much. The first Black president was elected to a second term, which shows that the country affirmed his work during the first term. He is sworn in publicly on the day of Dr. King’s national birthday observance, 50 years after the March on Washington where Dr. King gave his infamous “I Have A Dream” speech. Half of a decade later, we are living some part of that dream as people of all races, creeds, and colors stand together proudly and peacefully in celebration of a two-term African-American president. As he stands there on the steps of the capital with the Chief Justice before 800,000 people (and millions more watching at home) vowing to protect and defend the constitution, his fabulous wife, First Lady Michelle, holds both President Abraham Lincoln’s and Dr. Martin Luther King’s personal bibles underneath his left hand. Meanwhile, 2013 is also exactly 150 years after President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. It was just so overwhelming. The day was dripping with history, legacy, and divine providence! It was something to see.
Photo Credit: http://www.msnbcmedia.com
I also am happy to share with you Read more…
Tackling The Little Things…
Hey there AriSpeakers!!!
Here I am with today’s Monday (Night) Mocha! LOL!!! I hope you all have been well as you chase your dreams and contemplate walking in your life’s true purpose. (I presume you do these things since you read AriSpeaks.com.) :) Anyway, in last week’s post I shared lessons that I learned in 2012. I talked about blog growth, relationships, the importance of family, timing, and fear, but there was one lesson that I forgot to share. About a month ago, Rev. Dr. Shelley Best, a wonderful minister who I look up to and admire from afar, posted this on her Facebook page early in the morning:
“Sometimes the greatest accomplishments are the little tasks we put off. To maintain great things–little things must be in order. Address the small stuff. Now Rise.”
Wow. I was speechless. Her advice was clear, simple, and exactly what I needed to hear at the time. That particular week I was stressed to the max. You might remember my posting about how terribly overwhelmed I was with my responsibilities around that same time. What was worse: my task list was continuing to grow and there was no end in sight. I had no idea how I was going to manage it all. I had a million youth ministry tasks to complete to prepare for the new year. I was leading a trip for a group of youth and adults from my hometown of Kansas City to Atlanta for a church conference my denomination was hosting. Even more, I was serving as co-advisor to about 20 national youth officers in my denomination who were helping to plan the conference in Atlanta. If that wasn’t enough, I had just missed about 1 week at work from severe tooth pain. (I ended up getting 2 root canals). Christmas was coming. I was working on a book. Needless to say I was tense, tired, and had no idea how I was going to get everything done. Read more…
What I Learned About Fear, Purpose, and Love in 2012
Me relaxing after one really long day.
Hey AriSpeakers!!!
As promised, here I am, posting a Monday Mocha. Notice I’m changing it from Monday Morning Mochas because as most of you know, I usually don’t post until the afternoon or evening! LOL!!! Anyway, there is no grand intro today, but I will simply take a brief moment to elaborate on a few lessons I learned in 2012.
1) Growth on AriSpeaks.com–My blog finally took some shape and I started to understand my own niche a bit better. If you know anything about blogging you know that one of the keys to success is defining and crafting your niche’. When I first starting writing in 2011 I had no idea what my niche’ would be. I just started. Somewhere mid-summer 2012, I realized that my blog is inspirational with a particular focus on encouraging people to pursue their own dreams. I truly believe that God has created all people with a divine purpose, a reason for living, a mission, if you will. And its our life’s work to live it out! As you do so, you will bless the people around you.
2) Speaking of a life’s purpose, I’ve learned that mine is to use my own voice to inspire, encourage, and point the people around me toward their healing. Lord knows 2012 afforded me many opportunities for speaking engagements and travel. In fact, I preached a 3-day youth revival, a Back To School youth service, and traveled to South Carolina for a Christian Education youth service engagement. It was a blast! I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to do what I love the most: SPEAK!!! What I have learned, however, is that SPEAKing for me takes on many different forms. Sure I’ll probably always do speaking engagements, but I am also a blogger and I am now WRITING A BOOK!!! **hits my dougie** This means that 2012 allowed me to see my purpose evolve!!! This is so exciting! The lesson here is that you have NO idea where following your dreams/purpose will take you, but it’s always somewhere you want to go.
3) The actual “going” part can be terrifying!!! OMG!!! I have no idea how this book is going to turn out. And as I write I am constantly battling my fears, but I have got to do this. Please pray for me. I can’t say too much more on this right now.
4) In the love department….I have learned that a lot of mens’ timing is just off. Read more…
Ari Speaks.com 2012 In Review
Hey my AriSpeakers!
Thanks again for another year of supporting AriSpeaks.com. I appreciate your following, reading, commenting on, and sharing the content of this blog. And thanks sooooooo much for bearing with me as I took the month of December off. Monday Morning Mochas are back next week. Until then, feel free to view the summary of my year in blogging below. You never know, you may see your own name in lights! LOL! Have a great weekend everyone! Love you all! See you on Monday!
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 7,800 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 13 years to get that many views.
Now Carry On…
Just a little word of encouragement for today. Whatever’s going on in your life, you can get through it!
This is what I’ve been doing lately…
I hope to be back to SPEAKing really soon! I’ll have updates about the book and much more! Miss you guys!
HAPPY FRIDAY!!!
–Ari Speaks
Somebody Help Me!!!
Hey AriSpeakers!!!
This is the story of my life this week…last week…well, every week! This week’s activities: fundraiser benefit last night, 2 conference calls and errands tonight, hair appointment and packing tomorrow, message/sermon prep and flight on Friday, speaking engagement on Saturday, more travel and another conference call on Sunday… YIKES!!! And somehow I have to include work, blogging, writing my book, and sleep in the midst of that craziness too! Somebody pray for me.
Word to the wise: Read more…
