Words for 2012, not Resolutions

Drawn by Ashley, that's me! 2012

Hey Joy Treasure Friends!

 I am BACK!!!!

YAY!!!

I have missed my time here with y'all but I took some time off to enjoy my family during the Christmas season and take time to reflect on the new year.
New in Christ

Every year when the clock strikes midnight, I am reminded that in Christ I have a clean slate. For many people around the world, New Years is simply a time where everything bad in their life can be closed like a suitcase. It's a celebration of the life yet to come. For the world, there is a renewed hope in everything else but Christ. For me, just like the old year is gone and a new year has come, I don't have to wait for a new year to come to celebrate new opportunities and a renewed hope. In Christ, all things are new (2 Corinthians 5:17; Revelation 21:5). All things are new through Him every day, not just every year. It doesn't have to be a new year for you and I to know that we have a clean slate through Christ everyday. Let us really meditate and consider this wonderful truth!!!!

Getting Rid of the OLD

Three year ago, I began asking the LORD to give me a word or two for each new year, not a resolution. I asked Him, "What do You want me to focus on in my relationship with You, God? What is holding me back from growing in my relationship with You? What is something I need to change in my life as a wife and mother that I need to change that will benefit my family?" He began speaking to me through Scripture.

This year there are two more words for 2012. They are:




Drawn by Ashley, that's me!, 2012.

 

For my home life, the word God placed on my heart was PREPARE. I can't tell you how much time I have wasted trying to find sharpies, clothing, and different house ware items in my home. That's just a few of the things I have wasted time trying to find in 2011. The word PREPARE connects to being a good steward of what God has given me every day- my time, and my home. Preparing my home in a way that is organized makes being prepared for each day blossom out of an attitude of joy, not out of frustration due to wasted time looking for an "item." For instance, I had a junk drawer that was full of everything I needed, but the problem was, I couldn't find it!!!!! I had been looking for sharpies I don't know how many times in the same drawer to use for my son's school stuff. I never could find one. When I cleaned the drawer out, I found 12!!!! Yes, 12!!!!! They were there all the time and I had wasted time trying to find what was already present. So this year, I am focusing on changing the way I organize our home so that it makes sense for us. It is changing things for the better in our home!!!

God's second word to me was LISTEN. 

God speaks to me through His Word, my pastor and other believers. He speaks to me through life situations. But this time, God was asking me to listen more to what He was saying to me than to talk. He was asking me to be still and listen more. I thought I did a great job of listening to Him already. I really have learned how to listen to Him more, through the years, but this was a call for me to listen even more intently when I don't hear an answer. When I am confused or frustrated to make more time to listen to Him than to speak first. I guess you could say He was asking me to be listen before I speak to Him so quickly.  To look at each life situation before I start talking and telling Him what I want, what I think is the best answer. To seek His Word first and just listen.

So there you have it. These are my two words for 2012. So far, they are going GREAT! I have been making my way through my home organizing drawers and closets to be better prepared and know what I have in my household. And I am shutting my mouth first when I come before God and seeking to listen to His Word before I come at him through prayer with petition.

What are your words for 2012?

Do you have any?

I would love to hear!!!!!!

So glad to be back. Until next time!!!!!

Just for Women Wednesdays- The Discipline of Advent

I don't want Christmas to ever feel rushed inside my home. I don't want a sense of frazzledness to be the memorable feeling felt at Christmas and the main memory I remember or my husband and son remember when we think about the Christmas' past.  The greatest gift as a woman you can give to others (including your family) during this season of remembrance is keeping things simple and staying disciplined to prepare your heart for Christmas.

I asked the question, "How can I make Christmas memorable in my home?" When our son was two and a half, our family started the tradition of Advent. I sadly regret my husband and I never celebrated Advent before our son was born. Even if your children are grown or you are a single adult, reading the Advent, meditating on Scripture and celebrating the birth of Christ can prepare your heart for Christmas.

Growing up as a Southern Baptist, I don't remember celebrating advent. I remember counting down to Christmas, but I didn't remember reading daily Scripture, just the account of Christ's birth.

What a difference it is making inside our home as well as in our hearts, especially my own heart. One thing that stands out in my mind is the discipline of Advent. It sounds good to do it. But I won't lie. It's work. It's time and energy and effort. You have to be deliberate and commit to doing it every day to truly experience and prepare your heart for Christmas. It's ok to miss a day, but if you let another day go by, you may miss a week and then another. Keeping Advent inside the home and making the most of it begins when you don't let it slip away from you. It is staying committed despite how you feel on a certain day. The obedience to honor Christ will bring about a blessing inside your heart and home. That's why I am posting it here.

Today's reading comes from Genesis 3:8-15.

As I read this passage to my son. All he heard was a bunch of words. I had to simplify them and teach him that Adam and Eve's disobedience to keep God's Word brought about sin into the world and therefore that's why Jesus came- to make a way for us to know God again.

Genesis 3:15 is one of my favorite verses in the Bible:

" And I will put enmity
   between you and the woman,
   and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
   and you will strike his heel.”

What is so special about Genesis 3:15? It's the promise of a savior. The promise of salvation. The promise of victory for the believer. It's the reason we have joy. The reason we have hope. The reason we have new life in our hearts. The reason we can trust God- because HE KEEPS HIS PROMISES!!! (Hebrews 6:17-19)
This is the reason for Christmas. The promise at the beginning of the Bible was delivered through the birth, life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

 I pray you will make time for Advent. Learn more about it. Commit to it not just to commit to another thing, but to commit to it because you are making time to worship Almighty God. He is worthy of our worship!

Just for Women Wednesdays- WorldCrafters

If you have never heard about WorldCrafts headed up by WMU (Women's Missionary Union) then you need to know about it! It is a wonderful way to get involved in missions by shopping!Yes, that's right! I said shopping! Each product is handmade from artisans across the globe and all proceeds go back to the artisan. The craft you purchase helps the artisan be able to support themselves and live free from sexual exploitation.
 
Information from the WMU website explains:

From August 2009 to August 2014, WorldCrafts will focus on this issue by highlighting some of our artisan groups that are working with women freed from sexual exploitation or women at high risk of becoming victims of human trafficking. We're calling it the Set1Free campaign, and there are multiple ways you can get involved. 

 (Source: http://www.worldcrafts.org/set1free.asp)

Here are some of the items from the website. There are SO MANY!!!!

                                                          Nativity Set from Cambodia

East Africa

                     

Cambodia



Thailand



Nepal

For more information specifically about the artisans and how WorldCrafts is helping them survive click on the link below.
http://www.worldcrafts.org/pdfs/set1free/WCset1free_TakeAction.pdf

This Christmas, shop with a purpose.

Free Art Friday Winner

Sorry ladies! I got sick last week and felt horrible on Friday and throughout the weekend.

I didn't post anything through the weekend nor did I get on my computer.

Thanks to all who commented! It is a great encouragement to me. Please tell your friends about Joy Treasure and pass the word along!

As I looked back over the ladies who entered, there was only one who made the deadline by Thursday November 10th midnight.

Congrats to Carol Spurlock!

 

Thankful for all things "A"

Ok. So I am continuing spelling the word "thanks" this week. Today is all things "A." I am thanking God for things as a believer that I have to be grateful for.

Being grateful keeps our focus off of ourselves and onto God. It places our hearts and minds in proper perspective. Being thankful shows we are trusting God and acknowleding Him as the giver of all things. It is looking beyond our circumstances and seeing something good in everything.

It's easy to be ungrateful and complain.
But it takes a deliberate focus to stop and consider things to be thankful for.

Ask

I am so thankful that I have the ability to come before God and present my requests to Him.

The Bible instructs me to ask:

• “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." Matthew 7: 7-8 

• "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him." James 1:5

You and I have the ability to ask and plead our petition before Almighty God.

Can you wrap your brain around that truth? We are never without access to Him.

Answered Prayers

Throughout the Bible, there are answered prayers. More answered than unanswered. How often we forget that God answers prayers.How often we doubt that He hears and will answer. Does He always answer our every request? No. Sometimes He answers in ways we could never imagine. But He still answers!

 

Adoption through Christ

It is through being adopted into God's family that I have a new name, await a new home (Heaven) and have a new Heavenly Father (God) (Romans 8:22-24). I have a new family (the body of Christ- the church). Adoption is part of my salvation. God took me in when I was a sinner. He came looking for me and came accepting me with open arms when I was against Him. He didn't look at me and reject me because of my wretchedness. He loved me. He looked upon me with love-unconditional love. He took my brokeness and restored me. He has healed my wounds and I now live in His JOY!!! Adoption is everything for the believer.

This Thanksgiving- thank God for all He has given you as a believer. They are the true things that will remain.

Free Art Friday this FRIDAY!!!!

Free Art Friday begins today at 9:30am.
Will run through Thursday evening November 10th at midnight.

Must be a member of the blog to win.
See sidebars on left side of Joy Treasure Blog to join through Facebook, yahoo, twitter or Googlefriend.

To enter:
Open this comment box and sign your name on the blog. I will put the names in a bowl.
My son will draw a name from the bowl.
I will post on Friday, November 11th by 9:30am.

Here is the artwork I am giving away for Fall this Friday!
It is 5X7 in size and is a mixed media painting I made. I had so much fun experimenting making a scarecrow! As usual, each painting on Joy Treasure emphasizes Scripture.
The artwork can be placed on the wall or on a small easel on a coffee table.

Manna Monday-Thankful for All Things "T"

This week on Joy Treasure I want to share with you what I am thankful for as a believer. I pray as you read this post you, too, will consider the same things that you have to be thankful for.

Today, I'll share all things "T" that I am thankful for.

Taste

     Taste is something we take for granted everyday. Think of your most favorite food and imagine not being able to taste it ever again. Imagine not being able to taste any food, ever!!! Everyday would be chewing on something that is merely a texture (filled with calories of course!) without any morsel of goodness. This little gift God gave us affects every aspect of our life. When God created us, He gave us the sense of taste so we could enjoy and experience life. And our ability to taste the goodness of food helps us to understand the sweetness of God's Word. Psalm 119 says, "How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! " Through our ability to taste food, we can understand how the goodness of God's Word is sweet to our soul. We can savor every word of God in our heart.

     A few years ago, at Christmas, I had a horrible sinus infection. It began on Christmas Eve and threw me for a loop. I couldn't taste anything on Christmas. All the goodies I had made to enjoy and for others to enjoy was miserable for me (good for them because they could taste!) but not for me. The taste of Christmas was missing. I am so thankful I get to taste things on Christmas when I am not sick.

So today, enjoy a good meal and while you are chewing, thank God for making life sweet!!!

Thirst

I am thankful for the ability to thirst- to thirst for righteousness.

To thirst for the good things of God. For I am filled. I am satisfied in a discontented world when I thirst for the right things of God. For He promises I shall be satisfied. Not only will I be filled, but I will be able to share the living water with others around who don't have eternal life. They thirst and are not filled. They walk around looking for something to satisfy their soul in this world and are never filled. Treasure the promises of being filled and satisfied by God today.

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
   for they will be filled" (Matthew 5:6).

"but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14).

Think

I am so thankful for the ability to think and meditate on God's Word. I am able to fill my mind with life instead of death by reading the truth of God's Word. Each day, I am able to renew my spirit through yielding to God and listening to Him speak through His Word. I am never left alone to my sinful thoughts. They are able to change and become new thoughts that please God, consider His greatness, and change my actions. This is something we take for granted too!

The Bible says, " On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night" (Psalm 63:6). 

 When you lie down to sleep at night, when it's just you and your mind in the dark, God gives you the ability to meditate on good things, to place your thoughts on truth and not the things that make you anxious or bring you fear. I love the fact that when my head hits the pillow, I can rest in God's forgiveness and that when I am alone with the thoughts of my mind, the truth that I read comforts me in the night. The nonbeliever doesn't have the ability to think on the things of God because they don't have God's Spirit living in their heart. When they lie down and sleep at night, they have no one to bring their anxieties or fears to. They don't live in God's forgiveness. I am so thankful for the ability to have a renewed mind. Thank God today for the ability to think about His Word.

Ok. That's some of the "T" things I am thankful for this November.

Tomorrow I will share the "H" things I am thankful for.

You who visit Joy Treasure are a blessing to me. Thank you for your support. Please tell your friends about the Joy Treasure Blog. 

I am praying for you today as I do every Monday. Blessings!

Keeping the Love Alive in your Marriage- Laughing!

OK.

This probably is a post that I could otherwise call, TMI (Too Much Information) but I thought it was good to share and you will get a laugh off of me.

Marriage is hard.

For the believer, marriage is two flawed people trying to live for Jesus in a sinful world.

So keeping the love alive is a continual process in marriage.

My husband and I have a date night. We try to keep it once a month.

Nothing elaborate.

But it's usually a nice dinner somewhere quiet where we can enjoy a good meal and conversation.

Whenever we do this, it refreshes our hearts, our marriage.

So as our date night started out this time, my stomach began to rumble as we pulled up to the restaurant. Needless to say, when I picked up the menu, part of my belly said, "order carefully" and the other part said, "it's date night, order something good!" That was my dilemma.

As the night went on, my tummy began to feel better until we were leaving.

I suddenly felt an overwhelming need to purchase some Gas-X.

So as I asked my husband to pull into the drugstore, I said, "Come in with me." He said, "OK."

As we searched for the Gas-X, I also remembered I needed to buy Lysol toilet cleaning solution. I had cleaned my house but was out of toilet bowl cleaner and therefore, the bathrooms in my home were not entirely clean. I wasn't even thinking about the two items together.

After our enjoyable dinner, there we were...... on the ant-acid aisle at Wal-greens.

As I searched for what I needed, another lady hurriedly came up next to us. She didn't look at us. She simply grabbed the box and scurried off to pay for it.

My husband and I laughed because it was awkward and we felt bad for the lady too.

But there we were on the same aisle looking for the same product.

My husband and I chuckled.

As we approached the counter to pay for our items, I suddenly felt embarrassed at what I held in my hand- Gas-X and Lysol toilet cleaner. My husband and I snickered and then laughed loudly. It was hilarious to us because it was embarrassing in reality. Who buys Gas-X and Lysol toilet cleaner at the same time? I had not planned to buy these products at the same time, but I really needed to finish cleaning my bathrooms too! I threw all my feelings aside and proudly placed the products on the counter. The lady who had just reached for the Gas-X on the anti-acid aisle was in front of us and the cashier said to her, "Oh, look! It's $2.00 off. I have a coupon I will scan for you."She didn't look up. As if she didn't want to be noticed anyway!!!! Bless her heart!

Then it was my turn.

I got the same $2.00 off and same bubbly response from the cashier that the lady previously had received. As I looked at my two items, along with my husband's soda pop I laughed. He laughed. What a date night night! It was a far cry from our first dates!

As we pulled out of the parking lot, we drove through the gas station parking lot behind the drugstore to get to the main street to go home. We saw a friend of ours. We rolled down the window to say, "Hello."

She said, "aww... are y'all having a date night?" We said, "Yep, we sure are."

Little did she know we were heading home with my Gas-X and Lysol Toilet cleaner.

We laughed all the way home. 

Learning to laugh together is a good for your marriage.

Proverbs 17:22 says, "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones."

If you have forgotten to laugh with your spouse, take a step back and look for the things in life to laugh about. You will be glad you did. 

 I hope you got a good laugh from my experience but more than that, I hope you laugh.

Revive the love in your marriage through laughter.

Free Art Friday

Sorry I am just now able to post.
My helper was with Papaw and Nana longer than I expected.

Here we go!

No peeking!!!

And the winner is......

 

 

Congrats Heather!

Just for Women Wednesdays- Seizing Unexpected Opportunities

There are things that we as women go through in life that are different than men.
And its through the trials we experience as women, that God uses us to connect with other women.

 Never underestimate your trial, your pain, your suffering, your sin struggle. God can use it for HIS good.

Today I waited in the park for a friend of mine to show up for a play date. Our children were going to play on the playground. My son began riding his tricycle around the walking path around the playground as he waited for his friend. A Muslim woman was walking along the path. He passed her on his tricycle and began to talk to her. I didn't think anything about it.

I waited for my friend.

A few minutes later, she pulled up and came over to where I was sitting- in the pavilion at a picnic table. As soon as she sat down, the Muslim woman immediately came over to our table and sat down right beside me. The uttermost parts of the world was sitting at our table.

We didn't have to travel to Pakistan to meet our sweet friend to tell her about Jesus. She was here and she had already heard about Jesus (the prophet - as she called Him). Of course she didn't believe He was the Messiah.

As the conversation unfolded, she began to share her sorrows. The sorrows of a woman who had lost a child. She needed someone to talk to. My friend who sat across from her had experienced the same thing in her own life. As I sat there watching my friend be able to instantly connect with another woman from another part of the world, I thanked God. He was using my friend to share how she got through the pain of losing a child- Jesus. She lovingly shared the gospel with the Muslim woman. It was a beautiful site to see.

As women, the things we go through in life that only another woman can understand is something God uses for His glory. It's the thing that can instantly connect us to another woman from another part of the world.

The world is at our doorstep. They are in our parks, neighborhoods and schools. They are shopping in our malls and grocery stores. You don't have to go on a mission trip to share the Gospel.

When you meet a someone who is not a believer, how do you continue the conversation? Love. Love like Jesus.

1. Bring a meal.

2. Invite the person over for dinner.

3. Send a card of encouragement.

4. Build a relationship.(Find ways to continue to the conversation- frequent the same place in hopes of seeing the person again.

5. Remember the person's name.

6. PRAY! Don't forget to pray!!!

Below are some statistics from the International Mission Board about how the world is right at our doorstep.

The world is here. Women around you from other parts of the world are right here. You never know how God will use your life experiences to connect to another woman.