Joyfull Living

"To have a good friend, you must be one."   For years I've fallen into the trap that I don't have time to invest in close friendships.  Great friendships take lots of time, patience and doing things together.  Between family, home, church and community commitments, I just don't have the time to put in for a friendship, so I learned to 'wing it' with only a few close friends.   Lately, I've learned about 'connections".  It started with my friend Pam.  When I was considering homeschooling my son, I visited Pam's home to see how she set up her home school.  " You can do this", she assured me.  I began it and found out that I can do it!   Through the years, our home school connection brought about a wonderful friendship.  Her continual " You can do this", has stretched me and encouraged me in so many areas I never would have ventured without her encouragement.    There are many other 'connections' I'v...

    It's week 3 of the Living and Active Challenge and due to some motivation, I have a good report this week!  My goal was to eat well and stretch my running endurance in order to run my first 5K  Through the week, my running was built up to 3 miles non-stop and my diet was good, even through eating out one time.  I did yield to the temptation of a bowl of warm peach cobbler topped with vanilla ice cream! Race day arrived with a small surprise.  My youngest son had ran with me during the week, wanted to do the 5K. Here we are before the race: Then after the race: My son had a friend who was also running and they ran together, doing a great job.  My goal for the race was simply to finish, hoping to run the entire time.  I did and even got an award for best time in my age category!!   This week's challenge is "Craving Conquerors".  In our diets, cravings can quickly undo the hard work we've done. ...

  This week's Revive Your Marriage topic is "Praise".  The essence of 'revive' is change - if we're ready to put a new spark in our marriage, we will have to change.  But, change doesn't have to be an overwhelming thing, small things such as our attitude, words, kindness can bring about big changes. Praise is a powerful thing - for the giver and the receiver.  Who doesn't like and is spurred on by words of praise?  When we are the giver of genuine praise, a heart and mind change usually come first.  If we purposefully look for good, we will find it (goes also for not so good!), but as our choice is to build up, we find good things and share them.    In day to day life with our husbands, it is easy to take  him for granted.  Does he do little things that get overlooked?  Take out the trash, fill up your car with gas, pick up after himself?  This week, let's take notice of the things he does and the traits he has ...

Do any of your days seem to fly by in a blur?  Do you race around in a frantic pace and feel like you’re accomplishing nothing?  Are you looking for the ‘perfect system’ to organize and help make the day more productive?  Me too!   This morning’s devotion shared this passage of Scripture: And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, And establish the work of our hands for us; Yes, establish the work of our hands. Psalms 90:17 The best way to begin the day is to seek the Lord and His plans.  He cares about our life, our future and our day to day activities. When we seek Him first, things fall into the rightful place and He establishes the work of our hands.  This picture is the theme verse over at Home Sanctuary where this was shared ”Yes, I want the work of my hands to be established by Him. And more than anything, I want His beauty to permeate my life and home with a sweetness that is palpable. I want to see his glory in...

    The focus for this week's Living and Active Challenge is "Dedicated Daily".   In our spiritual and physical walk, daily dedication is the key to growth, improvement and change.    If you have ever gone on a 'diet', you know that you will eventually go off of the diet and the old eating habits and lack of exercise will undo all that had been done!  If not practiced daily, we go  back to what is normal.  Healthy habits must become the 'new normal'  ingrained, practiced and made a part of our daily life. Finding some favorite healthy alternatives to foods that are not good for us will take us to the path of better eating habits.  Replacing the bad with the good, done over and over is what makes changes.  But in the beginning, we must be dedicated.  Dedicated Daily to make the best choices in our food, to do some sort of exercise and choose to be healthy.   This is the verse for our 'soul food'...

This is week 1 of the Living and Active Challenge and it could not have come at a better time for me!  I've just spent a few days at the beach...you know, sitting around, watching the waves roll in, lounging by the pool, eating delicious dinners and cooling off with an evening ice cream cone!!!  Although I did do some walking on the beach and 'attempted' to eat healthy, I was still on vacation and treated myself with some indulgence!   Another reason this challenge is so timely, is that this will keep me on the upswing.  For many years, I have diligently walked each evening, did weights to keep toned and had a comfortable fitness routine which was actually a way of life.  A few months ago after hearing so many of my friends had taken up running, decided to give it a try!    I have always HATED running!  But I knew it burned more calories and fat and those who were doing it were loving it!  When I began, I used a routine where I ra...

The focus for this week's Revive Your Marriage is Attitude!   If you have been married any length of time, you understand that attitudes can change.  Our mates are not perfect and we are called upon to give much more of ourselves than we ever have before...talk about attitude adjustment! Through the years of married life, our attitudes continually change.  Adjustments are made and often we fall into a comfortable lifestyle with out mates.  As wives, we can almost mechanically feed him, clothe him, love him and send him off to work.  We learn that comfortable love - he is always there and fits perfectly into our home.  But....our husband is to be our highest human priority.  It's not just about meeting his needs, its about being his best friend, his cheerleader, his support and the love of his life. Again...attitudes may need adjusting!  This week's challenge is about attitude: It does a marriage good to go back and reflect on th...