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Is your health and wellness podcast optimized for success, or are crucial oversights holding back your potential? I audited a doctor’s podcast recently and was shocked at what I found. This podcast had over 100 episodes—pretty impressive. However, the whole setup of the podcast had some brutal mistakes that I’m sure were holding this doctor back from seeing bigger results. How can optimizing your podcast's website links transform your show's reach? Are you missing out on SEO benefits that could elevate your visibility? Curious about the impact of professional collaboration on your podcast? Don't let simple mistakes hold you back. Tune in to find out how to turn your podcast into a lead-generating powerhouse! Today’s episode includes: How minor mistakes hinder podcast growth and engagement. Why directing podcast episode links on Apple, Spotify, etc to your own website is ideal. Why collaborating with professional teams can elevate your podcast impact and revenue. How maintaining high production standards enhances credibility, especially in the health and wellness space. How omitting crucial subscription links will limit your audience growth. Why owning a proper domain ensures long-term SEO benefits and authority with search engines. How missing social media links in your show notes makes it difficult for listeners to connect with you. Why understanding and avoiding common mistakes ensures maximum ROI from podcasting efforts. Are you pouring your heart into your podcast but still not seeing the growth you deserve? Download our free guide to unlock your podcast’s full potential and expand your impact: https://eastcoaststudio.com/5mistakes Our LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/eastcoaststudio/ Our Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecpodcaststudio/…
Content provided by Craig Lounsbrough. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Craig Lounsbrough or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.
Life Talk is a podcast intentionally designed to enrich your life, deepen your marriage, enhance your parenting, maximize your work life, and dramatically embolden this journey that we call life.
Content provided by Craig Lounsbrough. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Craig Lounsbrough or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.
Life Talk is a podcast intentionally designed to enrich your life, deepen your marriage, enhance your parenting, maximize your work life, and dramatically embolden this journey that we call life.
Welcome to LifeTalk’s Thought for Life. We spend our lives acquiring what we think we need to fight the battles that we think we’re fighting. In a world fraught with fear and uncertainty, we assimilate whatever grants us this sense of invincibility and power for whatever battle we think we’re fighting. Consider this “Thought for Life:” “I do not weaponize my life for God by rigorously acquiring an expansive arsenal of sophisticated munitions. Rather, I empty out the arsenal of everything but God, for at that point the arsenal is filled to capacity.” I hope that you ponder that thought today. Discover all of my daily quotes on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Linkedin and Instagram.…
Not Where We Were It seems that we have some vague and rather ethereal sense of where we’re going in this thing called life. For the more contemplative soul, that sense might be quite refined. For the casual traveler, it might be a bit more nebulous and scattered. For many, where they’re going is defined by the tasks of the day, rather than enlarged by a vision for tomorrow. In many cases where we’re going is far more rigorously defined by all the places where we don’t want to go, rather than the places where we do want to go. At other times its definition is shaped by the opinions of others, or it’s carved directly from the bedrock of the value systems that have been built into our lives throughout the whole of our lives. In whatever way we do it, we all have some sense of where we’re going. And too often, we find ourselves ending up someplace else. The Detours We Create Yet, life is not so predictable as to always wind its way to the places that we presumed it to be going. There are those times when where we were going was mistaken as some sort of final destination when in reality it was only a step to a final destination. At other times the place where we’re going is really a destination that we had fabricated because the place to which life had originally called us appeared too big, or too far, or too steep, or simply impossible in whatever way our limited vision happened to interpret it. Sometimes our destination is to set a course away from our destination so that we can dispense with whatever responsibility or obligation our original destination might have demanded of us. But then there are those other times when life takes a sharp turn that seems little of our actions, nothing of our destination, but everything of circumstances designed to kill our journey and crush our destination long before we get within arm’s length of it. And then in the magic of life, there are those times where we have actually pursued some authentic destination with such rigor that the trajectory has catapulted us past our destination to places that are everything of our fondest imagination. However, it might play out, we’re all headed somewhere. The Explanation of Detours Missed How It Happens Yet, more often than not it’s the not the obvious shifts in our journey that are the core problem. Sure, life shows up and we get shoved down. There’s no question that the natural ebb and flow of life, whether it be titanic or miniscule, will happen to us. Despite our frequently ego-centric inclinations to the contrary, we are not so shrewd or ingenious as to be able to traverse life in a manner that deftly side-steps everything that comes at us. We don’t dance as well as we think we do. Casual and Careless Yet, more often than not, the explanation doesn’t rest in life having shown up. The much more poignant issue is that too often we are passive, flabby and lax in rigorously living out our lives. We’re far too casual and careless. Somehow, somewhere the sanctity of life and the privilege of living it out was supplanted with some sense that it’s too much work or that it’s not going to work, so why try? Preoccupied with Pabulum Too often we’re too preoccupied with pabulum. We’re tediously engaged with tiny things and we’re caught in the tedium of minutia because we can gather these things around us and control them when the bigger things are out of our control. Too frequently we’re goaded by the fear of big dreams and massive possibilities, so we dumb down our lives to anesthetize those fears. Along for the Ride Frequently we presume that we’re some docile passenger along for a ride that’s going wherever it’s going, so we just let it go to wherever that place is. We freely surrender to passivity which is an invitation to meaninglessness. And meaninglessness is the death of the soul itself. Life is a river, we say. And the best course of action is to navigate it because entertaining the far-fetched notion of swimming against it is utterly preposterous. The Walls of Denial At other times, we live in the constructed confines erected from the raw material of denial, causing us to live out a life that is in denial of life itself. We become squatters living in a squatter’s camp constructed by the flimsy materials of justification, rationalization, blame-placing and projecting. We pull in the walls due to the reality that materials of this sort are always pulling inward because they will die if we dare to press them outward. Hemmed in by walls of this sort, the world around us is shut out and moves on without our awareness of it. Ending Up Where We Wish to Be We will end up somewhere. The fact that we have a destination is irrefutable as life is a journey that presents us with no option other than the journey. We may decide that the nature and course of the journey is irrelevant, and we may take a backseat to passivity. If we do, we have no right to complain when we end up in some place other than what we may have thought or preferred. Yet, we can recognize that we are not automatons subject to the flux of the world within which we have found ourselves. It would seem advisable to recognize that we have an obligation to the course that our life is taking, and that along with that obligation we have been granted a profound degree of power to bring to the course. If we succumb to carelessness, or become engrossed by pabulum, or if we just let the ride go wherever circumstances take it, or if we pull close the walls of denial this thing that we call life will wind itself to wherever it’s going with no one at the helm. And that kind of destination cannot be good. We would be wise to inventory our lives and determine if we are in some way large or small participating in any of these behaviors. If so, we need to root them out and expunge them from our lives. Reclaiming a sense of vision, and then seizing our lives with discipline and intentionality will set us on a path that will land us in places that we’ve dreamt to land. If we don’t, the place we land may not be on any land that we even remotely recognize. Thanks for joining us today. You will discover “In the Footsteps of the Few – The Power of a Principled Life,” as well as all of my books on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or wherever books are sold. It’s my hope that you find these books are meaningful and restorative in your life. Also, visit us daily on all of our Social Media sites to find inspirational quotes and videos.…
Welcome to LifeTalk’s Thought for Life. We build bridges or barriers. If you think about it, everything that we do builds one or the other. And the function of a bridge is quite different than the function of a barrier. Consider this “Thought for Life:” “Every decision will build a bridge or a barrier. Therefore, what stands in front of you at this moment illustrates the decisions that you made on your way to this moment.” I hope that you ponder that thought today. Discover all of my daily quotes on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Linkedin and Instagram.…
Dear Mom: I realize that on days like Mother’s Day people tend to wax nostalgic, venerating those Mom’s among us who have passed. It is, I suppose, a way to express both our deep respect and enduring gratitude, while somehow holding you a bit closer in heart and mind since we can no longer hold you in our arms. Mom, you are missed more than the reach of words and the span of syntax can hope to explain. Yet if it were our choice, if your three boys had the power and authority to choose, even then we would not wish you here for you are truly home in a truly perfect and inexplicable way. Mom, your voice here is now muted, heard only in our hearts, our memories, and throughout the grand halls of heaven. Even so, we still hear it. And when it fades in the frequently stifling noise of life, we play it over in our minds so as not to forget it. Your wisdom now arises from the many footprints you left across the landscape of our lives, examples that speak life and truth and love and ceaseless hope into both the barren places, as well as those places wonderful and lush that we walk through daily. Your touch is lost to us, those simple hugs from a simple woman who not only knew how to love, but how to express it in a way that made each moment warm and safe. It is one thing to be loved. It is quite another to know that you are loved. We knew. And now standing so many years removed from your passing, we still know. But Mom, in the balance we have gained infinitely more. You left a legacy in our lives; a robust legacy that embodies integrity, honesty and tenacity. A brave legacy that boldly, even brashly believes that God always provides, always cares, always knows and is an ever-present source from which every need will always be met. You helped us understand that life ebbs and flows, sometimes magically and sometimes cruelly. You showed us that life at times invites us to a grand dance, and at other times it seems to slam us to the dance floor leaving us cringing and bleeding. Life pours into us, and then it draws out of us. The sun at times warms us and then the hail pelts us. In whatever form it takes, you taught us that God always prevails, that there is always good, that it will always, always work out. And it always did. You left us an unrelenting understanding that life is more than some daily routine, or the achievement of tasks either great or small. Life is about living well, living with respect, living in a manner that adds rather than detracts. It is not about pretending things are well or being Pollyannaish. You taught us that life is about understanding that things will not always be fair nor will life necessarily be just, but in the hands of God it will always present us with opportunities to learn about ourselves, to grow and to add something to those around us. Mom, all of these lessons came packaged in simple things like iced tea on sweltering summer days and hot chocolate on frigid winter nights. It was bedtime prayers that started “now I lay me down to sleep . . .” It was endless lunches packed for school, dimes tucked in lunch boxes for white milk during the week and chocolate milk on Friday’s. It was planting flowers in Spring’s sweet soils, and canning fruit when Fall generously yielded up the bounty born of those soils. It was wrapping us thick in mounds of coats and lengthy scarves when winter drew nature to sleep, and vacuuming the pool when the glory of summer ran and skipped through our days. It was summed up in a tiny plaque that still hangs in the kitchen which reads, “Bless this house oh Lord we pray, make it safe by night and day.” Such was your life. It was being home when the street lights came on, carrying the laundry up the stairs, and not hitting our brothers. It was your voice calmly and yet quite firmly saying, “quit teasing the dog.” “This didn’t get broken by itself.” “Did you call your grandmother?” “If your friends jumped off a cliff would you follow them?” “Would you please flush the toilet?” “Did you get your homework done?” “Please put your clothes in the dirty clothes hamper.” “Don’t listen to your brother.” “Who left the lights on?” “Please pick up your room.” “Were you born in a barn?” “I didn’t raise you kids to be like this!” “Who tipped over the Christmas tree?” And, “it didn’t walk away by itself.” Underlying it all, being spoken with undeniable clarity there were these messages. “I love you.” “You can achieve anything you want with your life.” “You kids are God’s gift to me.” “You’re the best kids in the world.” “I don’t deserve you boys.” “I’m praying for you.” “How can I help you?” “How are you doing?” “Do you need anything?” “I’m so proud of you boys.” It was all of those things, and so much more. Mom, you were about the stuff of building the lives of three boys and taking care of a husband who was, at those rather impetuous times, a boy himself. It was really never about you. We tried to make it about you so many times, but you always politely declined. Rather, it was a selfless investment, pouring your life, your energies and fiber of your being into three boys who really had no clue what you were doing until they themselves were adults. Even today we are unable to fully fathom the depth of your sacrifices. While I would wish to say otherwise, I doubt that we will ever understand them fully. We again commit to you on this Mother’s Day that we will strive to selflessly pour into the lives of others that which you so graciously poured into our lives. We know that any such efforts on our parts will pale indeed to the way in which you poured yourself into our lives. Know that we are committed to drawing from the innumerable footprints that you left, the lessons taught and lived, and the insights imparted. We will draw from the vast storehouse of memories packed tight with words, mental pictures, ceaseless emotions and warm thoughts. And we will live that out Mom, as we have for so many years since you passed. We will bring your life to the lives of our families, the people who populate our careers, and to those we meet in the briefest passing. You will live on Mom, here as well as in the marbled halls of heaven. You will touch innumerable lives through your three boys who you loved, equipped, nurtured, guided, guarded and then launched. One final thing Mom; we want you to know that we will live each day in anticipation of seeing you again. However, we commit that we will not let that anticipation somehow diminish the efforts and energies we invest in living life. We will not live in some sort of distracted state, focused solely on the idea of seeing you again and awaiting that moment in such a way that the present moment is squandered. Rather, we will invest our lives vigorously while holding fast to the promise of scripture that there awaits for us a grand reunion, a wild celebration of relationships restored in a creation likewise restored. In the meantime Mom, know that you are loved, that you are fondly remembered, that you live on in us and that when stories of you are told, they will be told with the greatest love and deepest admiration. Thanks Mom. We love more than simple words could hope to convey. God bless and see you soon. Thanks for joining us on LifeTalk today. You will find LifeTalk on most podcast platforms as well as YouTube. I would also encourage you to check out our daily posts on all of our Social Media sites.…
Am I Passionate for the Right Things? “In full uniform, the color guard marched by as part of the parade. And as they did, he forced his horribly slumped and deeply aged body out of his worn wheelchair and stood to ram-rod attention. He held a salute until the guard had passed, and then he feebly collapsed back into his wheelchair. As I stared in ever-warming admiration, emblazoned across his hat I saw the words “WWII Veteran.” And while I deeply admire his stirring passion for our country, I stood there wishing that my passion for the cause of Christ might someday be strong enough to lift me out of the many wheelchairs within which I sit.” Am I passionate for the right things? Not just passionate. But passionate in the right way. Sure, there’s a lot of voices out there. There’s a lot of causes out there. There’s a lot of yelling, and screaming, and arguing, and hostile behaviors, and noisy propaganda, and a bunch of edgy people on more than one rant advocating for these causes. On top of that, the causes themselves shift depending upon the temperature of the culture, or the agenda of the people pulling long strings behind closed doors. There are causes that represent the demands of a handful of people who find the foundations of their cause so ill-defined or fragile that constructive dialogue is replaced with destructive actions. Greed is rampant. Power-mongering runs wild. Principles have been discarded because they impede the progressive thinking that end up resulting in regressive outcomes. And in this mess and in the midst of all of this noise, am I passionate for the right things? Consider this. There are some things that are timeless. There are some things that are woven into this existence that you can’t remove. There are principles and ethics that are foundational. You can try and remove them, but there’s a huge cost to that. Civilizations throughout history have messed with them, or attempted to adjust them to suit a particular cause, or worked to rid their culture of them altogether. And the outcomes are never good. History will tell us that rather plainly, if we’re willing to be honest about history. And so, I want to be passionate about something that’s timeless, because I want it to live on beyond my life. Something that this culture can reliably build on both today and tomorrow and for every tomorrow after that. Something that’s certain to sustain my kids and grandkids and great-grandkids. And nothing that we can create on our own will do that. What we create is too weak, and too fragile, and too shallow, and too lackluster to do that. That kind of stuff is only something that God can create. And so, it’s this God and what He created and principles that He built it all around, it’s that stuff that I choose to be passionate about. Not man-made stuff because that doesn’t last. Rather, it’s God-created stuff. It’s the principles that shaped this existence at its core that I will surrender my passions to and be passionate about. Because if I’m not passionate about that stuff, passion won’t matter because very shortly nothing will.…
Welcome to LifeTalk’s Thought for Life. Sometimes we feel helpless. In the midst of tragedy, or painful losses, or devastating moments, we often feel that we are helpless to do anything other than standby and watch. Yet is that really all that we can do? Consider this “Thought for Life:” “Prayer inserts me into the middle of any battlefield regardless of how gruesome or bloodied. And in the carnage of whatever that battle might be, it allows me to deliver a force greater than any raging on that field.” I hope that you ponder that thought today. Discover all of my daily quotes on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Linkedin and Instagram.…
Welcome to LifeTalk’s Thought for Life. It’s my sense that God doesn’t need me to speak to you. He’s quite capable of doing that without me. But there are times when I sense that He wants me to speak something of Him to you. And this is one of those moments. Consider this “Thought for Life:” “I don’t always preach God, for His existence is obvious. Rather, I preach what will happen to our existence if we deny His.” I hope that you ponder that thought today. Discover all of my daily quotes on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Linkedin and Instagram.…
Let’s start here. Think about this thought: “Too often we have stripped our single greatest asset of its power and hobbled it to the degree that it has come to be viewed only as a pathetic last resort. Yet despite our incessant meddling, this asset nonetheless remains a first resort so potent that it never needs a last one. And that asset is prayer.” Prayer. You know, through our own lack of understanding and discipline, we’ve granted prayer the characteristics associated with some antiquated religious monk living in some secluded monastery off in the woods. For us, prayer sits on the far fringes of life as some traditional nicety that we toy with when we’re not wrestling with bigger things. It might serve a purpose in life’s special moments, or in the midst of life’s most dire emergencies, but even then we’re not all that confident that it actually brings anything to either. To varying degrees we’ve rendered prayer as culturally outdated, logistically outmoded, a backburner endeavor, and far too simplistic to grapple with the monumental realities that are part of living in the 21st century. But I would challenge all of that by saying this: “I am convinced beyond words to convey that prayer is infinitely more than the mindless ranting of some poor, delusional soul talking to some imaginary friend in some imaginary place. Oh, to the contrary. Prayer is the manifest pleading of a soul worn raw that, by the simple act of prayer, unleashes untold forces that we can’t imagine that surge in a descent so massive and so inconceivably powerful that the ground of everything before them shakes. And in this descent lives are changed beyond recognition, nations are transformed beyond comprehension, and history is brought to its knees in the face of a God who says, “be healed.” That, my friend, is nothing of a delusional soul or imaginary friend or any other such nonsense.” That is what prayer is. But let’s build on that. Consider this: “How do I tell you what prayer is? It is everything that I need every time I kneel in the practice of it. It shakes the infinite alive and sets its armies afoot in defense of me. It will never run aground or find itself drowning in the waters of the adversity that I bring to it. Nothing it faces is insurmountable, for to think that such an adversary exists is to run a fool’s errand. It will shield me in its advance, it will beckon me to anticipate the miracles that it is about to wield, and in the midst of it all it calms me as it whispers, 'Be still and know that I am God.' And because of these reasons and a million more, I find prayer the single greatest place that I could ever imagine being.” That’s what prayer is. And if that’s not what prayer is in your life, or if that’s not what your experience of prayer is, then you’ve missed one of the powerful things that we have the privilege of engaging in. We’ve settled for this slumlord existence of spiritual impoverishment when we can be spiritually rich in ways that give light, and energy, and meaning, and purpose to life. Enjoy LifeTalk's wide array of inspirational and timely programs on most podcast platforms. You can also enjoy his daily quotations on Facebook, Pinterest, X, Instagram, and LinkedIn. __________________________________________________________________________________ You will discover all of Craig's books on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or wherever books are sold.…
The Self That I Long to Believe In Bigger on the Inside Than the Outside Attempting to Define Success to Define Ourselves “It would make sense that our worth should be, and in reality is based on something that cannot be proven for any other reason than its value lies forever beyond the most magnificent achievements that would serve to even remotely evidence it.” Success has been accorded an endless array of definitions. Some of them are crafted to make failure seem more like success so that we can limp through life and fail without remorse or guilt. Other definitions are quite lofty, written to give us opportunity achieve in a manner that has little to do with the achievement and everything to do with restoring blunted self-esteems. At times success is defined by whatever will accord us the accolades of others or advance us socially or professionally. At yet other times, the definition of success is more about giving ourselves a sorely needed boost when our spirits have been lagging. Lost in the Array of Definitions Whatever and wherever their source, a dizzying array of definitions abound. Many seem to be a target created after the trigger was pulled, making every decision a bulls-eye even if the aim was horrid. Some are thrown out because they’re easy, or we’re not certain what success is so we just come up with something that might pass for success if people don’t pay too much attention. And in the squalor of definitions gone awry and rogue, we seem to have lost a genuine definition of success. Why Success? It's interesting that success, in whatever manner it is defined, has come to define our worth and value. That’s why a lack of perceived success will tank our self-esteem quicker than just about anything else. Success appears to have become the litmus test as to the credibility of our existence and the unforgiving gauge of our worth. Success has evolved into the exclusive commodity by which we ascribe value to ourselves and others. Fear of Questioning the Definition Success becomes so acutely defined and so irrevocably defining that we seldom entertain any other possible definition. We find ourselves entangled in the culturally mandated definition of success, or the definitions imposed by our families or friends or occupation. We become so absorbed in the sorting out and the achieving of those definitions that the endeavor to achieve them becomes inordinately consuming. But what does this mean in terms of how we’ve come to identify who we are and in that, how we’ve attempted to determine the value of who we are? The Flaw of Success Yet, the nature of such a mentality of success demands that we constantly achieve. It is an effort of insanely perpetual works that requires that we continually prove our worth as the previous success eventually fades sufficiently to demand a new one. Sure, we can define it. But success as used to determine our worth and value is always temporal. It’s always moving. Therefore, we become enslaved to successes that demand nothing more than other successes. We Are Too Big to Be Defined By Any Success Our value is not based on ‘what we do.’ Rather, it is based on ‘who we are.’ If we remain stuck with the feeling that our worth is based on ‘what we do,’ the definition of success is what lends credence to those efforts. Success is irrelevant in respect to our self-esteem as any definition of success regardless of how lofty does not possess the power to sustain our sense of worth or feed our sense of value. When it comes to our sense of worth and value, success is the thing that’s not the thing. It’s been marketed as the snake oil for our self-esteem by the carpetbaggers of our culture, but it’s snake oil only. Success cannot do what it promises to do. With such an apparently irreconcilable flaw in its makeup, it would be worthwhile to postulate that our worth must be based on something significantly more consistent and profoundly more fundamental than success. Value Based on Who We Are Maybe we should dare to consider that our worth does not need to be established either by effort or definition. Maybe we should consider the possibility that it has never ‘not’ been established. That success was achieved by the fact that God decided to designed us and then deliver us into a far larger design to make an impact in and upon that design. We’re here, and that itself is a success. Everything that we do from here forward is not about success, for success has already been achieved by the fact of our existence. It’s about calling. It’s about fulfillment of the purpose that we’ve been given the privilege to fulfill. It’s about honing in on our purpose and purposefully carrying it out. It’s about obedience to the call, not the adherence to some definition that measures our obedience to the call. It’s doing all of that knowing that our worth and value exists by virtue of the fact that we exist. From there on out, it’s about the doing and not about the proving. Thinking a Bit More Deeply It would therefore be wise to consider the possibility that our worth is based on something so profound and unerringly rich that its worth singularly speaks for itself. Something that does not need to be proven simply because it is established in a manner that the need of proof is the weakness of our vision and not the fact of reality. It would make sense that our worth should be, and in reality is based on something that cannot be proven for any other reason than its value lies forever beyond the most magnificent achievements that would serve to even remotely evidence it. Achieving for Sheer Pleasure, Not Proof of Value We would be wise to embrace the liberating reality that we can achieve in life for the sheer pleasure of achievement, rather than as a despairing effort to establish our worth. We can walk through life with vigor and tenacity out of a sense of worth, not out of some desperate effort to prove our worth. We change things and we change the course of things because we have been privileged to possess both the ability and the permission to do so. Life is engaged, energized and inspired by our worth, rather than depleted in the pursuit of it. Our days are lived embracing the reality that our value is based on who we are, and to embrace that liberating reality is to embrace a life liberated. The Viciousness of Low Self-Esteem Explained If we cannot embrace this indispensable reality, we will be irreversibly stunted by the limitations of the achievements we pursue. We will chain our potential to the baseness of achievements. When we do, the infinite worth that defines us will be forever overshadowed by the shallowness of achievements, for the greatest achievements will never come close to reflecting our true value. Your value is based on who you are, despite what you do. And that is a critical but glorious shift that we each must make.…
LifeTalk's "Thought for Life" is a weekly one-minute thought that touches on one of today's pressing issues. Each of these brief presentations is centered on one of Craig's personal quotes. All of his quotes are specifically written to challenge, inform, and inspire. Today's thought is: “Decisions based on timeless truths will never leave our tomorrow regretting the decisions of our yesterday, for such truths will always supersede any ‘then’ or ‘now.’” Follow all of Craig's daily quotes on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Linkedin and Instagram.…
Defined By Our Self-Esteem “I can only imagine how much low self-esteem has robbed us as individuals and ransacked our culture. It is a rogue beast bent on diminishing us to some point of forlorn incapacity. Plagued by this beast, we live out marginalized lives that surrender the accomplishments and forsake the achievements that could have been ours. We grope through this existence meagerly living out each day by surviving each day, rather than realizing that we can live with an intensity that will have caused the day to finish having survived us.” Craig D. Lounsbrough From “The Self That I Long to Believe In” Hi, I’m Craig Lounsbrough Welcome to LifeTalk We are not defined by the worst-case assessment of ourselves, although we tend to render just such an assessment. We hand-pick the worst of ourselves to define the whole of ourselves. We do that because the worst of ourselves always seems to render the best of ourselves less than whatever best it might actually be. Our attitudes trend toward the downside of whoever it is that we are. The deficits. The failures. The reversals. The relationships that never happened or shouldn’t have happened. The goals that fell to the things that got in the way. Dreams that were crushed under the heel of reality. Choices that turned sour. Careers that died at the hands of corporate wrangling. Opportunities squandered. Surrender to fear when we should have feared the idea of surrender. We trend toward our interpretation of what these things say about us. The Application of Our Interpretations Once we’ve developed these interpretations of ourselves we apply them liberally. Their repeated application creates a negative skew where everything is painted in undesirable and self-defeating tones. The best of us never escapes the interpretation of the worst of us. Some small and commonplace error becomes catastrophic. An inconsequential misstep evidences our unworthiness. The normal hit-and-miss of life is turned into a relentless barrage of not so friendly-fire where we cut ourselves to ribbons. Defined by a Fraudulent Identity In time and over time we come to believe ourselves to be who and what we’ve told ourselves we are. We become convinced of our own self-deprecating narrative. The fictional account becomes the non-fiction of our existence. We find ourselves unable to entertain any other possible interpretation of who we are and who we can yet become. We cannot comprehend another story. An Authentic Script We become locked in a story not our own. We play a role fabricated of a false self. We continually force ourselves into alignment with this story because we have come to believe that the ‘force-fitting’ is actually some sort of self-actualizing struggle. We Are More No narrative can capture the whole of who you are. And no narrative can destroy that either. The vastness of your humanity will always escape the scope of any words that we might use to either define it, or hold it hostage. In the same vein, the narratives crafted by our deficits, our failures, the reversals, the relationships that failed, the goals that fell, the dreams that were crushed, the choices that turned sour, the careers that died, the opportunities that were squandered, our surrender to fear…none of these can craft a narrative even remotely capable of embodying the entirety of who we are. You are vaster than everything that would seek to define you, even if the person that’s doing the defining is you. In speaking to God, the Psalmist said, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made…” That’s your narrative. That’s your story. That’s who and what you are. You aren’t just one of many. You’re not just another person walking around on a planet populated by eight billion other people who are just walking around as well. You are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” Your design is the product of an infinite genius crafting a one-of-a-kind human being whose skill-sets and attributes were specifically fashioned to impact the point in history into which you were placed. That’s your story. That will always be your story. I would have you think about this. Read this carefully and slowly: “Whatever you see within yourself, let it be the whole of yourself. For too often we have been brutalized by our own sense of inadequacy and we’ve been held hostage to the lesser choices born of such a debilitating sense of self. Know this, that latent within you there lies more than ample resources begging to be called forth to smash the chains forged of such an incapacitating sense of self. And it is my prayer that you would press against everything within you that would hold you back, and that you would raise whatever voice you have and extend that call.” Craig D. Lounsbrough From “The Self That I Long to Believe In” Thirty-One I Am Statements The thirty-one statements made by God Himself declare that you are bound to nothing other than the magnificence of your design. Any low self-esteem only serves to mask the greatness within you. You will find all thirty-one of these “I Am” statements outlined in my book, “Taking It to Our Knees – Declaring Who I Am.” This book is a fresh, entirely thought-provoking, and richly insightful thirty-one day devotional that will assist you in both discovering and living out your real self. You will find “Taking It to Our Knees – Declaring Who I Am” on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or wherever books are sold. Thanks for joining us on LifeTalk today. You will find LifeTalk on most podcast platforms as well as YouTube. I would also encourage you to check out our daily posts on all of our Social Media sites.…
New beginnings. The way our lives frequently go, we doubt the existence of new beginnings...at least for us. We've had too much loss, far too much pain, and circumstances that seemed anything but kind to us. And as we look down the road of our lives, we can only envision more of the same. We really don't believe in new beginnings because all we've come to believe in is survival, and we frequently feel that we're doing that all that well either. But our new beginnings lay in our painful endings. No one likes to hear that, and few of us actually believe it. But the seeds of our new day, our new month, our new life lay scattered about in the midst of our losses. There are new beginnings awaiting you in the brokenness of your pain. And it's worth looking beyond your pain for a moment to gather the seeds that lay there waiting for you.…
Backwards - The Grand Reversal of Easter By Craig D. Lounsbrough I am backwards. I don’t think I’m backwards, I wouldn’t necessarily see myself as backwards, nor would I tell you that I’m backwards; but I’m backwards. And the oddity of it all is that I actually see backwards as forwards. From where I’m sitting it doesn’t look backwards at all. However, in terms of how I conceptualize the realities of life as held against the limitations that I perceive myself as having, I’m backwards. I’m backwards because I have tediously assessed the realities of the existence within which I am forced to operate, and I have concurrently determined the permanently fixed limitations that define my humanity as I live within that existence. And based on the conclusions I have drawn in these two areas, I have done a rather splendid job of setting the parameters for my existence by configuring (to the best of my ability) what’s possible and what’s not. In the end, this determination that I have made regarding that which is ‘possible’ verses that which is ’impossible’ is markedly canted toward the ‘impossible’, leaving me facing a life bereft of everything except a handful of the most limited ‘possibilities’. Worse yet, this determination has come to comprehensively define all of life as I know it, leaving me nothing bigger than myself. I have categorized the whole of life as falling within the limits that limit me, assuming these are limits for everything that exists, or ever will exist, or ever could exist. And in that sense, I have dramatically drawn down life into some minute rubric that is but the slightest fraction of what life really is. Indeed, I am backwards. God’s Reversal We reject God because He is not backwards. He comes to us asking us to move forward, which we, by virtue of our shallow determinations about how life works, see as backwards. And we stand there wondering why we would be asked to do something so utterly preposterous as moving backwards. In fact, what God calls forward we call impossible, or improbable, or ridiculous, or naïve, or fanciful, or ignorant, or any number of other explanations that really do more to explain how backwards we really are. Reversals History is littered with God’s reversals. Leprosy was healed when the person should have been consumed by it and died. Bodies of water were split in two when they should have been completely impassible. Food to feed literal thousands was secured from nothing more than a few small fish and a handful of leftover loaves of bread. Massive armies were evaporated without so much as a shot being fired. Dead teenagers were raised to life instead of being dropped in a hole. Paralytic limbs were straightened and people walked away when they should have crawled away. That stuff is all backwards. The Grand Reversal of Easter Then there is the grand reversal of Easter. It began with an execution reversed, whereby He who was innocent was brutally executed by those who were guilty. It was an inhumane execution turned into ingenious sacrifice, whereby an end for one man turned into a beginning for all men. It was a devout religious leader who should have cast his vote against this man, who instead carried this man’s body into his own tomb. Three days later it was an empty tomb when it should have not have been, leaving a dead man walking which is a reversal of the most astounding sort. It was a group of terrified disciples keeping their heads down while crawling back to their old lives, now standing directly in front of the man they watched lose His. It was all backwards. These were all uncategorically opposite of what should have been. If we apply the realities of the existence within which each of us are forced to live, these things and so many more were and are completely backwards. They were completely opposite of how it all should work. They simply did not and do not fit into how we have conceptualized the realities of the existence within which we are forced to operate, and how we have concurrently determined the permanently fixed limitations that define our humanity. They are backwards. Going Forward To fix this conundrum, might we say that to go forward we must indeed be willing to go backwards. And I suppose the best way to do that is to switch the two of these in our minds by reversing our perception of how this existence actually operates. And we cannot do that unless we include God, for God is the single and sole thing that reverses the limits of our humanity by quite literally obliterating those limits with His limitlessness. Therefore, we must comprehensively trade who we are for what He is, and in the trading trade off everything of us in the exchange. We must understand that it is not our limits that define our existence at all, although we have foolishly surrendered to that terribly myopic idea. Rather, it is God’s power and nature that define it. We must understand or at least accept the immense, radical and in many cases incomprehensible difference between who we are and who God is. And out of that understanding we must willingly trade our limitations for God’s limitlessness. Indeed, that alone will abruptly turn things around. When we do that, backward becomes forward. And when that happens we will have cut the chains that we’ve slapped on life, we will have blown out the boundaries that we thought defined us, the ‘possible’ verses that which is ’impossible’ now becomes wholly canted toward the ‘possible’, and the horizons that we had tightly fixed on our lives suddenly blow out to horizons that are horizon-less. Standing in the gaping space now created, we suddenly start to understand that dreams are more than hopeful fantasies that our minds toy with, rather they become realities that life is changed with. That a vision for something better can move from ‘nice idea’ to ‘transforming ideal’. That hope is not some thin thing that is subject to the winds of fate, but it is crafted hard by the hands of God. That the end of ourselves is where God begins. That the fear of failure is slain cold by success already hot on the way. That a looming mountain is nothing more than a road in disguise, and that the impossible is not an obstacle but an invitation. Message Delivered All of this and more happens when we refuse to continue to go backwards. All of this and more is the true forward. This is the incessant and unrelenting message of God throughout history. And it is a message hand delivered by God’s Son Jesus with potent impact at Easter. It is a message for anyone who will hear it. It is the single and sole message that can turn us from backward to forward. Therefore, be assured that the direction of our lives and the outcome of our existence will hinge on what we do with this single message. Oh yes, I am backwards, but no longer. How about you? Find additional Easter resources on our website at www.craiglpc.com . Enjoy all of our daily posts on Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, X, and Instagram.…
LifeTalk's "Thought for Life" is a weekly one-minute thought that touches on one of today's pressing issues. Each of these brief presentations is centered on one of Craig's personal quotes. All of his quotes are specifically written to challenge, inform, and inspire. Today's thought is: “Disabling your conscience is like disabling your smoke detector. It doesn’t stop a fire. It just leaves you ignorant of the fact that there is one.” Follow all of Craig's daily quotes on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Linkedin and Instagram.…
Defined By the Culture "Taking It to Our Knees - Declaring Who I Am “When they ridicule me and tell me that my need to do the ‘right thing’ is embedded in an overweening insecurity about doing the ‘wrong thing,’ I quickly inform them of three things. First, I inform them that it is nothing of a need born of fear, but everything of a choice born of conviction. Second, that it is nothing of insecurity, but it is everything of a strength that is sturdy and amply sufficient to field the most caustic of criticisms cast against it. And third, that this strength is far more potent than the pathetic weakness out of which their criticisms arise.” Craig D. Lounsbrough Rubrics and More Rubrics The culture is full of rubrics. Really cheaply crafted rubrics. These rubrics are defined by what’s loosely determined to be vogue, trendy, politically correct, in lock-step with progressive thought, and anointed by whoever’s doing the anointing at any particular time. These rubrics are always shifting, ill-defined, and possess a shelf-life that’s about as short as the attention span of those who dreamt them up. These rubrics are typically granted a sense of rightness and correctness without any evaluation as to either. They’re viewed as defining the current state of societal evolution as it supposedly trends toward a more enlightened society. These rubrics become the template by which groups and individuals are evaluated as to whether they are cooperating with this progressive evolution or whether they are not. If it’s determined that they are not, they are assigned any number of derogatory labels. These are typically categorized into a variety of negative stereotypes that are held as defining the persons that they’re labeling. The Cost of Not Fitting In Therefore, the cost of not ‘fitting in’ becomes incrementally greater the more that we deviate from the vogue, trendy, politically correct, progressive thought that’s forced upon us. The greater our divergence the greater the cost. This creates a dilemma of identity. Do we borrow the ever-shifting identity of the culture, or do we press the culture aside sufficiently enough to determine who we are as a unique individual existing within the larger culture? Do we allow any of the elements within our culture tell us who we are, such as our families, our communities, our jobs, the accepted cultural mantras, or the organizations to which we belong? The demand for adherence is incessant, pressing, and coercive. The culture struggles knowing what to do with people who refuse to embrace the cultural narrative. It doesn’t mesh well, or it’s considered blatantly adversarial. It’s messy and irritating to those who are incessantly beating the drums of lesser cultural agendas. Therefore, the pressure to conform is intense. The more that we reject what our culture demands that we be, the more alienation we experience. We are subjected to punitive measures and pressed further and further outside the mainstream culture. Who Will We Choose to Be? The culture can’t define you. It doesn’t have that kind of power and it certainly doesn’t possess any such privilege. People and organizations and the larger culture can say any number of things about you. They can criticize you, make declarations about you, label you in any number of ways, or stereotype you in order to force-fit you into their agendas or force-fit you right out of the culture. Yet, you are none of these things. Criticisms, declarations, labels, and stereotypes are far too small to express the fullness of your humanity. These are weak definitions of something far too big to define. Yet if we bend to them, they leave us living out a pasty-thin identity that is a horrific exploitation of who we actually are. Who We Are No element of our culture can define you. No culture possesses the capacity to do that. No part of the culture has the depth to define the depth within us. The culture doesn’t define us because it can’t. The fact is, it can’t even define itself. We are defined by something far greater than the culture. Something that outlasts and outlives any culture. We are defined by the God Who created us. Nothing can define us except that which determined what our definition was to be. Nothing else understands the whole of us except that which created the whole of us. Nothing else understands the intricacies, the nuances, and the ingenuity of a design that lays leagues beyond the intellect of any man or collection of men. Breaking Away The culture has made many demands of us. Many messages have been sent to us. Many characterizations have been made. Labels have been assigned. Definitions have been plastered all over us. Traits ascribed and values determined. And all of this will continue. Yet, none of these define you. None of them can. None of them ever had. Therefore, don’t grant them power to do what they cannot. Yet, over time we have carried these definitions. And as we have carried them we begin to act on them. When we act on some belief we are likely to get results that mirror the belief upon which we acted. Therefore, if we act on the things that the culture has defined us as being, the results are likely to confirm that we are those things. Thirty-One Things God Says You Are Yet, you are none of these. You can’t be. You won’t be. And you can’t be because you are far too vast to be fully defined by any one of them or any assorted collection of them. Only God can define who you are. He’s got the blueprint. The only thing that the culture’s got is a few errant scribbles on an illegible scrap of paper that they can’t find half the time. Only God knows you from the best of yourself to the worst of yourself. And this God is calling you to your authentic self. Taking It to Our Knees You will find thirty-one of God’s “I Am” statements outlined in my book, “Taking It to Our Knees – Declaring Who I Am.” This book is a fresh, entirely thought-provoking, and richly insightful thirty-one day devotional that will assist you in both discovering and living out your real self. You will find “Taking It to Our Knees – Declaring Who I Am” on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or wherever books are sold. Thanks for joining us on LifeTalk today. You will find LifeTalk on most podcast platforms as well as YouTube. I would also encourage you to check out our daily posts on all of our Social Media sites.…
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