Greetings! I hope you had a great week and are ready for a fun-filled weekend. I also pray your life is filled with joy, peace, love, and happiness. Recently, we held a leadership retreat, evaluating what we accomplished over the last year and planning for the future. I enjoyed spending time with the team. I am so fortunate to work with such a wonderful group of professionals. I am also honored to lead our team members across Southern California.

We are getting ready to celebrate Independence Day, July 4th, here in the United States and decided to recognize this holiday and Juneteenth this weekend also. Why? We didn't do it last weekend, and for some, it is considered a significant Independence Day.

I hope you had a great week. It's been great and busy on my end and I have loved every minute. Do you feel it? Do you feel the energy in the air? I do. Last weekend, I got to spend time with my family in San Diego. We sat outside for brunch and laughed and talked, watching people and simply enjoyed life. As I contemplated last weekend, I can't help but reflect on two words: optimism and happiness.

"This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it!" I choose joy! That's my story, and I am sticking to it. A lot has happened over the last month. So many changes, challenges, yet through it all, our God has remained faithful. I think of the song, "I can see clearly now, the rain has gone..." because so much has been cleared up, and we are on a smoother path. We have closed out the old and have begun to start fresh with a new perspective. Lately, I have had to remind myself...

I pray you end this week on a bright note! Also, I wish you joy as you enter the weekend. I don't know where this week went, but it flew by for me. I was in the office on Thursday, thinking it was Wednesday, and realizing the weekend was almost here. I thought to myself, "I am so glad tomorrow is Friday!" Okay, don't act like you don't feel the same.

Is it summertime yet? It sure feels like it here. I missed you all this past week, but I will be back in the office on Monday and ready to get busy again. Soon, many of you will begin to take some time off to spend with family, or you may want to get away to yourself. Whatever you have planned for this summer, I hope you have a splendid time. It is so great to be able to travel again. After a year of not going anywhere, I look forward to several getaways this year. I wish the same...

I pray that today finds you well and that your week was happy and productive. The week has been both exhilarating and exhausting. I hope it's been mostly the former for you. However, if you had a stressful week, try to do something fun this weekend. Go out, enjoy the sunshine, look for beauty around you, and just refuse to allow anything or anyone steal your joy.

Each day I am reminded why the Bible tells us to pray constantly. Prayer isn't some magical thing; it is powerful. My grandmother used to say, "Prayer moves the hand of God." I am old enough to have experienced this myself for sure. Prayer, indeed, changes things, but more than that, prayer changes us. Being in a state of constant prayer keeps us from other less productive things like judging others, criticizing ourselves, and living in a state of fear and insecurity.

I hope you had a wonderful week, and here's to a beautiful and hopefully warm weekend. Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers also. I pray God's blessings overtake you and your families. I came across a site recently that spoke to me. I won't go into all that I read on that site, but I would like to share a few main thoughts from the author regarding God-given Purpose. I shared what I will share here in this week's past Monday morning devotion with the office staff. The author is Heather Caliri and she provided what she believes can...

Well, here we are at the end of another month. I cannot believe we are already entering the month of May! I don't think I even experienced April. In fact, in my mind, we just entered the new year, yet here we are almost mid-way through it. It's spring and simply beautiful outside. You can hear the birds chirping and the movement of people all around. I love spring and summer. If it were left up to me, that's what we would experience all the time. Fortunately, living in California is pretty close to having them both year-round.