Boojoyful

  Our goal in this upcoming luncheon honoring widows is recognize their strength and to encourage them.  To remind them that God's mercies are new every morning and to commit to find beauty in every day. See I am doing a new thing!   N ow it springs up; do you not perceive it?    I am making    way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.    Isaiah 43:19 "Let’s vow to bring heaven to earth with the loving words we say and the moments we cultivate that bring laughter…. We can plan something joyful. We can plan for some moments that matter. We can plan to do something for another person that will simply be kind and honor God. Listen to a song-  you know the one where you can’t stay down when its rhythm gets turned all the way up. Dance . Sing. Let go for a moment. Watch something funny  with a friend and remember how good it feels to laugh. Stand in front of the ocean or a lake and remember how big the world really is. There are new joys to discover and enjoy and yes, c

In our kitchen, I have a silver tray upon which six clay hands lay.  These hands were presented to me by our children's school art teacher, who took the time to have them make these in 1992 as a surprise gift for me.  They are a treasure, a "please do not touch" for I can never replace them.   Now all grown and parents themselves their hands will never be this small again.  They are a precious reminder of the six pair of little hands I held and tried to guide through life's obstacles.  God reminds us what is of utmost importance for us to guard.   Above all else, guard your heart.   — Proverbs 4:23   Guard your heart because it is the wellspring of your life, because it is a  treasure , because everything else depends on it. (Remember how Paige Brown teaches the bottom line of all of our decisions..."It's the heart stupid!" How kind of God to give us this reminder, this warning.  It's  like someone entrusting something precious to us with the words:

Attending a wedding recently at The Sawgrass Golf Resort in Florida this site brought a chuckle.  Just beyond the sign was a golf challenge. Now I grew up a tennis player and was trained to keep my eye on the ball.  I know very little about golf, but would think you are to either focus on the ball or that flag designating where the hole is. Either would be a difficult task while watching out for snakes and gators at the same time. Would you say you live cautiously, carelessly or recklessly?   One who is wise is cautious and turns away from evil, but a fool is reckless and careless. Proverbs 14:16 I do know in golf you want to avoid the traps.  There are traps set daily for us in our lives. I fell into one the other night.  I ate two dark chocolate brownies after dinner and the caffeine kept me awake until 2AM! During that time I watched a TV show and while I was trying to pray myself to sleep I caught myself thinking about a dilemma in the show.  Quickly, I took that thought captive a

This granddaughter has a heart for horses!   Day after day the Lord is bringing me a message on the heart in a variety of formats. My husband has been talking to his cardiologist and surgeon about the next plan for his heart issues.  I'm just finished a captivating book,  When Crickets Cry ,  about a surgeon, his wife's battle and that of a young girl with heart disease. The book took me to an Ezekiel passage which is the perfect followup on my recent study of Jeremiah where the Babylonians have carried off the Israelites. Ezekiel 11:17-21 Israel's Restoration will bring a new heart and spirit.  Therefore say, ‘This is what the Lord  God  says: “I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you from the countries among which you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.”’ When they come there, they will remove all its detestable things and all its abominations from it.     And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will remo

Flowers my niece arranged for her daughter's rehearsal dinner. In my Bible is a section of Ephesians 4 titled "Rules for New Life."  The hope in that statement makes me smile.  We can change our past attitudes and beliefs! We are part of the same body. Stop lying and start telling each other the truth.  Don't get so angry that you sin. Don't go to bed angry  and don't give the devil a chance....   Stop being bitter and angry and mad at others. Don't yell at one another or curse each other or ever be rude.   Ephesians 4:25-27, 31 Lysa Terkeurst writes from a heart that has been broken by marital betrayal and ended in divorce. She shares:  "When other people sin against us, intentionally wrong us, and blatantly hurt us but never seem to have consequences for any of it, this apparent lack of fairness is what stirs up feelings of bitterness, unforgiveness, and even retaliation. But it's crucial that we don't let these feelings that come at us get 

Multi tasker! I was so busy at church Easter Sunday that I forgot to get a photo with our daughter. I asked her to stop by on her way home and have her husband take a picture. By the time they arrived I had begun cleaning up bedrooms and came across a shirt one of our out of town granddaughters had left and slung it over my should to be sure to take upstairs to package to mail to her.  None of the three of us noticed this shirt on my shoulder!  So much for the lovely photo! Jesus would have noticed for he sees every detail of our lives. The  Lord  is sitting in his sacred temple on his throne in heaven. He knows everything we do because he sees us all. Psalm 11:4 The Song "Me on Your Mind" Matthew West https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sNbahy6UCc

Our little artist!   The Song Prayer for a Friend-Casting Crowns https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coR57MWcphk

Right after Easter, my husband presided over the funeral of a wonderful woman who left an incredible legacy. She would have been 97 next month and loved others deeply all those years. I was privileged to meet her eight years ago and have written  a tribute of some lessons I learned from her. Sitting in our Bible Study Fellowship classroom I was drawn in, almost holding my breath, each time she shared what God had shown her in the lesson that week.  Where the rest of us read from the notes we had taken during the week, she would contemplate and then share from the depths of her heart what the Holy Spirit had taught her. Being in her late eighties at this time, her voice was soft, so it forced you to quiet yourself and listen.  Whatever she shared was a show stopper. Making you pause and think.  Being the oldest member of the class and one of only a few black women she had experiences and perspectives on life quite different from most of us. Yet, the very same scripture passage that had

  Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.  Colossians 3:2   So, I've been limping for four months and not up to my usual Mama Boo activities with the grands.  I can come up with the ideas, but have to have their parents carry out the mobility parts of the projects. A couple weeks ago our four year old grandson, who lives very close by, started limping too. His pre-school teacher shared he limps all day long. His mother decided she better take him for an x-ray, but all is well.  We think he is  sympathy limping with me. He looked at me the other day and said, "When did you get old Mama Boo?"  I could tell his little mind was wondering when this was going to happen to him. We had a wonderful discussion on how we age every day and that we are called to our eternal home at different ages.  The emphasis was on the fact that the best is yet to come and we got into a detailed discussion on heaven. Have a healthy conversation about heaven with so

  The kids' table! Who is a God like you,   who pardons sin and forgives the transgression   of the remnant of his inheritance?  You do not stay angry forever    but delight to show mercy. 19  You will again have compassion on us;   you will tread our sins underfoot  and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. Micah 7:18-19 There is no one like our God.  In the Old Testament God repeated His warnings of pending judgement. God also, revealed His compassionate heart by relentlessly pursuing His disobedient people. The final BSF lesson on God's Divided Kingdom reminds us of God's character. "God...provides comfort,  tenderly understands,  has persistent patience, showers us with great love, and intervenes to alleviate human suffering." Whew, Look back over the list and see if any of those things can be said of you. "When Israel's leaders and people rejected God as an intimate part of everyday life, the nation floundered.  When they lived with con

Enjoyed being with my sister in law and niece at the wedding of my great niece. Out of the 13 grandchildren my siblings and I gave our parents there are only 3 lovely granddaughters.  In 2002, our Roanoke pastor's son started a ministry called Answering the Call.   https://www.answeringthecall.org/about  This ministry still is passionate about taking the gospel anywhere God calls. Every Christian has a calling. There is a general call, of course, to believe in Jesus Christ. But everyone who believes in Christ also has a special calling to a particular sphere of obedience and ministry. Jeremiah had a tough call on his life. He was not just set apart for salvation, he was set apart for vocation. God had work for him to do. The prophet had a unique mission to accomplish and a hard to swallow message to deliver to his generation.   Part of Jeremiah’s job was to promise God’s grace to the nations, proclaiming, “all nations will gather in Jerusalem to honor the name of the Lord ” Jeremia

Therefore do no worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.                  Each day has enough trouble of its own. Mathew 6:34 “We should carry only what we must on this day. Then tomorrow we will have tomorrow’s grace….It’s not that we don’t want to plan for the future and be discerning about how to handle what’s next responsibly. That’s wise and good. It’s just that we don’t want to become so stressed, fearful and full of anxiety about tomorrow that we miss the grace and goodness of this day.” Lysa Terkeurst  Traveling to a wedding in Jacksonville, FL we broke up the trip by staying in a hotel in Columbia, SC.  Living by faith and having a very packed car, I opted to leave my walker, which I’ve been relying on the past few months, at home.  The morning after I had read this devotional I awakened with very little knee pain, which surprised me having just been in the car so long.  The Lord said, “I am bestowing grace from pain upon you. You will enjoy this weeken

  The Song "Oh Happy Day"  Edwin Hawkins and choir https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olQrCfkvbGw

  Our sweet 4 year old granddaughter is sleeping in perfect peace. You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast,  because they trust in you .  Isaiah 26:3 More insight from Lysa Terkeurst  "God is in the quiet. Lonely is His invitation away from distraction. Say... I will get up. I will trust God. I will get healthy. I will get strong. I will get prepared. This isn't an ending. Every great start begins with a stop." In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.  Psalm 5:3  "While we sit in quiet, we wait expectantly . We can listen. Grieve. Learn.  Heal. And walk forward knowing that because of God, whatever was meant for harm only served to make us more capable....Isn't it the  loveliest thought that God might be waiting for there to be some silence in our lives to share some of His best secrets with us? The enemy wants us to believe that times of silence are a curse of loneliness.  

Hundreds of children showed up to hunt 6,000 Easter eggs at our main church campus in Rocky Mt, VA. My husband enjoyed showing off our Minnesota family!   For I know the plans I have for you, declares the  Lord , plans for welfare  and not for evil,  to give you a future and a hope.  Jeremiah 29:11 The past couple weeks BSF has been digging into the tough call the Prophet Jeremiah had on his life.  He is known as the "weeping prophet" for he was the bearer of tough consequences to come upon his people for their horrific sins. Whew. No one wants to be the bearer of  bad news, but that is what God called Jeremiah to do. Here are some one liners from that study that make us stop and think. "God does not promise to spare His children from trouble, but He faithfully upholds those who put their trust in Him." "Sharing God’s heart means caring more about the spiritual peril of others than personal ease." "God calls his children to share His burdens, speak

As you passed through our church doors Easter morning there was plenty to eat! Maybe you just entertained some Easter or Spring Break guests who were passing through on their holiday.  Possibly you have some migrating birds who make short stops in your yard. At church, we have numerous people who pass through our doors checking us out. There are relationships that pass through our lives for a season, as well as employment stepping stones on our career paths which we cross. Jesus, Paul, and all the disciples did a lot of "passing through" places as they carried the gospel to lost people changing their lives.  Remember this story... He (Jesus) entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not. because he was small in stature. Luke 19:1-3 Friends, let's remember today that we are just passing through on this earthly

  Easter Sunday at CrossPointe Church My church connect group is embarking on a 50 day devotional study by Lysa Terkeurst called You're Going to Make It.   I'll post pieces of wisdom I'm learning along the way.  The promises found in Day 1 are highlighting worthy in your Bible! Here is a link to the first week, but I encourage you to order the book from Proverbs 31 Ministry and sign up for the emails.  https://p31obs.s3.amazonaws.com/YGTMI/YGTMI_1-7.pdf?utm_campaign=YGTMIOBS&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=247873518&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9oMLRdjM7vcnSVpFsNWST4V7FLbfJpsz_RFcGohzJV-OweciE6Bj8C5bG4qlu5il5rygzfoCJ2t5ig5YpQ_rpD2nqM-w&utm_content=247873518&utm_source=hs_automation Order the book   https://www.p31bookstore.com/products/youre-going-to-make-it?utm_campaign=YGTMIOBS&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=247873518&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-912JlZIrDs8CwgvI8DT_8WHq0b8Q6yAqya2q-L0_RCozLw17cup8chDkxJLwd75aaGZxGq6bltObVTsG2iardkG-6Sbg&utm_content=247873518&utm_source=hs_aut