Finding new warmth in the same cold winter
If I hear one more person complain about how cold it is…I am probably going to snap.
Okay, not really. But in all honesty it does bother me when I hear someone complain about the cold—especially if they work in an office. I mean, there is a whole sector of people who, you know, work outside for a living.
And don't even get me started if you've just come back from a vacation and are having a hard time adjusting to -40 with the wind chill after a week of beaches and palm trees. Just stop right now.
I like to think we Prairie folk take the practice of "longsuffering" seriously. I mean, who would choose to live here, unless they had a tremendous amount of character? Not to say that you can't have character if you live on the West Coast, or if you own "snowbird" property in Arizona—we just have more...character, that is. (Kidding!)
All joking aside, there is something I admire about people who take the call to "long-suffering" seriously—the kind of folks who stick it out through thick and thin.
The faithful saints who give their time, service and finances to a dying church on its last legs, who stay when others have long departed.
The types of people who give to a cause they believe in—not just one that offers a "good return on investment."
Those are the kinds of folks I love. And those are the kinds of folks I love writing for.
It's a bit of a stretch to call what I do an exercise in longsuffering. After all, I just told you that I love what I do. It's always something new, and it's full of variety—lots of interesting people to meet and great stories to tell. It's provided me with a good opportunity to use the gifts that God has given me, and to take care of my family while I do it. All things considered, I've got a lot to be thankful for.
But at the same time, as much as the faces and stories may change, the song (and situation) remains the same. We still find ourselves trying to put a dollar amount on our value as a product, a publication and a ministry. How do we get donations up? How do we get our numbers up? How do we make our ad space more valuable? It can be frustrating to work through the same, long-standing challenges month after month.
One great thing we do have are readers like you. Yes, you! Those who peruse our pages and share our stories with friends and families, who 'like' our articles on Facebook and 'follow' us on Twitter.
You are doing that, aren't you?
We love sharing these stories and we hope to do it for a long time. But what we love even more is when you share our stories with others. Things like 'Likes' and 'Re-Tweets' help us do that. While we are certainly thankful for generous donations, passing the stories on, visiting our website, leaving comments, or signing up a friend for a subscription are also real ways to add value what we're doing.
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