https://youtu.be/wcp65nDQBo8

Higher Love :: sung by Whitney Houston (1990), remixed by Kygo (2019), written by Steve Winwood & Will Jennings (1986)

Think about it

There must be a higher love

Down in the heart or hidden in the stars above

Without it

Life is wasted time

Look inside your heart and I’ll look inside mine

Preach, Whitney!

Who else loves some Whitney?

Who else needs a higher love?

I believe we all do, and that it is ours if we ask for it and seek it out. There is a love in this world beyond what we can even fathom, but sometimes I can feel it. I feel it when I look at layer upon layer of petals in a flower, or into the eyes of a shy middle school kid who just wants to fit in (or for someone to please notice them). I feel it when I hear a group of people singing or playing instruments together, and when I receive a genuine, understanding smile or hug from a trusted friend. I feel it when I see snow falling in the street light against the night sky, or at a bright blue one wearing magical clouds and colors of the sunset. Often against my will, tears fill my eyes when I feel this higher love made physical in the ordinary miracles of my normal days. I know that this higher love really is in both the stars above and in our hearts.

I also know we are all just as imperfect as Whitney was, in our own ways, but I hope we can try to be vessels of a higher love and pass it on to and through one another as we go about our days. We may not have an overwhelmingly beautiful vocal range, but we all have something wonderful to contribute.

Happy Friday, everyone! 💙🖤

(Now try not to get sucked down a Whitney rabbit hole on YouTube. I was just taken back to my middle school years when I was obsessed with The Body Guard Soundtrack…yeah, I had the cassette tape.)

Meaghan

Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it. – George Halas

We tell the kids all the time to do their best.

To decide that they are going to be the kind of person who does their best even when it’s not fun or easy.

As adults, we seem to struggle with this.

We get distracted into trying a million things and not giving our best to just a few.

We convince ourselves we’ll do our best tomorrow.

We decide (wisely we think) that this or that isn’t worth trying so hard.

Maybe I’m using we a little too much here…those are all things that I do to myself. You’re probably better at this than me.

Either way – it’s worth it to be the kind of person who does their best even when it’s not fun or easy.

Make it a great day.

Jake

One of the good things about having a high schooler in track is that we get to travel all over Central IL in the family truckster.

Last night on the way home, there was a beautiful sunset and we got to see a few farmers out working late to get the ground ready for planting.

Every year I’m reminded on how much faith it takes to be a farmer.

You have to have faith in the seed, soil, rain, sunshine, weather, etc.

It could all get ruined in a tornado or hailed on or eaten by bugs or too hot or too cold or too wet or too dry. So many things could go wrong.

But overall, most of the time, if you put the in effort to try to do things the right way, there’s a harvest in the fall.

That’s true of a lot of our lives.

You don’t get tomorrow from exercising today.

You don’t get wealthy today by saving a few pennies.

You don’t build a great marriage by going a great date tonight.

The important values of life must be cultivated, with faith that it will all turn out in the end.

It doesn’t always work out (and almost always takes longer than we’d like), but it probably will.

Make it a great day.

Jake

We must not allow other people’s limited perceptions to define us. – Virginia Satir

How we define ourselves matters.

What we choose to believe about ourselves determines our direction.

The story we tell ourselves about our worth and value shapes our perception of the world around us and our place in it.

We can fall into the trap of limiting ourselves by buying into other people’s limited perceptions of ourselves. We can also fall into the trap of limiting ourselves by buying into the idea that we can determine our own value and worth.

I don’t believe we do.

I believe we’ve all been given worth by our creator and that our direction should be aimed at moving closer and closer to Him. And in so doing we will be moving towards His limitless perception of us.

Make it a great day.

Jake

What is a soul? It’s like electricity – we don’t really know what it is, but it’s a force that can light a room. – Ray Charles

Goal for the week – be the kind of person who lights up the room.

When you enter a room – do people feel better or worse?

When you interact with someone – do they leave feeling uplifted or down?

When you get off a phone call – is that person having a better day or a worse day?

Make it a great day.

Jake

A baby is born with a need to be loved – and never outgrows it. – Frank A. Clark

This quote popped up on a site I was on today so I couldn’t resist sending it out again.

This is one of my favorite quotes. As I get older it rings more and more true.

So many of our idiosyncrasies as people come back to a desire to be loved.

We were born with it and never outgrow it.

Our job is to gently nudge ourselves to be more loving to others around us and to gently nudge ourselves to more lovable behavior.

To be the one to take the risk and love first.

To serve and live with love.

Make it a great day.

Jake

It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow. – Robert H. Goddard

So much of how we live today would have seemed impossible just a generation ago.

All of that started as a dream of yesterday but became our reality.

Because someone dared to act on their dreams.

They dared to try to make the world a better place.

It’s easy to see in the big stuff – the technology and big changes.

For most of us though it is the little stuff that we should be working on.

Working on a better marriage.

Working on becoming a better teammate.

Working on being a better parent.

The little stuff is worth dreaming about and working on.

Make it a great day.

Jake

O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind? Percy Bysshe Shelley

Springtime in Illinois means lots of wind. If the forecast is a warm day – that also usually means wind.

The warmth and change of season is generally brought in on the wind.

Life is full of changing winds.

Our health ebbs and flows over time.

Relationships and people grow closer at times and apart at times.

Pay attention to the wind.

Which way are things heading?

Anything important that needs taken in before the wind does some damage?

Make it a great day.

Jake

“Either you run the day or the day runs you.” – Jim Rohn

This one can be a bit of a tough pill to swallow.

To accept responsibility for the days that get out of control and seem too busy.

It’s easier to make excuses and to think that we are a special kind of busy. The kind that can’t be figured out or managed.

This is an email about how I have this figured and “if you’d just send me $29.95 I’ll tell you all my secrets”. I don’t. And you shouldn’t.

But I can tell you that optimizing your day is a worthwhile pursuit.

That a day lived on purpose and with purpose is better than “another day that got away from me”.

What could do today to get a little better handle on your day?

What could you prep tonight to have a better day tomorrow?

What could you say no to today to free up some time in the future?

Make it a great day.

Jake

God loves each of us as if there were only one of us. – Saint Augustine

Easter was yesterday. Easter is the “big day” of the Christian faith. The day when Christians are reminded of the core focal point of their faith.

The Saint Augustine quote above reminded me of this core focal point. That God loved each of us enough to send his son to die on the cross.

Whether you are a Christian or not, there is also a life lesson in there. And this quote spells it out.

Love and serve others as if they were the only one.

Search today for an opportunity to serve someone else as if they were the only one.

Make it a great day.

Jake