Joy

I've been full of joy recently - Christmas joy. What you may not realize is that for many years (over 20 years) I haven't been excited about Christmas much at all. See when I was little, Christmas was a BIG day, my mom knew how to celebrate holidays and she and my father made Christmas special. I moved out of state for university and often couldn't go back to my parents home for holidays. Added to this, were some bad memories surrounding Christmas and other holidays; eventually I didn't look forward to any holiday. Some years ago, I prayed and asked God to get back what I had as a kid: the love, the excitement, the desire to celebrate. 

Slowly I began to see a little changes, mostly, I saw the dread or distaste go away, but the enjoyment was still lacking...until this year. I can't explain "what" happened, although, I do have my guesses at what could have been part of the change. Last year, I went to a home run by nuns during Christmas to spend time in prayer to God. I was welcomed warmly to the house and invited to join in meals and some celebrations. It was so different from any Christmas I had ever had; I celebrated the "reason" of Christmas last year in a way I never had before.

Yesterday, as I was walking up the snow covered hill towards home, I realized how grateful I am that the love, excitement and desire to celebrate is found within my heart again. I am grateful for answered prayer. To be honest, it took a few years before I saw the answer to the prayer. As I look back, I see that God has done a lot of healing in my heart since that prayer and I am sure that healing has been a significant part of getting the joy back. Actually, I realize that that was God answering my prayer, but I didn't "see" it because I was in the process of healing "other" issues. The truth is, it was my heart that needed mending all along. 

So if you prayed to God yesterday, last week, last year or a few years ago...then my prayer for you is that you would see how God is responding to that prayer, because sometimes it difficult to see the work He is doing in your life because it looks different than what we expect. Bless you on your journey. (Amen.) 

Living Loved

I've realized I don't write so often. You may have realized this by the amount of time between my blog posts. The thing is it takes more energy to sit at a computer and write than writing in a journal. I often get distracted once I am on the computer. Do you? An hour later I get off the computer only to realize I never accomplished the purpose that got me on the computer to begin with. I want to improve in this area, so here I am writing a blog post today (and it only took me an hour to get started).

Today, I had the priviledged of sitting down to coffee with a wise friend, MaryJean. We talked of life, Jesus, future and truth. During our time together she said this simple phrase: "living loved" and it caught my attention and made me think. We were talking about our inheritence in God's family and about what Jesus says in John 14 about sending Holy Spirit as our Comforter/Guide, not leaving us as orphans. The Bible talks plainly about God loving us and choosing us. Think about this for a moment. What would your life look like; how different would it be if you lived loved? You are loved! I am loved! This is our reality even if we have trouble receiving or believing it.


If or when we struggle with believing we are loved we should go to the source: God's Word. What does God say? The most quoted verse, John 3:16, says it plainly, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." and in 1 John 3:1 is says, "See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are." The Bible is filled with this truth.

I often talk about living free and I think living free looks very much like living loved. I'm going to practice living loved and I encourage you to join me in this. When times of doubt come, I'll ask God for help and I will read more of God's word to become more acquainted with the Truth written there.

Live Loved today - you are!