Category: Encouragement

The Joy Dare – Three Graces Found in Friends

Friendship. It’s one of God’s greatest gifts! And the Lord has blessed me with some pretty awesome friends. 🙂

I’d like to preface this entry again by saying that today I am only listing three specific gifts, but there are so, so many, from so many wonderful friends!

  1. Wedding Day Grace – My wedding day was a crazy, wonderful day that I will never forget! And one of the people who helped to make it so special was my best friend and Maid of Honor, Katherine. She was by my side the entire day, assisting me with anything that I needed. She even wrote me a note with Scripture verses that encouraged me to relax, trust in God, and enjoy this special time. The day wouldn’t have been the same without her! 😉
  2. The Grace of a Tasty Meal – My husband and I are blessed to have wonderful friends named Mike and Krystle, who have been such an encouragement to us. One of the ways they have done this is by inviting us over for a home-cooked meal on the nights before we have hand-bell choir practice! These meals have been a special time of sharing and good conversation. We look forward to this time each week!
  3. The Grace of a Faraway Friend – In an earlier blog post, I have mentioned a young girl (actually, she is almost a teenager now!), Perla, who my husband and I support through Compassion International. Perla has been such a blessing to me, as we have gotten to know each other better through letters that bridge the gap of the physical distance between us. Just knowing that she cares about me and prays for me puts a huge smile on my face!

Praise God for Graces Found in Friends! ❤

The Joy Dare – Three Gifts in the Kitchen

Today is the day I begin my Joy Dare! The praise prompt for today is: Three Gifts in the Kitchen.

First, I’d like to say that there are many gifts to be found in our kitchen. Most everything that my husband and I have in our home have been gifts from precious people. So picking only three things was difficult! But below are three gifts that stand out the most.

  1. A Dishwasher – When my husband and I first moved into our home, we did not have a dishwasher. Washing dishes is not one of my favorite things to do, so unfortunately dishes would pile up in the sink until I was able to gather the motivation to wash them. 🙂 About two years after we moved into our home, my husband’s parents were extremely gracious to not only purchase us a dishwasher, but to install it for us! This was such an incredible blessing. Now I have been able to just load, run, and empty the dishwasher instead of having to hand wash the dishes.
  2. A Cupboard – My husband’s parents were also gracious enough to provide us with a cupboard of theirs that we could use to store some of our food items. It fits perfectly into a corner in our kitchen, and it has been very useful for giving us a place to put items that we use regularly.
  3. A Counter-top and a Day of Organization – In order to install the dishwasher that my husband’s parents gave to us, my father-in-law was required to remove a section of our lower cabinets. For a while, the section of cabinet sat in a corner of our kitchen, not fully usable because it did not have a counter-top. My Mom decided to visit me one day and to help me locate and purchase a counter-top that would make the cabinet usable. She also devoted the rest of the day to helping me re-organize the items in our kitchen so that things could be located more easily. This was such a blessing!

I praise God for these Three Gifts in the Kitchen! ❤

Gold in the Rubble

A flood once washed away a poor man’s home and mill, taking with it everything he owned in the world. He stood at the scene of his great loss, brokenhearted and discouraged. Yet after the waters had subsided, he saw something shining in the riverbanks that the flood had washed bare. “It looks like gold,” he said. And it was gold. The storm that had impoverished him had made him rich. So it is oftentimes in life.

Henry Clay Trumbull

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