Tag: happy place

Posted in Bible Journaling

Finding a Happy Place in the Rain

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This has been the rainiest of seasons for West Virginia. According to the national weather service it has rained 11 out of the 21 days of June. And it’s not the rain I mind as much as the mud in rural West Virginia. Jeepers! I spend more time sweepin’ and moppin’ than anyone should. Between the 2 dogs, a cat, 4 children and 6 grandchildren, and of course the husband, my house isn’t a show place. It’s very well lived in, and that’s how we like it. I have enough stress in my life, I don’t want to have to stress “stuff.”

Any day I’m with them, it’s a good day.

Psalm 118:24

This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

I will not tell you I have mastered Psalm 118:24. I won’t pretend when Versace (the Jackhuahau, half Jack Russell and half Chihuahua) went hunting behind the house yesterday and came back coated in mud to his belly, I didn’t groan, grab him and take him to the tub immediately. I had just mopped for cryin’ out loud. Neither of us were happy about it, but life happens. I had just gotten home from one doctor’s appointment and had 20 minutes before I had to head to the next doctor’s appointment. In between phone calls, text messages and a dinner my husband had planned on my behalf. Insert smile here.

I have a beautiful 5’x7’ cream and blue rug in my living room by the front door that I love. I have to wash it weekly because the little feet and the big feet make it brown and navy. Drives me crazy! But it’s how we live. Rainy days happen in life, and I have to look behind a lot of gray clouds sometimes to find the sun, but it’s always there.

Three things about that verse that caused me pause this morning.

God made the Day

As my friend Gloria and I traveled to the beach last week, it rained the entire trip. All 7 ½ of it. However, we were too excited about the next 8 days, to concern ourselves with the dreary journey.

Should that not be how we are in life? So what if it’s rained half the month. Do you know where we’re going? Where the sun shines every day and there is no night. And if there’s rain there, it’s probably liquid sunshine. And I’m pretty sure there won’t be mud in heaven!

I spoke to a doctor yesterday, who I adore. But he’s stressing life. And life can be seriously stressful. I’m sick and tired of feeling sick and tired so I’m asked my doctor for a CBD prescription. CBD has been found to have an abundance of health benefits for people, including calming anxiety and reducing the risk of depression. The extended shelf life of CBD oils is also a big plus. I also know in my heart that God made every day of my life and allowed whatever comes into it to happen. I really do have a happy place, and it’s in that knowledge.

Rejoicing isn’t optional for successful living

It’s why I can tell people “I’m great!” when they ask how I am and not feel like I’m lying. I really am great, because I choose to rejoice in the fact that I am a child of the Living God and His presence in my life helps me to understand that if I want to fulfil my purpose and be successful in my calling, I have to allow the world to see the absolute joy in my heart because of Jesus.

Gladness will follow

It turns out if your face keeps smiling, the rest of you follows suit. And if you smile long enough the people around you will fall in line too! It’s truth!

So where is your happy place? My happy place is in front of this computer, a sketch pad and many, many markers of every color under the rainbow! If you have the time, share with me your happy place. Let me rejoice with you! Maybe it will give me an idea how to find another happy place.

Posted in Evangelism, Life Inspiration, Not Another Manic Monday, Not Another Manic Monday Video, video

Let’s Talk About Us

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Notes from Monday, October 1, 2018 live feed. Video Below 

If you ask me where my “Happy Place” is in the word of God, I would tell you John 14. Verses 1:6

1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

2 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

4 And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.

5 Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?

6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

So I give you three points to ponder today as we start the new work week. Help, Hope and Happiness and they’re all found in those verses.

Jesus begins by telling us “Let not your heart be troubled.” Whatever it is you’re facing this week, Jesus has it under control.

In Psalm 121:2, David wrote “My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.”  I’ll put these scriptures in the comments below when we’re done.

David understood and we need to remember that at the Creation of the earth, God the Father and God the Son were there. The Creator of all the earth. The Scriptures said “Let Us make Man” Genesis 1:26 The “us” was God and Jesus.  If He can speak a tree, an animal an ocean into existence, what is any problem that we have.

If He can speak life from nothing, can He not speak over your problems, and either take you through, around or out. God has the power to do all three.

The rest verse 1 says “Ye believe in God, believe also in me.”

That’s the “Us” again that from the foundation of the earth.  David said in Psalm 119:114, Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word.”

John 1:1 says In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

Sometimes that gets confusing; how can God and Jesus be one? Well to confuse us further, They’re actually three. And I don’t profess to have it all figured out. But to help my mind fathom what it means I have to understand the Word that was written.

Isaiah 48:13 says “Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand together.”

The universe cannot contain God. But the Son walked on earth. That helps me to understand the roles the two of them play in Creation. And the Holy Spirit, the third part of the Trinity, I feel within my soul.

It’s because of that I have Hope, and know that God is my protector. He is within m and understands everything I’m going through. He knows my every thought.

Verse 2 of John 14 reads, “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

This earth and all the sorrow in it, is temporary. God is preparing us a world beyond what our imaginations can fathom!

Another verse in Psalm 144:15 b (meaning it’s the latter part of the verse) says “Happy is that people whose God is the Lord.”

Those who understand verse 6 when Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

The only way you can have true happiness is through Jesus Christ. And believing in His finished work on the cross. Jesus Who walked as a man, and died as a man on this earth that He created, did that on the cross to pay the price for our sin so that we could go to that happy place He is preparing.

I made that decision in 1996. I lived 34 years in fear of Hell. Also a very real place. But praise God, I got saved! I hope you know Jesus today. And if you don’t, please, private message me and you and I together will walk the road to salvation.

If you know Him, I hope you’ll write the verses that I gave you down somewhere you can see them this week and hang on to the hope that comes from the Word of God.

Posted in Bible Journaling, Christian Service, Life Inspiration

In Search of the Happy Place

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Philippians 4:11

Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

Those are the words of the great Apostle Paul.  They speak to my heart’s desire, but they don’t necessarily align with the manner in which my life was lived in 2017. I never really thought that life would be easy when I said to the Heavenly Father. “I give in!” See, I didn’t have the honor of just obeying. I fought God tooth and nail. I fully believe if I had obediently said in 2010, “Yes God, I’ll go. I’ll quit my job and serve you full time.” That my life would have been considerately different. If over the past seven years I hadn’t tried to get to point “B” by side stepping point “A”,  I may or may not have been struggling. We’re not guaranteed stress free days even when we’re obedient. But I still think that I’m learning a hard lesson now from not being content with the state I’m in.

So my goal in 2018 is to find my Happy Place.

If you found yours what would it look like? And would it look the same as the one God desires for you?

Good question I thought to myself… would mine?

I think there are three things that will bring me to my Happy Place. The first is…

Contentment

If happiness becomes a state of mind, not a state of being, then I’ll have arrived at that place. I watched a living example in Minnesota at the home of my hosts for the week, Butch and Pat. They were not wealthy people. They were not people who hadn’t experienced pain. But they were in their happy place as a couple and as individuals because they were living a life obedient to the Lord. If God said speak, they spoke. If God said sing, they sang. And that might be in the middle of the city square. If God said sell your house and move, they did. A week after I was there to visit as a matter of fact, and they believed another home was in the waiting. And it was. They were happy in the state of Minnesota because they were happy in their state of mind.

Consistent

Another awkward task for me. It means staying on the path that God intended even when it’s hard. Even when there’s no money, seemingly no means for it and the very thing that I feel God called me to do, isn’t happening. So as I searched for my 2018 word, I thought back to my 2017 word of the year. “Pursuit.”

Where had my pursuit taken me? And did I miss my arrival? I’m still pursuing, but I hope this year the pursuit is a little better focused. And consistent: in that I don’t look left and right, only forward to what God’s design is. This past year, every time it would get rough, I would think… this isn’t God’s plan. So I would start applying for jobs and looking for other means and every door slam in my face leaving me more distraught than ever. But through godly people in my life, “I would hear every time, you’re where you belong, you’re making a difference. Stay in this lane.” And often times out of exhaustion, I’d just ride it out and God always provided.

Connected

I need to connect every single aspect of my life to the word of God. So my word for 2018 Is “Hope.” I’ll do the art for it later. But for now I’ll just think on this:

If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature under heaven; where of I Paul am made a minister; who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church. Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God. – Colossians 1:23-25

I do not profess to have suffered in the manner of Paul. But his words are clear.

Continue, being settled (content)

Not moved away (consistent)

A Minister (connected to both God and people)

What about you? Where is your happy place?