wise words…

“There is no peace without hope.  No hope without liberty.  No liberty without integrity.  No integrity without virtue.  No virtue without enlightenment.  No enlightenment without truth.”  ~Glenn Beck

Remember this as you go throughout your day.  Make TRUTH your main goal!

Blessings,
Em

p.s. Remember: Character matters!

Good in Hollywood?

I never thought I’d say this, but I am very impressed with Beyonce!  For those of you who haven’t heard about what happened at the VMA awards, watch this video. This is just another story that proves that there still is a lot of good going on in our country!

So why am I impressed with Beyonce?  According to Celebuzz, later on that night Beyonce’s video won Video of the Year (ironically enough).  When she rose to give her acceptance speech, this is what she said:

“Thank you. I remember being 17-years-old, up for my first MTV Award with Destiny’s Child and it was one of the most exciting moments in my life. So I’d like Taylor [Swift] to come out and have her moment.”

Taylor then was able to thank her fans.  I’ve never been very impressed with Hollywood.  They have continually drug down the morality in our society, instead of encouraging our culture and building it up.  But the respect and character that Beyonce showed was amazing and inspiring.  It was what Hollywood needs.  It makes me wish I was a fan of hers (or at least her genre of music).  I want to support her and send a message to hollywood that says “This is what I want to see more of!”  Anyone have any good recommendations of Beyonce songs/albums that would make a good buy?

My list

Yesterday I promised to look for good in my local community as my own personal act of patriotism.  This is my way of telling all America’s 9/11 heroes that the country they sacrificed for has not completely abandoned they values the died under.  I’ve decided to do this simplistically with a bulleted list.  Here is what I witnessed the past week:

America is Good

• An older-than-average student returning to college after her youngest child moved away from home.  She waited until her mothering responsibilities were over before devoting herself to her newfound dreams. 
• A friend delivering cookies to her invalid neighbor who is laid  up due to knee surgery.  After spending hours visiting, she bought more food to bring to the sick man later.
• A religious organization that I have never particularly cared for nor supported invited a “non-churched” friend I know to hang out with them.  They stayed up til 3 am playing card games, then invited her back the next day.
• A girl willing to work a small job for a family who had formerly gossiped about her “fall from grace” when she became pregnant.
• A college professor taking time to send me a detailed e-mail when I asked him a question.  His response was full of truth and he refused to skirt around his personal convictions.
• A man who puts up with confusing, complaining and questioning e-mails from myself and others, but diligently searches out very detailed answers that we are seeking despite the vast amounts of research and writing it causes him to do.  This is not his job; he likes helping people so he does this voluntarily!
• College students studying Early Childhood Education taking young kids to the local Farmer’s Market and the owner teaching those kids what the different vegetables are.
• A family willing to leave their church (and therefore their friends and comfort zone) when that church openly accepted corruption that they could not, in good conscience, be part of.  This was done despite the fact that moving churches added another 2 hour drive for this family each sunday and they have a young child.

This is a short list.  I didn’t spend many hours searching and I know that so much more good remains!  But now I want to hear from you.  What is your list?  What good have YOU seen in your community?  

Blessings,
Em

American Widow Project

I have comitted myself to looking for positive and honest things to talk about on Footsteps to balance a lot of the negative rants I go on.  Because, although I feel a need to write what I’m concerned about, the real Emily Grace isn’t as negative as she comes across in this blog.  There is a lot of heartache going on in our world, but it still is a wonderful place.  I have found something amazing to prove it. 

It is called the American Widow Project, and I’ll let this video explain what it is:

This inspires me.  This says that there are still amazing people–amazing women, in this case–who have somehow found a way to use their own tragedy and heartbreak to help others.  The American Widow Project put together the documentary that Bob Woodruff talked about in the news clip.  What did they do with it?  As their website explains…

The Film– The 75 minute the documentary gives a candid look into the stories, struggles and perseverance of 6 military widows. Everything is covered from meeting the love of their life to the knock on the door, life as a single parent, and decorating a headstone. The film is being distributed FREE of charge to all military widows and widowers as a key to the healing process.

Here is the trailer for their documentary:

May we all learn from these amazing women.
Blessings,
Emily Grace