Tyra Garlington | Tyra Garlington

What’s in a movie?

Posted on December 21, 2016 by Tyra Garlington • 0 Comments

Some messages are worth repeating. This is one. There are enough Christmas-themed movies to watch one a day for months leading up to Christmas! What is your favorite? It’s a Wonderful Life consistently ranks among the top contenders for Best Christmas Movie Ever, and today you are invited to journey to Bedford Falls and discover the faith lessons found in It’s a Wonderful Life. When George Bailey sidles up to Martini’s Bar on Christmas Eve, he’s at the lowest point of his life. In the span of only a few hours, he has: (a) learned that the Bailey Building and……
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All I want for Christmas

Posted on December 7, 2016 by Tyra Garlington • 0 Comments

It seems everyone is talking about Christmas and gifts and sales. Children are making lists of all the things they want. They know that Santa is on his way with all kinds of toys and goodies. Parents are working hard to help Santa make all their dreams come true. It is also a time of parties and pageants, lights, and laughter. T’is the season to be jolly at all costs! And the costs seem to be getting higher and higher. At this writing, there are 24 more days to get it done. For Christians, there is also another reason for the season.……
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With all due respect, ” I can’t want to!”

Posted on December 1, 2016 by Tyra Garlington • 0 Comments

For some, this is the best of times. For others, it feels like the worst of times. For the wise, it is one season in the course of history. For others, it feels like an impending eternity of uncertainty. Words such as ‘us’ and ‘them,’ no longer describe diversity, but decree exclusion. Anger has become the overcoat that keeps our raw fear warm. Isabel Wilkerson, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, National Humanities Medal winner for her book, The Warmth of Other Suns, and a woman of color, offers a more graceful description of our country’s current environment in an interview with Krista……
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How often do you use the power of “Thank You”?

Posted on November 23, 2016 by Tyra Garlington • 0 Comments

Yep, it’s here. The day we intentionally celebrate family, food, and football. Thanksgiving! It’s also the day the Christmas shopping “deals” seriously begin with “Black Friday,” which now actually begins Thanksgiving day. Historically speaking, in 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. For more than two centuries, days of thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states. It wasn’t until 1863, during the Civil War, that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November. Biblically speaking,……
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The act of showing up

Posted on November 17, 2016 by Tyra Garlington • 0 Comments

While I was away, I searched for, found, listen to, shared with and internalized new wisdom from those who are walking a similar or parallel path as me. Most importantly, was the affirmation that this walk is a process and not an event. Today I want to share some words of wisdom from Mollie Ah Singh based on her historical field trip in South Africa. “I like watching people “people watch.” I guess you could call me a people watcher of people watchers. People are reuniting with full force hugs, an elderly couple holding hands, the hysterical laughter of two……
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The power of words

Posted on November 10, 2016 by Tyra Garlington • 0 Comments

The following wisdom was put forth in a video I watched when Dave Chappelle sat with Maya Angelou. It was poetry. “Words are things. You must be careful, careful about calling people out of their names, using racial pejoratives and sexual pejoratives and all that ignorance. Don’t do that. Someday we’ll be able to measure the power of words. I think they are things. They get on the walls. They get in your wallpaper. They get in your rugs, in your upholstery, and your clothes, and finally into you.”[1] “Maya Angelou spoke this truth, and it resonated with me. Resonated……
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When society and reality clash

Posted on November 2, 2016 by Tyra Garlington • 0 Comments

Let me start by saying I am blessed! For most of my life, I have had everything I needed and a lot of what I wanted. However, there have been seasons when I was homeless, unemployed and critically ill. Even in those times, I was aware that God’s grace was ever present in my life. Those seasons were also opportunities to review, renew, adjust and reposition my perspective. My commitment to serve began to increase. In doing so, I learned to look behind the words that judge and images that redirect. And I found hope. Consider the story that follows.……
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Let our life speak for itself

Posted on October 25, 2016 by Tyra Garlington • 0 Comments

This week I am sharing another pearl of wisdom I picked up while I was away. It comes through the pen of author Parker, J. Palmer in his book, Let your life Speak. It is a moving meditation on the question, “Is the life I am living the same as the life that wants to live in me?” “We arrive in this world with birthright gifts – then we spend the first half of our lives admonishing them or letting others disabuse us of them. As young people, we are surrounded by expectations that may have little we to do……
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Everyone has a soul story

Posted on October 18, 2016 by Tyra Garlington • 0 Comments

While I was away, I spent time reading, listening to, and watching people whose journeys and messages resonated with me. It was uplifting and affirming. However, the power of their stories is minimized if I don’t share them with you. Here is one from Caroline Myss, the author, and internationally acclaimed wellness speaker. She has devoted her career to studying why people don’t heal. What she has come to realize, she says, is that ‘the instrument to heal is the soul.’ She asks each of us this question: “Have you ever wondered why it’s so hard to move on from past……
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Did you miss me?

Posted on October 11, 2016 by Tyra Garlington • 0 Comments

I had to go away for a while. I was losing focus. I was listening to the voice of numbers. The number of “likes,” “comments,” and “shares” became the main objective of my blog. I wanted lots; I wanted more. I had forgotten why I do what I do. Shame on me! It took me a while to recognize and say, “Yes” to God’s purpose for me. And when I finally did, my tears dried, my burdens were unloaded, and my joy was restored. I walked out of my lonely wilderness and into my worthiness. However, the critical success factor……
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