Judge Not Lest You Be Blind

Beth Vogtchoices, encouragement, grace, hope, kindness, Life, Love, mental health, perspective, Quotes, Reality, Relationships, sports, story, stress 15 Comments

@bethvogt Sometimes we just don’t know. That’s my takeaway from all the news swirling around Simone Biles. Sometimes we just don’t know the entire story and we need to be okay with that. Simon Biles is an American Olympic gymnast. The GOAT — the Greatest Of All Time. People love her. Love her story. She’s a gymnastics powerhouse and when …

Leaning Into Grace As Life Goes On

Beth Vogtacceptance, challenges, change, choices, expectations, Faith, family, grace, health, hope, Life, perseverance, perspective, Quotes, sports, stress 10 Comments

@bethvogt My youngest daughter Christa is having ankle surgery today. Surgery and rehabbing her ankle were not part of her original plan for the summer. I talked about how her Plan A fell apart in my blog post “Why Can We Be Hopeful When Our Plans Fall Apart?” Christa got through the last weeks of her spring semester at Bethel …

Who Do You Think You Are?

Beth Vogtacceptance, Beth K. Vogt, bravery, challenges, change, childhood, choices, confidence, courage, dreams, family, Identity, In Others' Words, Life, lifequotes, perspective, Quotes, sports, strength, success 8 Comments

Learning to Value Ourselves More by @bethvogt   I didn’t participate in school sports. Oh, sure, I played the required PE activities where you wait to get picked for a team, hoping you’re not last. And I remember the games of kickball and dodgeball during recess in elementary school – back when schools allowed kids to play dodgeball. Kicking a …

In Others’ Words: Playing as a Team

Beth VogtIn Others' Words, perspective, Quotes, sports 6 Comments

  I spend a lot of hours watching volleyball players on the court — most often through my camera lens. It’s a long, heavy lens that I invested in just for shooting indoor sports. But I digress. Funny thing about photographing a volleyball team: I focus on the individual players more than I do the team. Where is the setter …

In Others’ Words: Fail Forward

Beth VogtIn Others' Words, Quotes, success 5 Comments

I like it when successful people talk about their failures. Take, for example, when another writer shares how many times their manuscript was rejected before they landed a contract. (The Help by Kathryn Stockett was rejected 60 times.) Or when a pro athlete shares his struggles. (6’7″ NBA pro Paul Pierce was cut from the varsity team in high school …

In Others’ Words: Win or Lose … Like It!

Beth Vogtcompetition, In Others' Words, Quotes 16 Comments

  I’ve seen poor losers … and I’ve seen poor winners, too. I’m not impressed when people sulk when they lose a game. I feel bad for a team when their coach is a poor loser and yells at them … or worse, walks away from them. I also don’t respect poor winners. You know what I mean: those people …

In Others’ Words: Active Patience

Beth VogtIn Others' Words, perspective, Quotes 6 Comments

hey I spent part of Sunday evening at the Olympic Training Center watching the awards ceremony for the NORCECA Men’s Continental Championship, where the U.S.A. Men’s Volleyball took the gold medal. Imagine my surprise when I discovered the upper part of the gymnasium wall decorated with quotes. QUOTES. While we waited for the ceremony to start, I alternated between taking …

In Others’ Words: The Unique Power of Attitude

Beth Vogtcompetition, In Others' Words, Quotes 4 Comments

Attitude. Attitude. Attitude. Our attitude takes us a long way in athletic competition, doesn’t it? Our attitude takes us a long way in life, too — which is a certain type of competition, when you think about it.  If you’ve been part of the ongoing conversation on this blog for a while, you know I wasn’t much of an athlete growing …

In Others’ Words: The purpose of defeat and victory

Beth VogtIn Others' Words, lifequotes, perspective 10 Comments

We’re gearing up for volleyball season in the Vogt household — and the season lasts a long, long time. There’s the school volleyball season, which runs right into the club volleyball season … and that ends about the same time as the school year ends. Yeah. And then this summer? You got it. More volleyball. I’ve learned so much watching my …