Verse of the Day Proverbs 17:9 |
New International Version Whoever would foster love covers over an offense, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends. Read at Bible Gateway Read all of Proverbs 17 |
Category: Joy
Who is in you!
4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
1 John 4:4
Remember this verse as we go into the next year!
May God bless all of you, as we embrace Him and each other.
Sitting in Heavenly Places
Pondering, letting my thoughts go upward and all around me up to HIM, I constantly Sit in Heavenly Places. It’s joy unspeakable! ~ Sharon
ABC’s of Salvation
Kindling
We are the World! Happy New Year!
Praying for blessings to all of you around the world. May we all come together to find what is best in each of us. Love surely is better than hate. Working together, standing together, loving together will make the difference. If you are upset about something, find your voice. Go on Twitter, Facebook, start a Website, care and share positive ideas and progressive thinking instead of crying in a corner. We can all light the place where we stand and that light will shine enough to change things.
Be blessed with much love, joy, and happiness!
Sharon & Erick
There comes a time when we heed a certain call
When the world must come together as one
There are people dying
And its time to lend a hand to life
The greatest gift of all
We can’t go on pretending day by day
That someone, somehow will soon make a change
We are all a part of Gods great big family
And the truth, you know,
Love is all we need
We are the world, we are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So lets start giving
Christmas
So happy to be sharing this amazing day with all of you. Hoping you are having a wonderful, blessed, full-of-love day. If any of you are alone today, we reach out to you to let you know you are never alone because we love you and are with you in spirit. Remembering those who are no longer with us and feeling the loss of their presence. Sharon and Erick
Why I love Christmas
When Christ was born, so was our hope! This is why I love Christmas. The event invites us to believe the wildest of promises! He did away with every barrier, fence, sin, bent, debt, and grave. Anything that might keep us from him was demolished.
He only awaits our word to walk through the door. Invite him in. Escort him to the seat of honor, and pull out his chair. Clear the table; clear the calendar. Call the kids and neighbors. Christmas is here. Christ is here. One request from you, and God will do again what he did then. He’ll scatter the night with everlasting light. He’ll be born in you.
Let “Silent Night” be sung! Every heart can be a manger. Every day can be a Christmas. The Christmas miracle—a yearlong celebration! ~Max Lucado
Press On!
Choosing to Love
Kindness
Be kind and compassionate to one another. Ephesians 4:32
Standing, Stronger Together
My Note: This is a great example of people standing together for what is right. I am 1/64th Creek Indian, so this whole situation has been tearing at my heart. I am so impressed and inspired by the resolve of all the people who were protesting.
Bernie Sanders
I appreciate very much President Obama listening to the Native American people and millions of others who believe this pipeline should not be built. In the year 2016, we should not continue to trample on Native American sovereignty. We should not endanger the water supply of millions of people. We should not become more dependent on fossil fuel and accelerate the planetary crisis of climate change. Our job now is to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels, not to produce more greenhouse gas emissions.
Who can add to Christmas?
Worried Enough to Pray?
by Max Lucado |
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God’s Agape Love
Paul reminded the church at Corinth the kind of love Christ offers to us– Agape love that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.” Don’t we need the same prescription today? Don’t groups still fight with each other? Don’t we flirt with those we shouldn’t? Aren’t we sometimes quiet when we should speak?
Someday there will be a community where everyone behaves and no one complains. But it won’t be this side of heaven. So till then we reason, we confront, and we teach. But most of all we love. Such love isn’t easy. Not even for Jesus. Listen to his frustration in Mark 9:19: “You people have no faith. How long must I stay with you? How long must I put up with you? How long? Until it kills me! Jesus bore all things, believed all things, hoped all things, and endured all things! Even the cross.
From A Love Worth Giving
Loving Like God Loves
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The Lost Art of Listening
I was listening to a podcast recently by two of my favorite human beings — Emily P. Freeman of Chatting at the Sky and Myquillyn Smith of The Nesting Place (this podcast is called, Hope*Ologie and I recommend it as a sort of Vitamin D for the soul). Anyway, they were each taking a turn answering listener questions but soon discovered that while one was sharing their answer the other was inevitably not listening because they were too busy trying to think up their own answer.
It made me laugh.
It made them laugh.
Listening to friends laughing while you’re folding laundry is a great way to start a week.
But it got me thinking.
Because some days I think friendship feels like that — one person sharing and another person thinking about what they’re going to say. Instead of listening to what’s being said.
Some days a friend is trying to share and instead of laying down all the things we’re mentally fiddling around with and focusing our heads, hearts, eyes, and mouths at our friend, we’re actually preoccupied with a sort of mental gymnastics planning what WE want to say next.
Sometimes I imagine those conversations like this:
Friend: Gah, I’m so sad today. I feel stupid and dumb at my job, and there’s this weird nagging loneliness I can’t seem to shake.
Me: (internally thinking: Oh man, I know EXACTLY how that feels — this week has been the WORST. Just wait till I tell her about how I blew that deadline and how I’m sure my boss thinks I’m stupid and why won’t my kids go to bed on time anymore.)
Friend takes a breath: —-
Me: Oh man, I know EXACTLY how that feels — this week has been the WORST. Just wait till I tell you about how I blew that deadline and how I’m sure my boss thinks I’m stupid and why won’t my kids go to bed on time anymore.
Friend: (stranded and without a way to steer the conversation back to the encouragement they so desperately need just feels even lonelier instead).
The thing is, sometimes it’s not our turn to talk.
“Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear.” {James 1: 19-21, MSG}
Sometimes, listening is the most powerful gift we can give a friend. Especially when they’re trying to share something that feels vulnerable to them or that feels vulnerable to us — for example, when they feel misunderstood and they’re trying to tell us about it.
Because sometimes our determination to speak before we’re properly done listening is an act of self-defense. We load our responses, our arguments, and our words up in front of us to block out what’s being said and lob our own point of view out into the conversation instead.
Nothing will shut down true communication faster.
But nothing will disarm a friend more than the grace you grant them when you listen with palms up and walls down — inviting their hurt or their joy, their exhaustion or their delight, their fear or their fun, into your own self so you can understand it from the inside out.
Nothing is more powerful than giving someone the gift of truly hearing them without tagging on your own conditions, explanations, or justifications.
Here are three easy ways to put this into practice:
1. Listen to the whole story before you start formulating a response.
2. Ask follow-up questions.
3. Repeat the key parts of what you heard, empathizing with them.
Question for you: What makes you feel truly heard? Let’s crowd-source some of the best ways we can revive the lost art of listening well.
You are loved!
Just wanted you to know
on this day,
and every day,
You are loved.
Not only by your creator,
but by me.
Have a blessed Valentine’s Day,
knowing,
no matter what,
YOU ARE LOVED!