K.S. Moore's Blog

With the giving season almost upon us, I have a small gift for you. Below is a list of a few of my favorite things. Some are simply gifts to the environment. Yes, like the heroine in my latest novel, The Bravest Among Us, I too have a passion for all things enviro-friendly. I hope one of these ideas sparks something in you to touch someone with a special gift this holiday season.

Candle Lighter $7.00

Electric, rechargeable, flameless. Replaces plastic butane lighters that inevitably end up in landfills.

Find it on Amazon here.

Berry Bowl $50 - $60

Great for washing fruits and veggies or for serving berries and pretty enough to leave within easy reach.

Find similar items on Etsy here.

French Butter Dish $20 - $50

French-inspired elegance. Holds a whole stick of butter. Keeps it fresh and at smooth-able room temperature.

Coincidentally, also espoused in the popular novel, One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

 Find similar items on Etsy here.

  

Foxgloves Gardening Gloves $24

Perfect for the gardener in your life. Comfortable, breathable, and machine washable. I have a pair in my front yard basket and two in my backyard basket.

Find them on the manufacturer’s site here. (Also on Amazon here.)

 

Veggie Keepers $16.80 set of 5

I first found these at my local grocery store where they were sold individually. These reusable plastic containers keep your fruits and veggies fresh, and you never forget what’s inside. Yes, they’re plastic, but for the number of plastic baggies they’ll replace, they’re definitely worth the purchase.

Find the set of five on Amazon here.

Dry Laundry Detergent Sheets $15

Who needs all of those enormous plastic jugs of laundry detergent where the main ingredient is water? Certainly not our landfills or oceans.

Find it on Amazon here.

Dry Shampoo and Conditioner Gift Set $39

Great for the frequent traveler or avid camper, and healthy for both your hair and the environment.

Find it on Amazon here.

 

 Bag Clips $5 for a bag of 16

The only ones you’ll ever buy. Made of vinyl-coated heavy gauge wire, they never break.

Find them on Amazon here.

 

AnyList App - FREE wherever you download apps.

The cool thing about this app is that you can share lists with others, so your whole family can post to the grocery list and whoever does the shopping has it all in one place. And it’s organized by categories. I also use it for travel lists (things to pack for certain types of repeat trips), flowers I plant each spring, perennials I’d like to add to my yard someday, gift ideas I think of for others, and myriad other uses. I use the free version, but an upgraded version allows you to add images and do other cool things.

What are some of your favorite things?

I would love to hear about a few. Please reply or comment on my site to share.

Have a blessed holiday, and don’t forget to touch someone!

As the Covid-19 vaccines begin to ship en masse, I want to extend my heartfelt appreciation to all of our front-line healthcare workers for their warrior hearts, for their strength, courage, and sacrifice, and for selflessly giving of themselves day after day.

Most especially, I want to thank the nurses who’ve endured long hours, extra shifts, understaffing, and uncomfortable PPEs. Not only have they provided much needed patient care but they’ve also been at patient’s bedsides providing emotional comfort in the absence of visitors. Some were forced to live apart from their families and many probably felt they were a risk to those around them.

You are all angels and your sacrifice and dedication have not gone unnoticed.

I also want to thank. . .

The doctors and ICU staff who’ve seen unprecedented deaths in the midst of the worst of the pandemic

The doctors and research scientists who diligently worked to find a cure

The lab techs who worked long hours to turn around Covid tests quickly

The restaurants who reinvented their business to provide carry-out, pick-up, and outdoor dining

Grocers, online retailers, food banks, and transportation and distribution companies who stepped up their business to meet the changing needs of consumers

Our government leaders who made tough choices with only the safety of their constituents in mind

Our educators who’ve shown incredible agility in switching back and forth between on-site and online learning and the parents who struggled right alongside them

The companies who recognized the sacrifices made by frontline workers by giving them discounts and providing free meals

The companies who switched over their production lines to manufacture much needed PPEs and ventilators

My company, Gordon Food Service, and others like them who embraced work-from-home to keep us all safe

And last but not least, I thank all of you, my friends and family and the rank and file, who followed safety guidelines, wore masks, social distanced, and gave up spending time with family and friends all for the sake of the greater good.

You’re all heroes in my heart.

In closing, I want to share this Chicago salute to healthcare workers. As the mother of a first-year nurse in the Windy City, it brought tears to my eyes to know my daughter was surrounded by so much love and appreciation.

Have you touched anyone lately?

The heroine in my current work is a woman who often stares at herself in a mirror and sees the weak and frightened little girl she once was, and yet, each time, as she searches the face in the mirror, she finds the woman God made her to be and she dons a public facade of strength and fortitude, an ever-present byproduct of her unwavering faith.

Sound familiar?

Are any of us really as confident as we try to appear?

At one point in my story, as my heroine falters, my hero tells her he admires her confidence and strong moral compass and his words lift her up, empower her, and help her to believe in herself.

Then her father-in-law compares her to the old violin in the poem The Master’s Hand and for the first time, she sees herself through the eyes of these two men, an instrument of God, a woman of courage and fortitude, a force to be reckoned with. This new perspective gives her courage. She dares to do something great, not just good—everyone can achieve “good”—but truly great. She steps out, beyond her fear, beyond her self-doubt, beyond her grief, to grasp a future bright with hope and faith and love, the things that make a life.

I hope you have people like this in your life, friends or family who bring forth your music and help you to discover your true worth. And I hope too, that you are a force in the lives of those around you.

You could be. We all should be.

Have you touched anyone lately?

Every now and then we find ourselves at a moment in time that might be considered a turning point in our own life story. I’m at that crossroads. Do I continue to write inspirational fiction for the Christian market or do I try to reach a broader audience, one that includes many who live in darkness, starved for messages of hope, faith, and goodness in a troubled world?

The thing is, Christian readers know the love of God. They already have faith and hope. They’ve found trust and healing. So if I want to reach the broken—which I do—perhaps I shouldn’t be looking among the healed.

I once cut a bouquet of flowers from my garden to give to a neighbor who was struggling with cancer. She’s a lovely woman, inside and out, one of the most live-by-faith people I’ve ever known. I asked her, “Why would God give this [sickness] to you, of all people?”

“Maybe so someone like you would bring me flowers and pray for me,” she said.

Thankfully, my neighbor recovered and as far as I know, she’s still in remission. She has since moved away, but I think of her often, pray for her nightly and remember her words. She touched my life. I’ve gotten much better over the years at reaching out to those in need.

Everything God gives us, the good and the bad, has a purpose.

I come from a broken home. I had a lonely childhood and I was a troubled teen. But maybe all of the challenges I’ve overcome, all of the blessings I’ve enjoyed, all of the personal connections I’ve made, have all led me to this one moment, where I’m called to step beyond my comfort zone, to embark on a more challenging path.

Like Esther, who found herself beloved of a king but afraid to seek his help until her cousin, Mordecai, asked, “And who knows but that you have come to your position for such a time as this?”

Or like Moses, who resisted God’s calling, citing his lack of eloquence. “Who am I to appear before the pharaoh?” he asked. But God encouraged him, gave him a staff to perform miracles and bid him take Aaron to hold him up.

A visiting missionary once said, “Think big! Because you’re worth it. God’s love is worth it.”

Who knows what we might accomplish if we simply believe in ourselves, in who God made us to be?

Are you a Moses or someone’s Aaron? Are you an Esther or someone’s Mordecai? You could be. I could be.

Have you touched anyone lately?

Have you heard the story of Two Bunk John? It’s a story in Bob Goff’s beautifully written short-story collection called Love Does. Each chapter details an event that shaped Bob’s life, and what a life!

The book has been out for a few years so maybe I'm late to the game but on the off chance you’ve not read it yet, this post is for you.

Love Does is a definite must-read.

The author, Bob Goff, sees the world from a uniquely wholesome perspective, as though God is in every moment, shaping Bob’s world, his decisions and the people around him. Sure, Bob makes choices that align with his Christ-centered philosophy but what’s awe-inspiring is how he applies his faith to every situation, even events that shaped his childhood.

It’s a norm we all could live by.

Through what he thought was a friendly joke, Bob wound up as the Counsel to the Republic of Uganda. And that was just a start. God had much more in store for Bob and Bob heeded the call. He went on to found Restore International, a non-profit now known as Love Does, to “find daring, productive and effective ways to fight the injustices committed against children” in Africa, Iraq, Nepal, Somalia, and India.

In fact, Bob said, “Yes,” often, even when he wasn’t sure, because he trusted the ask was from God.

An accomplished attorney, author, professor and international speaker, Bob lives his faith. Last year he launched the Dream Big Framework, a workshop designed to motivate people to accomplish their biggest dreams and ambitions. “There’s nothing ordinary about Bob’s dynamic approach to life” and he’s sharing his years of experience in transforming big dreams into reality through this latest endeavor.

Yeah, I want to live like that!

Thanks, Bob Goff, for inspiring us with your stories of faith, daring and trust and your example of what it means to lead a Christ-centered life.

“Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God." 

Written on the flyleaf of Bob Pierce’s Bible, those words defined the man’s life. Founder of World Vision and later Samaritan’s Purse, Pierce started out in 1947 as an ordained Baptist minister with Youth for Christ. An entrepreneurial, energetic young evangelist, he set out for adventure in China and returned with a life mission.

While in China evangelizing to American servicemen, the poverty, human suffering, and the plight of orphaned children haunted Pierce, and he vowed to mobilize conservative Christians back in the United States to meet their needs.

When asked by Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham, how to "shake people out of their complacency," Pierce once said he had "become a part of the suffering. I literally felt the child's blindness, the mother's grief. … It was all too real to me…" Pastor Richard Halvorsen wrote that Pierce "prayed more earnestly and importunely than anyone else I have ever known. It was as though prayer burned within him. Bob Pierce functioned from a broken heart."

He wasn’t a perfect man, by any means. He had a temper and often clashed with the World Vision board. He traveled as much ten months of the year. "I've made an agreement with God," he said, "that I'll take care of his helpless little lambs overseas if he'll take care of mine at home."

His devotion to his ministries to the exclusion of all else cost him dearly. In 1963, he suffered a nervous breakdown. In 1967, he resigned from World Vision over differences that left him bitter, displaced and emotionally exhausted. While on a good-bye tour of Asia, his daughter Sharon called and asked him to come home but he refused, planning instead to extend his trip to Vietnam. His wife rushed home to find Sharon had tried to commit suicide. Later that year, she tried again and succeeded.

In 1970, Pierce legally separated from his wife and in 1978 he died of leukemia.

Yet Pierce's ministry lives on—bigger than he could have imagined—in World Vision and Samaritan's Purse. His dedication and compassion still inspire others to serve the poor. 

Thank you, Bob Pierce and family, for all that you have given to the world. You have touched so many and your legacy lives on through these amazing organizations.

Have you touched anyone lately?

From the Top of the Stairs

A five-year-old girl sits at the top of the stairs, crouched above the landing where the steps turn to ascend the last few feet, listening as if her life depends on the conversation below.

It’s Sunday evening and she and her siblings have just returned home from a weekend spent with their father, in his tiny apartment with no furniture.

She hopes her mom isn’t going to yell at him again. Please, please, please, just be nice for once. More than anything, she wants Daddy to come back home, to read her a bedtime story, tuck her in, kiss her goodnight. Things her mom says she doesn’t have time for anymore. She misses him.

It became a routine, those Sunday evenings, her mom always asking him for money then yelling when it wasn’t enough.

The little girl was too young to understand the enormous strain her mother was under, a single parent struggling to raise six kids on her own with very little, if any, financial help. Her dad probably did what he could but money was tight even before he left.

She remembers the landlord threatening to put them out on the street, her mom pleading for more time. Sometimes their electricity was shut off, occasionally the heat. When she was five, she didn’t know why. She just blamed her mom for driving Daddy away. As she sat there at the top of the stairs, her pudgy hands clasped tightly over her ears against the yelling, she heard the same things over and over and eventually, the door would slam and she’d race down the steps.

“I can’t believe you yelled at him again!” she screamed, bursting into tears. “I didn’t even get to say goodbye.” Then she’d run upstairs to her room and cry herself to sleep, no bedtime story, no one to tuck her in, not even a kiss goodnight.

The little girl started kindergarten that year and in the afternoons she went next door to be looked after by a kind elderly lady, Mrs. Wyatt, who treated her daycare kids to a Bible study. Eager to learn to read, the youngster memorized Bible verses and learned very quickly, “Even when you think no one loves you, Jesus does.” It’s a lesson that has lasted her a lifetime.

The child’s hopes—that Daddy would come back to them—became prayers. Her whole life she prayed her parents would get back together, until a few years ago when her mother, bedridden with terminal cancer, moved into her father’s home, at his request, so that he could take care of her. She died there in his house.

It wasn’t exactly the answer to her prayers the now grown woman had hoped for. But it was an answer.

God bless you, Mrs. Wyatt, for being that little girl’s rock, for teaching her early on that even when she thought no one loved her, Jesus did. And for teaching her the power of prayer. Thank you for seeing the potential in her and for sharing His light that now shines on through her unique gifts. You touched her life.

Have you touched anyone lately?

What if I told you I had the secret to having an amazing day, every day?

It’s actually not a secret at all. In fact, it’s very well known, a “best seller” by all accounts. It’s called Jesus Calling and it’s a beautiful little hardcover book that provides a daily message of inspiration.  I never thought I would be so enamored of a daily devotional but this one is different. Each day is written as if Jesus himself is speaking to you personally.

This one-minute spend could change your whole outlook for the day ahead. And it’s so easy to make time for.

Mine sits on my dressing table. Every day, without fail, in between make-up and hair, I take a thirty-second break to read the day’s page. I follow that with a short prayer and then shimmer in the afterglow as I finish my morning routine, pondering the thoughts the message provokes.

The first year through—I’m on year three—I’d occasionally question, “Would You really say this to me, Jesus, if You were here?” Without fail, the answer was always a resounding yes.

Within this tiny gem of a book are some of the most beautiful and inspiring words of reassurance, comfort, and hope, words that have made me increasingly aware of His presence and allowed me to enjoy His peace. His voice feeds my soul. I feel empowered, strengthened, and armed to face whatever challenges the day ahead may hold.

The author, Sarah Young, and her husband were missionaries in Australia and Japan for many years. Her writings are personal reflections from her daily quiet time of Bible reading, prayer, and journaling. With sales of more than 17 million books worldwide, Jesus Calling has appeared on all major bestseller lists.

I can’t even imagine writing something that touches so many!

Thank you, Sarah Young, for shining your light. The world is a better place as we all strive to follow where He leads.

Have you touched anyone lately?

Born and raised in one of the toughest areas of South Detroit, Dante Jackson managed to not only graduate from high school but he made it to the ripe old age of nineteen with no criminal record. In an area where the dropout rate was once 75% and the likelihood of going to prison or college is almost equal, these were remarkable feats.

Dante credits his early success to his grandmother who raised him. She often told him—and anyone else who would listen—that he “was a good boy, a real good boy.” He tried hard to never let her down. She was the only family he’d ever known. His mother died of a drug overdose before he could walk and like many children born into extreme poverty, he never knew his father.

Dante’s life went awry in a series of heinous crimes that began with the rape of his girlfriend by her mother’s live-in boyfriend. Her mother refused to believe her and when the police didn’t either, Dante took matters into his own hands. He pounded on the door of her house. He could see the boyfriend passed out on the couch, a burned-down cigarette hanging from his limp fingers but despite Dante’s best efforts, he could not wake the man. So he left, determined to return another time to set things straight.

Later that night, police showed up at his grandmother’s apartment and arrested Dante for arson. His girlfriend’s house had burned to the ground, killing the boyfriend. More than one neighbor had seen Dante at the home earlier. Motive, means, wrong place, wrong time. Dante was convicted and sentenced to ten to twenty years in Michigan's Jackson Penitentiary.

His girlfriend visited him once in prison but the shame in her eyes was too much to bear and Dante sent her away. She deserved a better life. Unlike him, she had a future and it didn’t include waiting on a man behind bars.

Prison was a merciless place. No one cared that he was innocent. But the one invaluable gift that prison granted him was time. For Dante, it was a period of divine preparation. While incarcerated, he looked beyond his own predicament and earned two college degrees—the highest a master’s in divinity—and helped other men in prison who sought personal transformation. Paroled after eight years, he went on to get a special dispensation from the State of Michigan to teach in the Detroit Public Schools.

Today, he’s a fifth-grade teacher at Harrison Howe Elementary School, located in one of the toughest districts in the state, on Detroit’s south side. He plays basketball at the local Boys and Girls Club and on Sunday nights he leads a growing youth ministry at New Heights Baptist Church. As a teacher, youth leader and mentor, he shows young people that a better life—a Christ-centered life—is within their reach and instructs them on how to make it happen.

From the frontlines, where violence, sex, and drugs are a part of life, Dante Jackson takes an active stance against the depredations of poverty. Determined to be a difference maker, he’s devoted his life to breaking the poverty-to-prison pipeline.

Have you touched anyone lately?

Be brilliant - Every day, without fail, brighten someone's day.The power of positive thinking - Start each day with an encouraging word in the mirror. Say it out loud. It works!Surround yourself with positive people. Follow them and make them “favorites” on whatever social media you engage with. Filter out the negative ones (you don’t have to “unfriend” them).Ask, listen, care. Take the time to ask hard questions and listen, really listen, when someone shares a piece of their life with you. The caring will be automatic.Be generous to those around you, with words of encouragement, praise, and with your time.Practice humility in all things. Esteem others above yourself.Live fearless - Capture that front row seat in life. Go for it! Imagine the worst that can happen. It’s usually not so bad. And it’s almost always worth the risk.Be persistent - If the door won’t open, bang on it loud and long.Follow the 10 Second Rule which says, “just do the next thing you’re reasonably certain Jesus wants you to do. (And commit to it immediately—in the next 10 seconds—before you change your mind.)” Live it, share it. Make pre-decisions so you’ll be ready to do the right thing.Pray for others and ask others to pray for you. And never underestimate the power of prayer.