This Year's Verses

All at the same time I was reading Praying Circles Around Your Children by Mark Batterson (loved that book!)  AND one of my favorite blogs (Specific post HERE).

Both of these ideas themed around the fact of praying for your kids.  "Praying" for my children was already a given, but both of these sources gave me the idea to designate Bible verses to each of my guys and pray for them through that verse.

Last year's verse was a shared verse:

"Let them grow in wisdom and stature and in favor of God and man."  (Luke 2:52)

Since this was the first time trying this, I decided to practice with the same verse for each of them.  This allowed me to think over verses all this year for the next year.  Verses that I felt would benefit them personally.  Individually.  Here's what I came up with:

Cameron, my cautious, inquisitive, planner and thinker:

Philippians 4:6 New Living Translation

"Don't worry about anything; instead pray about everything.  Tell God what you need and thank Him for all He has done."

Tate, my independent, determined, fearless two year old:

Proverbs 3: 5-6 ESV

"Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths."

Here's to another wonderful year that I get to pray for these boys.

Happy Birthday Sweet Tate!

My baby is 2 today.  He turned 2 yesterday, but he is still 2 today.  :)

Tate is a wonder and a joy.  He is extremely easy going and laid back.  His favorite thing to do is to jump off of high surfaces while yelling, "See that?!?!"  He is an amazing climber, his mom just loves that.


When he messes up at something he says, "Oh Maaaan!"

He adores his brother and loves to snuggle his mama.  He's sweet and gentle.

At the same time, he is more than capable of holding his own with a family wrestling match.  He often leads the pack.  He's weirdly coordinated and I even think athletic.  I know that's weird to say about a brand new 2 year old, but he really is.


Tate feels no need to follow anyone.  If his friends are all playing, he is perfectly okay with finishing up what he is doing before joining in, if he chooses to join in.  I hope that he will always have that confidence in himself.  He's wonderful at playing.

Flying Kites at the park?  I think I'll read a book instead.

He reads himself to sleep for every nap and every night.  I will walk in his room and see him lying in his bed looking up at a book before he nods off.  It's one of my favorite things I've ever seen.  He also knows all of his uppercase letters and tries to throw their sounds in there.


Everyone who knows Tate loves him.  Strangers who don't know him love him too.  He is really handsome and to most people, looks just like his dad.

2 years 3 months/July 2013 Sand Beach Maine

This year I prayed for Tate every day at some point that he "grow in wisdom and stature and in favor of God and man."  (Luke 2:52)  I am so grateful that God heard me because I feel that it is perfectly evident that he is daily answering that prayer.

Sweet Tate, keep on growing in wisdom and stature and in favor of God and man.  You will forever be the one who made made me a Mama again and taught me that my heart can grow bigger than I ever imagined!

Happy Birthday!

Throwback Thursday 2

I had a lot of fun incorporating "Throwback Thursday" into the bliggety blog last week.  I thought I'd try it again!

This post was originally posted in December of 2012 (here) when the blog was a brand new baby.  I still love the encouragement that I felt when she sent it to me.  I still love the sentiment that it brings in.  I still feel the same way.  I still put out the same offer.  Anything making your heart sing lately?  Send it my way!  I'd love to hear about it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Your Singing Hearts Again!

My bestie sent this to me via Facebook and I have to admit, I kind of loved it!  (126)



What I think that she was referring to when sending this and saying that it reminded her of me (so flattered!) was the post here about Giving.

Thank you friend!

If you have something that is making your heart sing, please send it to me or comment on any post on here and I would love to share it!

My Heart Sings

The Sun is up

The sky is blue,

It's beautiful,

and so are you.

Song Lyrics by The Beatles

He is Good. All the Time

This post is one that I have taken days to write.  Over the span of two weeks.  It is a post that I wanted to walk away from, come back to and see if I still liked the message as it was being conveyed.

I recently experienced what turned out to be a minor legal incident.  Long, (long, long) story short, I made a mistake regarding the speed limit and a local school zone.  In my minivan.  On my way to teach children at a school.  I know, how do I get myself into these situations right?  Rather than get a ticket, I received a court date.

I put this on TBMB this week but felt it was also good here!

I try to be very honest here on the blog, but sometimes in blog/social media land, it's easy to paint a picture of "all is well"  and "nothing ever goes wrong."  It is my goal to have a little corner of this vast internet, and to make my corner a bright, happy, inspiring place in the midst of the darkness that the Internet (and world) can sometimes be.  It is not my goal to paint a fake picture of perfection.  Today's story is a prime example.

So, the legal incident:  At first I was ruined.  Useless.  Pouty.  Nervous.  Yikes.  I had no idea what to do or expect.  No control whatsoever.

I don't believe that God creates "pain", (and no, this does not compare to most of the pain out there) but I do think that he is really good at using situations like this one to make me (maybe you?) a better person.

You see, I had no other choice but to try out this "give it up to God" scenario that I've always heard about.  What does that mean anyway?  Give it to God.

Well, in this case, I think it meant:

"God, Kelly here.  I messed up.  I'm not asking you to swoop in and fix my problems like a genie or something, (although, it wouldn't upset me if you did).  But I do want you to know, that I feel like you've got me and I trust you.  Whatever happens here, please be with me and guide me.  Show me that you are in control here and help me to put it into your hands, whatever that means."

This didn't all come out right away.  It wasn't some bright light moment.  It first came the next day when I prayed with my in-laws about it.  After that, resources began to pop up.  People who knew what they were talking about in situations like this one.  People who could tell me what the day was going to look like and worst case scenarios.  Sermons about bad things happening to good people.  Personal bible time that reflected verses of God's promises.

Somewhere in that process my prayer became:

"God, Jesus promised rest in Him. (in Matthew) Please just keep me and my over-thinking ball of anxiety brain calm.  Help me find rest in you"   Whenever I got worked up about it after that, I remembered this moment and felt calmer.

The day finally came.   I was nervous, yes, but I wasn't going to lose it.  I was ready to accept that I made a mistake and that it would be okay despite potentially bad outcomes.  I think that that is what God did for me.  He prepared me, he calmed me, he had me, and I was keenly aware of that in the moment.

God didn't promise that I would have a perfect life.  In fact, it's the opposite.  He said, you WILL have hard times.  Those are not going to go away, that's life.  (that's not a direct quote).  But God does promise that He has me and loves me.

I don't think that the answer to prayer here was to just fix it.  I think that the answer to prayer here chalks down to worship.  Did I sing songs to God in the court room?  No.  That's not what I meant.  But I feel like my understanding of the fact that He is God and I am not was really deepened.  And that is what I believe worship means.  (which on a side note, also really allows me to understand Job a little better.)

As far as court goes:  The day went better than expected.  I am very impressed with the judge in the short time that I spent in the room.  He seemed very understanding and appeared to show discernment (not just with me).  Maybe that's why he's a judge.  I am responsible for a (pretty hefty, no pun intended, but not as bad as it could be) fine as well as driving school.

This situation wasn't good.  But He is.  All the time.

Happy Valentine's Day

 "We love because he first loved us."  (322)

1 John 4:19 

Photo Cred for a personal fave

Happy Valentine's Day to you!

Love,

Us

Thank you for taking this journey with us.  You are loved! (323)

More is Caught Than Taught

I was recently running with a good friend of mine (who is also the mother of a college student and a high school student).  We were talking about my boys and how C is incredibly verbal and T is really coordinated/athletic and so on.

Of course I think that C is also active and T is also intelligent, but she reminded me of some good advice:

"More is caught than taught."  

In the context of the conversation, she was telling me to be careful about how I "label" my children.  She and I already have a close relationship where this kind of advice is appropriate.  She knows that I think that they are both amazing.  She also knows that they each have their own personalities and talents that should be showcased, but her advice was still poignant.  

Working with students and then meeting their parents is always a lot of fun to me.  Just today (after having a conference with a student's mom) I watched the student use the same exact mannerisms as I had seen in her mom earlier in the week.  It was dead on.  

I seriously doubt that the mom ever sat down and said, "now when you say this, put your eyebrows up like so."  But she learned it anyway.  

This Tampa Bay Mom's Blog post (particularly the last paragraph, not by me 308) is a lot like this.  When we're teaching our children how to do life, we aren't necessarily (yes, sometimes, but not always) sitting them down to talk about it.  We are modeling life.  

How we treat people, respond to crisis, respond to blessings, win, lose, pray, love our family members, give, react to bad drivers, carry ourselves, our self image, maintain eating and exercise lifestyles, how we treat the opposite gender.  All of these traits, and more, are caught, not (necessarily) taught.  

These sweet children are watching us.  Every day.  They are truly soaking us in.  While we're teaching them, they are also teaching us so much about life.  

I am so thankful for good advice and friends who are willing to give it.  (309) I am not telling you this today as a way to tell you how to parent, or even how to act in front of other people's children.  I am just sharing the recent aha moment that I had in my parenting, perhaps it can be an aha moment for you too.  

And boy am I thankful for aha moments. (310)

A Clean 2014!

I love Christmas.  Really, I do.  I love the decorations and the memories and just everything!  I did want to share the decor around the house with you.

276

The real point of today's post however, is that I LOVE January 1st.  That is clean up day in our home.

I wanted to title this post, "Naked" but I thought that title would bring in viewers of a genre that I didn't intend for.  : /

But naked is how I describe the January 1st Hefty home.  I spent yesterday doing a serious purge.  We don't have a whole lot of stuff to begin with, but we still managed to have unused items anyway!  I didn't even add any decorations because what we had was enough!

My two purging rules/mantras this year were:

1.  If I haven't used it in 2013 it's going.
2.  "Have nothing in your house that you don't find to be useful or believe to be beautiful."  (William Morris)

I think that deep down, I am a wannabe minimalist when it comes to decorating.  I think that what it really is though is that I'm a minimalist when it comes to cleaning.  For example, I have entire pieces of furniture that I'm kind of like, eh, do I need that?  The truth is, I really just don't want to dust it.

Either way, January 1st just feels good.  It's a wonderfully fresh new start, even for our little house and home.  (277)

Make sure you check back tomorrow to see about some 2014 goals that we have.  :)  

Children

"Children are not a distraction from more important work. They are the most important work." 

C.S. Lewis
476

Crafty Christmas Part I (474)

I'm not crafty.  I'm pretty bad at it.  Having said that, I got a teeny tiny bit crafty this Christmas.  Nothing over the top.  Nothing eye roll worthy.  Just some simple and sweet things.  Let's face it, sweet and simple, (and inexpensive) were the things that met my fancy here.

Like this:

This is really lovely at night with the lights from the tree lighting it.  But this "not a photographer" hasn't quite figured that out yet (see here if you don't believe me!) You can kind of see the lights twinkling in the reflection on the bottom left corner of the frame.

Here's what I needed:

1.  Computer print out with letters you want to use.
2.  Pretty paper of your choice
3.  Scissors
4.  String (I used baker's twine)
5.  Tape

Here's what I did:

1.  Find a font you like.  I tend to stick to a really chunky font with very few hard edges to cut around.
2.  Make the letters large enough to fit the letter sizes you want and print.

3.  I created a stencil out of the letters that I was going to use often using the cardboard from inside the package of paper that I used.

Because the paper that I was using was sparkly and textured, I turned it over to the backside and traced the letters BACKWARDS so that when I cut them out, they were facing the right direction and any pen marks were left on the back.

 4.  With the letters that were only used once, I simply cutout the paper with the font on it.  I did this on the front side of the paper because it didn't matter without the tracings.

.
5.  I kept count of the letters that I needed and crossed them out as I created them.
6.  Then I cut, cut, cut until I had all of the letters.
7.  At that point, I was ready to hang my banners.  I put frame hanging nails on either side of a large picture frame in the living room and tied the string on.
8.  Craftier people may have done this next part differently, but I used Scotch Tape to attach the letters.  Even looking at it right now live and in person, I can't see it.

And there you have it!  I wish that you could see the sparkles that are brought out in the letters, but you'll just have to use your imagination!  

My Inspiration Today

445

These are words that I am clinging to today.  I am a huge fan of finding inspiration through scripture.  Even small ones like this.  I love to pick verses to apply to different parts of my life.  I even pray verses specifically for my children.

Having said that, I feel that a lot of confusion is sometimes created when reading bible verses all by themselves like this one.  I feel that that is where many misconceptions and different interpretations come into play.  I should say, that this contributes, there will still be different perspectives.  Kind of like the verse that talks about it being harder for rich people to get into heaven than a camel going through the eye of a needle.  Without context that verse has been torn apart and misconstrued and put into a lot of weird places.

Either way, allow me to share this, Matthew 5:6 is coming from the Sermon on the Mount.  Basically, Jesus has been baptized, met some of his disciples, was tempted by Satan during his fast, and began his ministry.  He actually spoke these words in a section of the Bible (in the Sermon on the Mount) called the Beatitudes.

I feel that Jesus came and rocked the world.  He really shook up a place and time where religion had taken over and worship was being misplaced by rules and statuses.  He says a lot of things that aren't necessarily easy for strict law followers to grasp.  Things that this girl sometimes often has to revisit and put in check.  Things like, instead of an eye for an eye, turn your cheek.  Etc.

Now that there is a very (very,very, very) short and detail lacking Kelly version of a context I want to get to my point.  This verse is inspiring me today.  In a world of busy and crazy, I start to question what I am hungry and thirsty for.  What are my priorities?  For crying out loud, how many priorities am I going to have before nothing is a priority anymore?  What are my motives?  Are they focused on righteousness?  Jesus?  Others?  or are they focused on Kelly?

Oh, and don't forget the comma.  The Bible is so good at adding "so's" and "therefores" and commas.  Sometimes these also lead to misconceptions.  People stop reading and don't read really good parts!  Just like the bus driver tells us about the Pigeon driving his bus, "Don't forget the comma!"

This time the comma is the best part, this time it's a promise folks!  "for they shall be satisfied".(446)  Sigh.  Swoon.

How I am taking this today is:

"Kelly.  Hunger and thirst for righteousness.  This is how you will be blessed.  I promise, you'll be satisfied."

That is what I am pondering over today.  I hope it inspires you.

By the way, Dictionary.com says this:

right·eous

  [rahy-chuhs]  Show IPA

adjective

1.

characterized by uprightness or morality: a righteous observance of the law.

2.

morally right or justifiable: righteous indignation.

3.

acting in an upright, moral way; virtuous: a righteous and godly person.

4.

Slang. absolutely genuine or wonderful: some righteous playing by a jazz great.

My Heart is Singing Because Her Heart is Singing!

This was taken off of one of my longtime friend's Facebook pages.  I have known Amber for more than half of my life and I am absolutely delighted that she has been so blessed with her new sweet baby.  Even though they live on (literally) the other side of the country, I feel blessed to watch her family grow, read about her testimony, and witness the blessings in her life.  Even if it's from a distance.

She really inspires me (probably more than she knows).  She takes awesome pictures on Instagram and posts good news and encouraging thoughts all the time through Facebook.  She posted this a few days ago, and I loved her wording.  I got permission to post it here as soon as I could, so that you could enjoy:

"They said we probably couldn't have kids, God said he's due on June 18th. They said because of my heart medication he will grow smaller, God said I'm making him a little butterball. They said I wouldn't be able to breast feed, God said I give My children their hearts desires, & they said he should have my genetic heart condition... GOD SAID HE DOESN'T! "For I know the plans I have for you declares The Lord!" This child is nothing short of a miracle and already is such a testimony! James-Thomas Ezekiel Wathen, God put the breath inside of you, He made that perfect heart beat, and he made your bones strong! Let us never forget Who holds us in His hands!"

I am so happy for you and your family Amber!  Thank you for making my heart sing!  

The Rest of Spring Break

It's Sunday.  The last Sunday of our glorious spring break.  I'm trying to live by the Dr. Seuss quote:

"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."

I am so pumped for summer and wanted to give you a recap of the rest of the week.  This is where we left off:

Haircut

Target trip (to actually buy a couple of things)

Work at the St. Pete Grand Prix

Legoland (?)

Pottery Barn Craft Day (Free!)

Busch Gardens

Sleep (haha, yeah right)

Yard work

Build Forts

Do Nothing

Wednesday was, as you know, the mall

This was followed by some "doing nothing".  Today this involved a serious play time in what is apparently our favorite room, the "well lit" laundry room.  

Hide and go seek

We found you!

Thursday was our famous trip to Busch Gardens.  We saw animals, rode rides, hugged friends from Sesame Street, and had a GREAT time!  We can't wait to go back.  

Friday and Saturday we relaxed.  We took our time getting out of our pajamas.  We played in the yard.  We played in the play room. We played in our forts.  We just played.  Oh and we had some yogurt in our best Hawaiian head gear.

What a fantastic little break.  My heart is truly singing after all of this great time with my guys!  Let the countdown to summer begin!

Body Appreciation Day

I invented a holiday for today.  I kind of feel like there's a day for everything these days, so why not?

My body is still pretty young, but it's gotten me through a lot of stuff.  It has grown, had, and nourished 2 people, run 2 half marathons, gotten over sicknesses without antibiotics (and with antibiotics), healed scrapes, burns, and bruises, and so on and so on.

In fact, when I have ever had any doubts in my faith, it hasn't taken me very long to start thinking about the human body with all of its intricacies and that cemented my faith even further.  I love a good dose of faith connected with science fusion!

Here's what got me thinking along these lines:

                     "Learn to appreciate and give dignity to your body," (1 Thessalonians 4:4 MSG)

You can take this wherever you'd like.  But in honor of my holiday, I think that I am going to take it for a run.  It's pretty gorgeous outside, my body is SO capable and it deserves a nice activity!

A Quote

If you happened to catch this week's message, then you'll recognize this quote:

"Faithfulness is the dividing line between mediocrity and excellence."

That is a quote that goes into all facets of life. (225) 

A big example of a tangible example of this in my life running.  In faithfully training for running I have gone from running a couple of miles a week to over 20 miles a week, sometimes 10 or more at one session.  (226)

This quote resonated with me and my constant feeling of wanting to be at the top of the mountain before enjoying the hike.  

Where do I want excellence?  Where do you want excellence?  The key:  Faithfulness.  

This quote is helping me as I continue on my "It's not about me" goal for this week and try to focus my faithfulness toward others.  I hope that it can be an encouragement for you also.  

The Message

*Thank you for being patient with me on my small holiday hiatus.  This much needed time with my guys has been refreshing and wonderful.  Now I am looking forward to getting back to normal.  

Oh my heavens!  I know I say this every week but this week's message was a good one!  We just started a new series (today) called Blueprint talking all about God's plan.  If there was ever a message series designed for me, then this would be it.

Their words in my words: (AKA the condensed version)

• The plan= Follow Jesus
• Matthew 4:19 "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men."
• Matthew 28: 19-20 Same plan, different time
• Are you thinking, "Ugh, follow Jesus?" That means the Plan= "believing and behaving".  Well, I have thought this before too, but in actuality that's not it at all!  In fact, Jesus wasn't even much for "behaving" when it came to the cultural and religious rules/norms.  He got in there and really mixed things up.
• Allow the message to encourage you to look at it like this:  The Plan= adventure and abundance 
• A step further:  Adventure goes along with amazement and a little bit of fear.  How popular is the concept of "Do something everyday that scares you?" Don't believe me?  Allow these pinners who have nothing to do with today's message or this blog to tell you:



Pinterest Source HERE



Pinterest Source HERE

Pinterest Source Here

There is actually a lot more to this message than I am even sharing with you here today.  If you are interested in hearing the message, you can go HERE

Source HERE

Merry Christmas!

For

Unto

you is

born this

day in the 

city of David

a savior which

is Christ the Lord

Luke

2:11

(148)

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas!  I hope that your heart is singing a happy song today. 

#notyourtypicalfamilyphoto :)

Promise

In the Circle Maker I learned a new strategy that has really helped me.  (130)  I don't "read" the Bible.  I pray through it.

This has seriously changed my outlook on the Bible.  So here's what I do, I read until something (or few somethings) really jumps out of the page at me.  I circle or underline it and focus on what it is trying to say.  I feel like those points that are jumping out at me are what I need to hear that day, so I pray them.

With this new strategy, I don't just read, put it away and go on with my day.  I focus in on that "prayer" and it has really helped me in my life.  It's become useful and applicable.

For example,

"Keep it up and don't let anyone intimidate or silence you.  I'm with you and no one is going to be able to hurt you."  (Acts 18:8 MSG, paraphrased:  131)

Ever since reading this promise I have been reminding myself of it and have been more courageous.  I have brought up things that were bugging me (and had them resolved like grown ups do), I have stepped out of my comfort zone when it comes to including people in my thoughts.  I have even blogged! (132)

 He is far bigger than my minor social anxieties that I am carrying around and that's a promise! (133)

A picture of a braver me!  Haha.  This isn't really related, I just wanted a picture!

HUGE News 73

I have a slight confession...  I wrote this post on Sunday.  I knew already that it had sold and that it was scheduled to close this week (potentially, you know how these things go).  The house pictured below has SO many reasons for my heart to sing attached to it. 

 Another confession...  My heart has not always sung about this house.  Well, perhaps it was singing, but it was one of those annoying, whiny songs that have way too many long, drawn out notes.  You see, it has been a huge financial burden on our little family for a really long time now, but as you'll see below, it has come full circle.  

Not a photographer.  

This may be longer than my average post, but this is a truly monumental turning point for us.

74.  This was our first home as a young married couple.  When we came home from our Honeymoon, this is where we came.  We're one of those old school couples that didn't live together before getting married so we really started out together right here.

75.  We got to experience that new married couple old house fun, like a broken AC (the first time we turned it on.  After the inspection), a flooded garage (resulting in a new washer and dryer, and a busted dishwasher the first time we used it.  Those seemed stressful, but deep down, I loved every second of it.

76.  We put a lot of love and personal touch into this house and with that came a huge sense of satisfaction and personalization.  The inside was pretty much done (besides issues noted above) when we bought it, but the outside was...  Ugh.  We laid a concrete driveway and patio in the back, we made the little garden, we laid all of the sod (by hand.  the week of our wedding), put in a fence, and put up the pretty front door.

77.  We were privileged to be "landlords" of this house to our besties.  It was so fun to watch another brand newly married couple get off to a great start of their marriage in this little home.  I hope that they will always think of their times under that roof as happy ones and I hope that they can think of this house as a blessing to them also.

78.  This house brought me to a whole new level when it came to praying.  What happened with the sale of this house was completely out of my control.  The Circle Maker  book that I am completely obsessed with talks about praying through...  AKA keep on praying and pray hard.  I had worked like it depended on me and the only thing that I could do after that was to pray like it depended on God.  He came through.  Big time.  Honestly, this is the first time that this control freak was able to step back and let it go.

79.  I think that there might be some kind of theory about needing information and just then the right kind of teacher shows up (I'm really bad at phrases).  I wanted to share this quote that I came across just this week. Coincidence?  Maybe, but how many coincidences does one have to experience before they start thinking that it is coming from elsewhere?

"We continue to shout our praise even when we're hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we're never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary - we can't round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!"- (Paul, Romans 5:2-5)

Right now, my containers feel pretty over-flowy!  Patience is so hard sometimes, but in the end, it always makes sense!  Even what I considered troubles can make sense now.  Do I like them, no way, but I feel like I "get" them now.

Now I hope that this house can bless it's new homeowner.  It's amazing what it has done for us. 

Farewell to 4348.

The Weekend

SIDENOTE:  I want to invite you to share your thoughts and reasons for your heart to sing.  Please feel welcome to add comments at the end of any and all posts.  I don't think that singing hearts should have to sing solo, and I don't expect everyone to take on this challenge via blog, so feel free to share! 

Friday (11) is my personal favorite day of the week.  There's just something so refreshing about having the next few days off to be with family and friends.

We often have dinner with our favorites on Friday nights (12).  Then we watch Shark Tank together.  It's simple but so fun.

Note to self:  Take more current picture of our friends with our children (sheesh!)

I want to end this week with one of my favorite quotes (13):

                                                 "Your joy will be a river overflowing it's banks."    

By the way, if I were to name the color of this font, I think I'd choose River.  (Tangent anyone?)

Here's the reason I love this quote so much:

I don't just consider it to be a quote, but a promise.  It's from this really great book (you may have heard of it) the Bible.  It's in the book of John.  I am currently reading the "Message" version, which is in modern day language and easy to understand. (14)

Jesus is actually talking here.  I know what my beliefs are about Jesus (I'll be happy to tell you all about them).  I don't know what your beliefs are, but either way Jesus was a really quotable man.  This is not a downplay on his holiness but a character trait that I feel describes him when he was walking around on Earth.  He had an amazing outlook on life, leadership, love, and many other things.    

Anyway, I started really counting on this promise.  I pray it all the time and since I've read it and started praying it, I notice things that bring me joy every day, and trust me, they're everywhere.  Hence, this blog.  So as I leave until Monday, I hope that you can find joy in your day, weekend, week, month, year, and so on.

If you're having a hard time, you can remember this promise.  If you're finding it easy, tell me all about it!