Tag: spirituality

Joy Dare – Three Gifts Round

Friday was a special day. My Mom came to our house to visit, and to help out with several projects that I hadn’t had the energy to work on.

Together we looked for “Three Gifts Round” for my Joy Dare Challenge. We had a fun time searching for them, and as always, God provided these blessings!

The funny thing is that all three of the gifts ended up being food items. 🙂 The first was a Dunkin’ Donuts latte, the second was a tasty dinner, and the third was a delectable cheesecake that my Mom and husband helped me to make.

  1. A Dunkin’ Donuts Latte – Before my Mom and I headed out shopping, we stopped at Dunkin’ Donuts to get some “fuel,” i.e. caffeine. She got her normal hot mocha latte, and I got the same drink, except iced. It was a very nice treat, as I hadn’t had anything from Dunkin’ in a while – and I was able to share this special gift with my Mom!
  2. A Tasty Dinner – After taking me shopping for food items to make meals, my Mom helped me to make a dinner of turkey meatloaf (with chunks of cheese inside), onion-roasted potatoes, and steamed carrots. It was delicious! My husband, Mom, and I were able to sit down to a nice meal and share some time together. Such a sweet gift! 🙂
  3. A Delectable Cheesecake – My niece and nephew had a birthday party on Saturday, and my husband wanted to make a dessert to bring with us. He found a recipe for a No-Bake Reese’s Peanut Butter Cheesecake that he just HAD to try. 😀 So my Mom helped us to purchase the ingredients and to make the dessert. It wasn’t too difficult to prepare, and it was a hit at the party! We even got to bring some of it home to enjoy later.

Praise God for Three Gifts Round! ❤

Singing in the Fire

The following story was related by Mrs. Charles Spurgeon, who suffered greatly with poor health for more than twenty-five years:

At the end of a dull and dreary day, I lay resting on my couch as the night grew darker. Although my room was bright and cozy, some of the darkness outside seemed to have entered my soul and obscured its spiritual vision. In vain I tried to see the sovereign hand that I knew held mine and that guided my fog-surrounded feet along a steep and slippery path of suffering.

With a sorrowful heart I asked, ‘Why does the Lord deal with a child of His in this way? Why does He so often send such sharp and bitter pain to visit me? Why does He allow this lingering weakness to hinder the sweet service I long to render to His poor servants?’

These impatient questions were quickly answered through a very strange language. Yet no interpreter was needed except the mindful whisper of my heart. For a while silence reigned in the little room, being broken only by the crackling of an oak log burning in the fireplace. Suddenly I heard a sweet, soft sound: a faint, yet clear, musical note, like the tender trill of a robin beneath my window.

I asked aloud, ‘What can that be? Surely no bird can be singing outside at this time of year or night.’ But again came the faint, mournful notes, so sweet and melodious, yet mysterious enough to cause us to wonder. Then my friend exclaimed, ‘It’s coming from the log on the fire!’ The fire was unshackling the imprisoned music from deep within the old oak’s heart!

Perhaps the oak had acquired this song during the days when all was well with him – when the birds sang merrily on his branches, and while the soft sunlight streaked his tender leaves with gold. But he had grown old and hard since then. Ring after ring of knotty growth had sealed up his long-forgotten melody, until the fiery tongues of the flames consumed his callousness. The intense heat of the fire wrenched from him both a song and a sacrifice at once. Then I realized: when the fires of affliction draw songs of praise from us, we are indeed purified, and our God is glorified!

Maybe some of us are like this old oak log: cold, hard, unfeeling, and never singing any melodious sounds. It is the fires burning around us that release notes of trust in God and bring cheerful compliance with His will. As I thought of this, the fire burned, and my soul found sweet comfort in the parable so strangely revealed before me.

Yes, singing in the fire! God helping us, sometimes using the only way He can to get harmony from our hard and apathetic hearts. Then, let the furnace be ‘heated seven times hotter than usual ‘ [Daniel 3:19].

~ taken from Streams in the Desert, by L.B. Cowman –  March 13th entry

Photo Credit: Jonas Nilsson Lee

Feeling Honored

I would like to thank Pastor Chris Jordan of New Life for nominating me for the Liebster Blog Award. I truly feel honored! Thank you so much for thinking of me, and I am very glad that I have been able to be a blessing to you in at least some small way. 🙂

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Here are the Rules for the Liebster Blog Award:

1. Thank and link to the person who nominated you.
2. Answer the questions given by the nominator.
3. Nominate 11 other bloggers, who have less than 200 followers and link to them.* (*Note – in some places where I have seen the Liebster Blog Award posted, they have stipulated less than 3,000 followers, and I am going with that one).
4. Create 11 new questions for the nominees to answer.
5. Notify all nominees via social media/blogs.

The following are my nominees for this award. They share their hearts in their blogs through writing and/or photography regarding their thoughts, dreams, ideas, and more. I think the thing that draws me to them the most is their openness and authenticity. I decided to pair things down a little and nominate 5 blogs and ask 5 questions. 🙂

  1. Wild Call of the Soul
  2. * Life Amplified *
  3. Pens and Journals
  4. Philos / Theo / Sophia
  5. Paths to Adventure and Praise

Questions for the nominees:

  1. What is your favorite thing to write about and/or photograph, and why?
  2. Tell us about an experience in your life that greatly affected you, in a positive way.
  3. What is a goal that you have for yourself in the next year or so?
  4. Share with us about a person in your life who has been very influential.
  5. What is a funny/interesting fact about yourself?

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Here are my answers to the questions that Chris gave to me:

  1. What motivated you to start writing or blogging? I think the biggest thing that motivated me to start blogging were the difficulties I was encountering in my life at the time, and needing to “work through them” somehow. I found that by writing about my struggles, and how those struggles related to my faith, it helped me to process what I was going through so that I could take steps forward and make positive progress.
  2. What is one of your favourite books (or authors), and why? One of my favorite books is called “Streams in the Desert,” by L.B. Cowman. It is a book of 366 Daily Devotional Readings that focus on the topic of trials and how they can be used in a Christian’s life for good. I read this book almost every night before I go to bed, and many times God uses it to speak to me regarding whatever situation I am in. Even though I’ve read the book over and over, the Lord continues to use it in my life in new ways.
  3. What is one of the items on your bucket list – something you would like to do before you die? It may sound silly, but I have this dream to visit every continent before I die. I’ve visited South America and Asia (along with North America, of course) so far, and I would like to go to Europe next. I love to travel, and I think it would be so neat to be able to have this type of experience. World, here I come! 😀
  4. Who is your favourite Bible hero, and why? This is a difficult question! There are so many men and women in the Bible who give us wonderful examples that it is very hard to choose. I guess I would have to say Abraham – because of his faith. He obeyed God when He was told to go to a different country, without knowing what he would face or how things would turn out. He also trusted God enough to offer his only son as a sacrifice, just because God asked him to. He didn’t understand. I’m sure everything in his heart and mind and body cried out against doing this – but he obeyed, and God blessed his faith by delivering his son (Isaac) and growing his faith even more.
  5. Who is one of the most influential people in your journey of faith? My Mother. 🙂 She has been one of my biggest supporters since I began my life’s journey. She listens to me, tries her best to understand, offers wise advice that she has learned from situations in her own life, and PRAYS for me. I really don’t know what I would do without her, and I’m so grateful to God for putting her in my life!
  6. Do you prefer coffee or tea? That’s actually a funny question for me right now. 🙂 I had always preferred coffee, and I still enjoy it. However, I just recently started a loose leaf tea business, and have come to really enjoy the taste and health benefits of this beverage. I guess I’d have to say that I enjoy both!
  7. Share one other interesting anecdotal fact about yourself! I have been sponsoring a young girl named Perla through Compassion International for about 7 years now. I have found it to be such an uplifting experience! Not only am I able to help a child who is less fortunate than I am, but I have the opportunity to communicate with her through mail and get to know her and her family. It has definitely been a blessing! ❤