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Category: Monday Morning Boost

Monday Morning Boost: Remembering the Kings and Queens of Our Family

Monday Morning Boost: Remembering the Kings and Queens of Our Family

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It’s good to have days where we can remember family and friends who have passed away. Today I am remembering my mother, Carolyn Shirley Christiansen Patterson. The picture above is my mom and dad holding me when I was just a baby. Mom would have turned 71 on October 12th. But I’m betting, she would still look like she was 59! That’s how old Mom was when she passed away. A lifetime of living with Rheumatoid Arthritis took a heavy toll…

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Monday Morning Boost: Thanks Julia For Seeing Our Potential

Monday Morning Boost: Thanks Julia For Seeing Our Potential

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What’s a mother to do when her first baby girl falls in love with the kid on the other side of the tracks and decides to get married on their second date? Worry and wonder what exactly her daughter is thinking! Such was the dilemma my now mother-in-law Julia faced when Elisa came home after our second date and announced we were engaged. It wasn’t so much that I grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, though the…

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Monday Morning Boost: Belgian Synergy

Monday Morning Boost: Belgian Synergy

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The Belgian Draft Horse is one of the world’s strongest horses capable of pulling four times its own weight. The Belgian has pulled wagons, plows and even machinery of war. Dave Ramsey’s, in his book EntreLeadership, shared this insight into “Power of Synergy.” “One of the largest, strongest horses in the world is the Belgian draft horse. Competitions are held to see which horse can pull the most, and one Belgian can pull eight thousand pounds. The weird thing is…

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Monday Morning Boost: A Boost for Young Fathers

Monday Morning Boost: A Boost for Young Fathers

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A friend of mine, Alex Stoddard, recently asked if I had a Monday Morning Boost for young fathers trying to get their career going and what it was like when I was starting out. I didn’t have a Monday Morning Boost for this young father. At least not specifically. So I wrote this one. PROVIDING & NURTURING I hardly slept when I was a young father. At least that’s what it felt like. I look back 20 to 25 years…

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Monday Morning Boost: Labeling Assumptions

Monday Morning Boost: Labeling Assumptions

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It’s very easy to be labeled. When one walks outside the lines of that which their culture or society considers normal, correct, true, right, etc., the person is then viewed by the collective, not as a person, but as the applied label. This probably isn’t a surprise to anyone. We label people every day. By their race, sexual orientation, political party and religious affiliation. We label people by health condition, economic status, even past behavior. We label people by what they do…

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Monday Morning Boost: How did 9/11 change your life?

Monday Morning Boost: How did 9/11 change your life?

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How has your life changed because of the events of 9/11? That was 16 years ago. Some of you weren’t old enough to remember that day. Others have since married, started families, changed careers, or moved homes. Life has moved forward, as it should. While today we are concerned for those impacted by hurricanes, fires, and earthquakes, including some who are regular readers of the Monday Morning Boost, I hope we can also pause for a moment of reflection. Perhaps you’ll…

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Monday Morning Boost: The Labor of Rescuing

Monday Morning Boost: The Labor of Rescuing

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The primary mission of the National Guard is to provide aid at home “in time of domestic emergencies or need.” It’s easy to overlook this mission with all the combat deployments over since 2001. Blackhawk helicopter rescue crews from the Utah Army National Guard are already in Texas helping out. More Utah soldiers will most likely be called up to help as well. When National Guard or Reserve Component military personnel are called to duty, they often have very little…

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Monday Morning Boost: Nourishing Grandma’s Tree

Monday Morning Boost: Nourishing Grandma’s Tree

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My mother came to mind over the weekend as I remembered a tree we planted the year she passed away. We called it Grandma’s Tree. It was a little tree, barely as tall as my six feet, and not that thick. Unfortunately, it only survived a couple of years before a windstorm sheared it in half. The half-size shard of a tree remained in our yard for a season before we were able to totally remove it. The empty spot always seemed more…

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Monday Morning Boost: Mission First ~ People Always

Monday Morning Boost: Mission First ~ People Always

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I lowered my American flag to half-mast the morning after Utah National Guard Soldier Staff Sergeant Aaron Butler was killed in Afghanistan. Butler was killed leading a 12 man team clearing a building when it exploded. The booby trap also wounded the other 11 team members, each one also a soldier with the Utah National Guard. I spent nearly 24 years with the Utah Army National Guard. Serving my country in uniform will always be one of the greatest honors…

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Monday Morning Boost: Maybe “we’re all guilty”

Monday Morning Boost: Maybe “we’re all guilty”

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In June of 1964, three civil rights workers were murdered by the KKK in Neshoba County, Mississippi, during the Civil Rights Movement. The three young men, Andrew Goodman and Michael “Mickey” Schwerner from New York City, and James Chaney from Meridian, Mississippi, had been working with the “Freedom Summer Campaign” attempting to register African Americans in Mississippi to vote. Forty-one years later, in 2005, Edgar Ray Killen was charged and eventually convicted for his part in the crimes. “MISSISSIPPI BURNING”…

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