Boojoyful

Do you pray about your gift giving? When you have a large family or a lot of friends it can become overwhelming. Some people are exciting to shop for, others give you great hints and then there are those you just want to give a card with cash because you have no idea what they want.  When you shop online or have social media accounts you can get sucked into the deep hole of advertisement temptation and buy things that really are not needed. Been there, done that this very season. Hope they all enjoy those marshmallow snowmen. How about making this list and checking it more than twice.  What can we give those who need the gift of Jesus in their lives? Jesus answered and said to her, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.  John 4:10 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23 Consider these lyrics ...

  And this will be a sign for you:  you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”  Luke 2:12   Dear shepherds, Here's your sign! Two clues. Swaddling clothes and a manger.   Hmm.  At first thought that is no much to go on. All newborn babies were swaddled, but probably none were laid in a manger for a crib.  The biggest clue was the location, Bethlehem. Now days, Bethlehem is a large tourist attraction with a population of around 60,000.  At the time of Jesus' birth it was a small rural village and my guess would be there was only one baby born that night. It's been three years since this beloved child in the photos above was swaddled by our daughter.  Swaddling was not in vogue in the 80's when I birthed our six children, but it was very much a part of the Jewish culture when Jesus was born and has been the past thirteen years when our twelve grandchildren...

                               The Lord your God wins victory after victory and is always with you.                                                               He celebrates and sings because of you, and he will refresh your life with his love.  Zephaniah 3:17 Who are the encouragers in your life?  The people who slip you just the right verse or prayer instead of a glass of wine or a wad of words to get you through a tough time.  Twice in the past ten years I've been slipped Zephaniah 3:17.  Once, it was handwritten on a sticky note that stayed in my bedside table drawer for years until it was all crumbly. Whenever I think about the giver I immediately think about the v...

Prepare Him Room.   Somewhere in my day the lyrics to "Joy to the World" must have been playing, for I awakened in the middle of the night with the phrase prepare Him room, ringing in my head. "Joy to the world, the Lord has come, let earth prepare Him room." Conviction set in, I was only three days into a couple Advent studies I'd set aside for this year and I had already fallen behind in one, because I'd allowed  preparing our home  to look cheery for the holidays and working on church activities to take precedence over time in the Word.  Grabbing my fluffy robe from the back of the dressing room door, I bundled up and headed to sit by the tree and see what God had to say. What is cluttering your heart?  What needs to be eliminated to make room for Jesus this Christmas? A beloved couple, who had lived in America for five years, was back visiting this fall from overseas. They used Shiloh as home base, while they tried to pack in seeing as many friends as po...

What are your favorite smells at Christmas? Is it the fresh pine from your tree or the smell of your favorite candle?  A company called Nest makes a candle called Holiday . It has become ridiculously expensive, but  I splurge on one every year. Maybe there is a food aroma that comes from your mother/grandmothers kitchen only in December that you cannot wait to take in. Maybe it's the smell of peppermint, hot chocolate or gingerbread. My husband and I have committed to at least three romantic night time walks around Shiloh this month to enjoy the lights he has put up.  One night we were outside and there was the distinct smell of a fire burning.  I bet someone was roasting marshmallows! Switch to this gear.  What scents surround the time when Jesus was born. Maybe Mary was inhaling the aroma of fresh baked bread in her little home in Nazareth when the angel, Gabriel, appeared to her with great surprise and proclaimed.  " Do not be afraid, Mary.  God is ...

Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.  Psalm 73:25   There was a time of prayer being held after a luncheon at our church recently. People had shared needs and then my husband called for a time of silent reflection and asked us to listen to the Lord.  There it came, the word... longings.  The Spirit was showing me my longings were messed up. “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.”  Proverbs 13:12  What is it about the Christmas season that makes us so melancholy.  I've longed for Christmases long, long ago. To decorate the tree with my father, just the two of us, a bowl of popcorn and a Shirley Temple. To sit on the steps waiting for the "go ahead" into the living room and see the packages under the tree.  The longing for my three much older siblings to come home and fill the house with their stories and their babies. (I...

  The Joy of the Lord is Your Strength   Nehemiah 8:10 This photo is of our Utah family. This little one is so full of joy that she lights up a room wherever she goes.   Her parents are divorced, but choose joy and to all be together often.   We are commanded to Be joyful always.   1 Thessalonians 5:16  Just the fact that we know Jesus and understand the sacrifice he made for us is reason to always be joyful. The fact God created us and loves us is another reason to rejoice.   The trials we face have a purpose.  They help us come to know Christ, to understand His teachings in our minds, to feel those teachings in our hearts and to live them out in our lives.  So, even in the tough times we can rejoice knowing God is at work in our lives. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.   James 1:2-3 The ho...