A Sign of Hope

A Sign of Hope - pass it on

Back in January (2013), I was at the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association trustees retreat (oceangrove.org). Pastor Jonathan Miller of the Presbyterian Church in Moorestown, New Jersey spoke to us. He told us a story and gave us each these crosses. The story is a wonderful one, so i want to share it with you today for Easter.

Pastor Jonathan tells the story...
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[These crosses were] Given to me by John Snyder a few years ago, age 88, at the cemetery following the burial of his sister. He flew from New Mexico to Moorestown, NJ for the service.

He told me he believed everything I said about the resurrection, but for years he had never paid any attention to God or anything that looked like a church.

Ten years ago his best friend invited him to read the gospel of John. At first he said, “No,” but then said, “ because you are such a good friend, I’ll read it. Then after reading it … I don’t know what happened … I guess you could say I fell in love with Jesus. I am a retired carpenter and I wondered what could I do that could send along a `sign of hope’ for anyone who needed it. And so it became obvious …. I was a carpenter (like Jesus) …. Why not make a cross … lots of crosses. I’ve given them to hundreds of people and wanted you to have a supply for your ministry.”

John died last year and the stories of his faithfulness to bear witness to the resurrection are still being told.

The story is told to be passed along …

The cross is one way of extending a `sign of hope’ to those who need hope. Folk are welcome to pass the cross on and tell the story of John Snyder and of course they are welcome to keep it.
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Isn't that a great story? I was looking for a verse to go with the theme. I believe this is a good one. Do you have any suggested verses?

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13 NIV)

Keep track of all your passwords in a safer and easy manner

Through some information I found at my employer intranet, I found this great Open Source (free) program that will save your passwords in one secure "password vault" (aka "Password manager").

You can use keepass to keep your passwords on your computer or smart phone. You can even share the list of your passwords between all these things.

So, make one list of all your passwords and share the passwords between your devices!
You can even keep your passwords on a USB drive (aka "Thumb drive") and move it between computers. What a great program!

Free! Yes, Free!

Once it's installed, you enter your passwords and save them. You'll only need to remember one password to open up the list!

I find that I have passwords for my smartphone, wifi, online shopping, combination locks, banking, etc.
Now, I can use different passwords for them all and access the list at any time with my pc or my smart phone or tablet!

Try it, you'll like it!

Digital-preening / Virtual-preening: Take a Good Look at Yourself Before you Post (Personal Branding)

Today, I listened to a Presentation about Personal Branding. I've heard several other great presentations on Personal Branding too.

One thing that I realize is that we need to be careful what we post before we post it.

It reminds me of a class I took in college about body language. The professor talked to us about the concept of preening. We see preening when someone brushes or combs their hair or straightens their clothes before meeting someone or having an interview. How many times do we see someone take the time to go look in a mirror before they meet someone face to face?

We need to do this in our virtual social (digital) meetings with people too!

So, today, I am coining the term: "Digital-preening." or maybe "Virtual-preening" is a more appropriate term.

Digital-preening / Virtual-preening: We need to take a look at ourselves in the mirror before we post

Because any and every post we do in any social network might be the very first post that someone sees from us, we need to treat all of our postings the same as though we are meeting someone for the first time.

It's been said "You only have one chance to make a first impression."

Please add your comments about Personal Branding and Digital Preening and Virtual-Preening. Which term do you think is better?