When You Can't Choose Joy

 

The cold and dreary winter can sometimes wear on a person.  We start to feel a little low, like the clouds that hang low over the dead landscape.  We hear the phrase, "Choose Joy", like it's something we can just conjure up.  But that never seems to work for me. 

 

A few days ago I read these verses that Jesus spoke to his disciples just before he was crucified.

 

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.

Now remain in my love.

If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love,

just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.

 

Now notice this next verse--

 

I have told you this so that my joy may be in you

and that your joy may be complete.

 

So to have complete joy, we just need to obey Jesus' commands.

Now you may be thinking, obey a bunch of commands?  How could that bring joy?

Check out the next verse--

 

My command is this:

Love each other as I have loved you.

John 15:9-12

 

I don't know why these verses never registered with me before,

maybe they did and I just forgot, but it makes perfect sense.

 

If we love each other, with true love like Jesus has for us, then our lives will be full of joy!  What is the most common cause for discouragement in our lives?  Isn't it usually people problems?  But if we are loving each other (and that means loving everyone) then our lives will be much happier because we aren't spending all that time being mad and annoyed at people that bug us.

 

Remember what true love looks like?

 

Love is...

 

patient

kind

it does not envy

it is not rude

it is not self-seeking

it is not easily angered

it keeps no record of wrongs

it does not delight in evil

it rejoices with the truth

it always protects

it always trusts

it always hopes

it always perseveres

it never fails

 

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

 

"Does Jesus care when my heart is pained

Too deeply for mirth and song,

As the burdens press, and the cares distress,

And the way grows weary and long?

 

Oh, yes, He cares, I know He cares,

His heart is touched with my grief;

When the days are weary the long nights dreary,

I know my Savior cares."

 

~Frank E. Graeff~

Gifts

~our gifts~

 

"I want to see little children adorning every home as flowers adorn every meadow and every wayside.  I want to see them welcomed to the homes they enter, to see their parents grow less and less selfish and more and more loving because they have come.  I want to see God's precious gifts accepted, not frowned upon and refused." ~Elizabeth Prentiss, in Stepping Heavenward

This is an appropriate quote for this day, the 43rd anniversary of the supreme court decision that made it legal for parents to kill their children.  Abortion is so awful in every way, and if you have been affected by it, I pray that you will find forgiveness.  Thankfully God will freely forgive us if we ask him, and he asks us to do the same for others.  Children are not a burden, a problem, or an inconvenience, they are God's gifts to us.  Having children has taught us so much and continues to teach us daily.  It is not easy to raise a child, but it is so very worth it. 

Family Cookbook

A while back I was thinking about how I might pass our family recipes on to our children, and I decided to make a scrapbook style recipe book with photos to copy and present to each child as they leave home.  (Our oldest will be graduating from high school this May, so the kids leaving home is going to be happening sooner than I'd like to think!)  I am making each page 8.5 x 11 size so they are easy to make color copies of and place in plastic sleeves in a binder.

 

Here are a few of my finished pages that I scanned to show you.

 

 

It's been fun to go back through our family photos and find food pictures to use- some of these recipes I've been making for over 20 years!

 

 

It's been a fun project and one I will be working on for awhile yet.  Our kids are thinking it's a good idea too-hopefully their wives will also...

 

I know that there I nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live.  That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil-- this is the gift of God.

Ecclesiastes 3:12-13

 

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More Love to Thee

 

I am currently reading the book, Stepping Heavenward, by Elizabeth Prentiss, and it is so good!  You wouldn't think a book written almost 150 years ago would still be relevant today but people have always been people, and the same struggles that the fictional Katy Elliot faced throughout her life in the 1800s still face me.  The book is written as Katy's journal, and it is so real.  I would highly recommend it.

 

 

This is a drawing of Elizabeth Prentiss.  Besides the book Stepping Heavenward, she is also the author of the well known hymn, More Love to Thee.  She wrote these words after nearly losing her daughter because of an illness.

 

"More love to Thee, O Christ, more love to Thee!

Hear Thou the prayer I make on bended knee.

This is my earnest plea: More love, O Christ, to Thee,

More love to Thee, more love to Thee!"

 

"Once earthly joy I craved, sought peace and rest;

Now Thee alone I seek; give what is best.

This all my prayer shall be: More love, O Christ, to Thee,

More love to Thee, more love to Thee!"

 

"Then shall my latest breath whisper Thy praise;

This be the parting cry my heart shall raise.

This still its prayer shall be: More love, O Christ, to Thee,

More love to Thee, more love to Thee!"

 

This is my prayer as well!

 

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Friendly Village

 

So, how is your January going?  Are you keeping warm?  January is a great month to drink some hot vanilla chai tea, wrap up in a blanket, and enjoy a good book.  Miss E and I had a little tea "pahty", as she says, yesterday, and I wanted to share it with you.

 

I purchased another Friendly Village tea cup and this plain white teapot with some Christmas money, and I've been looking forward to using them now in January.  The Friendly Village pattern is made by Johnson Brothers in England, and although they were first introduced in 1952, they are still being made today.  I really like the tea cups, with their snowy barns.  They are perfect for this time of year.

 

 

We enjoyed our banana nut bread on this fun green transferware plate.

 

 

Miss E and I really enjoy our tea parties, it's a fun and easy way to do something girly together!

 

 

As we sipped our tea we watched the sun setting on this winter day.

June may have roses, but January has cozy tea parties!

 

Trust in the LORD and do good;

dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.

Delight yourself in the LORD

and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:3-4

 

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What do you do with January?

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village, though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound's the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

~Robert Frost~

Even though this poem sounds nice, January is a hard month. It's freezing out, you are trying to recover from Christmas, the days are dreary and the nights are long.  Plus, how do you decorate?  (I know, it's an unimportant in the grand scheme of things, but still!)  Usually I just try to survive through January and February.  But this year I want to enjoy these months, after all, I don't just want to be miserable for 2 months out of the year.

So here's my plan...

Crafting

 

 

Enjoy the birds at my feeder

 

 

 

Watch lots of basketball games

(Both PD and DJ are playing this winter)

 

And maybe read a few books!

 

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Christmas Reflections

A few of my favorite things about Christmas 2015...

 

 

Miss E's excitement about everything "Cissmas"- it was all new to her this year (since she doesn't remember last year) so every tall tree in the store or at church was just amazing!

 

Hearing DJ say it was his best Christmas ever.

 

 

So much good food- (I haven't had to cook much the last few days, since I overdid before Christmas)

 

Using the kids' great-great Grandma's white rose dishes and their great Grandma's silver at our Christmas brunch.

 

Playing table games with the family- we got a new one for Christmas called Carcassonne, it's pretty fun so far.

 

 

My grandparents good example!  Even though my Grandpa is now in the nursing home my Grandma faithfully goes there twice a day to help him eat his meals.  They have been married for 62 years now and their faithfulness is a great example to us all.

 

Good visits and relaxing times with our family.  We are very blessed.

 

Our Christmas day service at church was really worshipful- we always end our service with the Hallelujah Chorus, sung by anyone who wants to join the choir on stage, and it's my favorite part of Christmas morning each year.

 

And He shall reign forever and ever!