Many more

A gift at breakfast: Healthy, tasty, nutritious breakfast!
Lunch: Hearing my friends daughter pray for lunch. There is nothing like hearing a three year old thank God, and for you.
Dinner: The gift of serving. Being able to cook for both of us for the week.

 A gift outside: Forgetting to take out the garbage. Having to come home gave me the opportunity to go back inside and have a wonderful time with God to start my busy day.
A gift inside: A treasure crafted by little hands.
A gift on a plate: Lunch made by my dear friend.

Found it!

I found the January Joy dare~ Woot!
So, I'll be sprinkling those gifts in the coming days as well.
Also, todays gifts are tomorrows on the dare, but that's what I get for waiting to look at the dare list until after lunch on a lazy day off.

3 gifts white: My tumbler! It was lost and now is found. Months later. I left it at church!

                                                    Milk for my coffee Pu’erh tea

 

My Vanilla Noel Candle. Sweet and soothing.

 3 things about yourself you are grateful for:
~My creativity.
~ My passion. Once I'm sold on something, I'm passionate about it.
~ My femininity.

Really feeling the spiritual battle right now. Some days I fight through and worship and give thanks and He gets the glory. Other days not so much.
Really wanting thankfulness to be the focus of my life. I want to focus on that instead of constantly complaining, which is where I naturally go.
His Grace is huge.

Catching up

3 gifts found in giving, serving:
~Hearing the youth worship in song this weekend. Lifted me up.
~The smell of soup filling my house.
~ Joy found for both of us when I gave a co-worker a little gift to celebrate achievement.

3 gifts on paper
~The best note. Ever.
~Romans 15:13 
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
~The drawings on my fridge :).

3 gifts that were plan Bs
~Soup, take two. The first round I used broth that had gone bad (oops! gross!)
~ Spending time with God, thanking Him and having Him pour into me (instead of having a hard, stubborn heart all day).
~ Having to fix my espresso machine. Never planned on it stopping to work. Glad for endurance and help in figuring out what it needed!

Shadows

Three gifts found in shadows. Hmmm...
Well, today was a self-inflicted shadow day: the whole day felt like I had a cloud over my head. Instead of choosing to obey, to trust, to rest, I choose to sulk. I chose to neglect joy. I chose to ignore gifts.
Yet He reached me through it.
My three gifts found in shadows:
~Truth through my lies.
~Joy through my sorrow.
~Praise for Him through my fullness of self.

Loosing, Finding, Making

I'm still behind, but that's ok :)
A gift found in loosing something: loosing my sense of "control" over my life.
In finding something: His joy in pain.
In making something: My current project!

How Does He Love me?

Yesterdays will have to do for today ;).
Yesterdays Joy Dare gifts to find were 3 ways I feel the love of God.
Simple yes?
Not at all.
But first I'll post my 3 ways:
~An extended time of prayer and Bible study. Learning to preach the gospel to myself and praise Him for hard things (more on that in a minute).
~Lunch with some of my favorite ladies followed by heart confetti cupcake making. The encouragement and joy brought cannot be measured.
~ A husband who loves me extravagantly day in and day out, not who just woos me on holidays.

That husband has encouraged me in the past to learn to preach the Gospel to myself on hard days.How  I knew what the truth is. Now I needed to  remind  myself of it. Speak the Word.

I got it, yea yea.

But I got it this week.

I got up on Monday not a mom. "Hope" again "gone". I wanted to mope. I wanted to cry and feel sorry for myself. Instead I praised God for His Soverignty and His goodness.His goodness had not changed. My joy should not therefore change.  He knows what is best for me, and for us and for our family.

This morning, I'll be brutally honest here, the last thing I wanted to do was get up and go to work. I feel lost, stuck and ready for change.

I laid in bed and prayed. I got up and praised.
And it worked. He gave me His joy, because as I thanked Him, for again, this was His perfect plan for us.
He is good.
Even when.
That's how much He loves me.

Doors

Todays Joy challenge: 3 gifts found behind doors today:
~My husband, hard at work at his job. He is a great provider!
~My home. God's provided us with a warm space large enough to practice hospitality. We've shared many movies, snacks, cups of tea and laughs in this wonderful space.
~Our Grace group (small group). Always a blessing.

Working, Hard

Well, I didn't update this yesterday! I was just beat by the end of the day.
I had been keeping a scrap of paper in my pocket at work earlier in the week and when I saw the gifts for today-3 gifts found in working-well, it fit :)
~The smell of coffee grinding (I never get tired of it!).
~Comfort given for grief by a co-worker to a customer.
~Oily coffee beans in hopper.

Todays are harder. 3 hard gifts. When Ann talks about these in her book she does not mean a spill in the kitchen or a scratch on the knee.
~Not knowing what direction the Lord is leading us in right now. (He can do anything with us from here!)
~ Not being where I "planned" to be in life right now (kids, in full-time ministry...) (His ways are better).
~Not having starting a family be within my control.

Sounds of Joy

I loved todays Joy dare gifts! 3 times I heard laughter today!
~A hearty belly laugh from the other side of the store.
~Behind the counter, laughing at one of the girls doing her Michael Jackson's "shriek" and little dance.
~ My husband and I laughing in the car over the commercial he wrote today.

Surprises, outside.

Three gifts found outside:
Snow softly falling.
Our backyard lake.
A piece of leftover Christmas.

3 surprise gifts (grace unexpected):
A little boy, looking at our in-counter garbage, talking to mom: "Does that go underground?!"
An unexpected Etsy/crafting conversation with a customer.
A burger waiting for me in the car after work!