Joy

my friend Jen shared something with me last week that she just 

randomly scribbled on her black board .... 

Choose Joy. 

Man. Sometimes, Some moments, 

it is so very very hard to Choose Joy. 

why is it so dang hard??

I looked up this verse..

and made a little reminder that God wants us to choose joy. 

no matter what. 

and after i made that I got a little carried away with 

some choose joy 

prints. 

I LOVE FONTS. 

I have a lot of FONTS. 

(and all of them were absolutely free.)

Go check out my pinterest and look under 

digital and lovely little letters. 

and you can have lots of free fonts too.

you can also take these files and print them out and hang them on 

every wall in your home.

 Its fine.
Plaster them all around you so you remember to Choose Joy and be Cheerful. 

because, well, its our job. 

God told us to do it 

NO MATTER WHAT. 

Have a great day. go and choose some JOY.

xoxo

amy

verses

If there was ever a verse I felt was written just for me it would be

proverbs 31:13

I looked it up in many different translations. 

this one is my favorite. 

It is the Darby Translation. 

If you are ever interested in reading a verse in all different translations

Bible Gateway is an awesome reference .

I also thought this one was neat as well

She hath sought wool and flax, and hath wrought by the counsel of her hands.

that is the Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition

oh well.  I find these things interesting. 

Is it just me? 

Reflecting

We had news on Monday that a man from our church 

had passed away. 

He leaves behind a a 14 year old daughter that still lives at home.

He has several other children but they are all grown men and women and

live in the mid west. 

He also leaves behind his terminally ill wife who the daughter took care of much of the time. 

I just can't stop thinking about this girl. 

She is Sara's age. 

We just never NEVER know what God has planned for

our lives. 

We just can't seem to imagine how it will all 

work for HIS good. 

(but it will) 

I have been through enough circumstances in my life to 

realize that God's plans are not my plans, 

but yet they always are the best plans. 

I know that this is something people say all the time, 

Maybe it has become Cliche' but 

it is the truth. 

Life is short and fleeting. 

we are only here for a very very small amount of time. 

We need to remember to have faith through all circumstances 

and seasons of our lives. 

This little girl who just lost her Father. and essentially lost her mother years ago, 

She is still blessed. 

She is strong in her faith. 

She still can turn to her loving Father

and know he only has plans to prosper and not harm. 

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 

Jeremiah 29:11

I LOVE this verse. 

It is one I have to go back to a lot. 

* sara and her friend took these pictures. 

when I was looking thru  Iphoto today I happened upon them.  

honeycomb

I read today. 

Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. 

Proverbs 16:24

wow, that is such an incredible word picture. 

 Have you ever seen honeycomb? 

It is just ooozing with goodness. 

dripping and lovely. 

I guess I got yelled at a lot as a child. 

So in turn, I suppose I am a parent who seems to yell a lot as well. 

This is bad.

 I really really dislike this about myself. 

I need to focus on the good and drippy honeycomb words that

flow from my mouth to my children's ears. 

I need to encourage rather then to beat down. 

I need to learn to walk away 

rather then to have the last hurtful word. 

I watched Michelle Duggar encourage her child the other day. 

She encouraged her child to do something that needed to be done

but the child was frightened. 

Man, I was slapped in the face by the example 

where she encouraged, I would have lost my patience

 and just gotten angry and yelled. 

Which in turn gets NOTHING accomplished. 

I need to keep these things in mind when Parenting or being a wife or

just being a neighbor. 

I need work. 

God is not finished with me ...

not even close. 

I need to admit my weakness and then make a conscious effort to change it. 

Here I am. this is me. 

Imperfectly Beautiful. 

I need to focus on choosing words to encourage. 

I love Proverbs. they are incredibly useable. 

Friend

A friend sent me this yesterday,
The subject was this reminds me of you.




She can deal with stress and carry heavy burdens. She smiles 
when she feels like screaming, and she sings when she feels like crying. She 
cries when she's happy and laughs when she's afraid. Her love is 
unconditional. There's only one thing wrong with her. She forgets what she's 
worth!


How many of us do this? We carry around these heavy burdens. We try to do all this alone.
We forget that we have to be stretcher bearers for one another.
Well i have truly been blessed to have just that friend. One who prays for me. Who wakes up in the middle of the night,To do so.... who sends me verses. Meaningful verses. It is lovely.

We all need a friend like that, we do all have a friend like that in Christ. One who gladly takes all our heavy burdens. Our rejections, our failures, our sin. He loves us like no other.

What a blessing this is.

This verse came to mind while i was writing this post.
I like to read the verse in serval different translations. This one spoke to me.


Psalm 23:4
Good news translation

 4 Even if I go through the deepest darkness,
      I will not be afraid, Lord,
      for you are with me.
   Your shepherd's rod and staff protect me.

Have a blessed day. I pray that you have found a friend like this in Christ. I also pray that Christ will provide you with a friend like this here on earth.

Quilt a metaphor for my life?

Last year Jen and I took a trip to Lancaster, PA. 

While on that fabulous Fun trip I bought lots and lots of 

my very favorite fabrics .... 1930's repro.

I have always had a love of these fabrics. 

I knew that I wanted to make HUGE dresden plates out of them

and make a quilt for my bed. 

I also purchased red fabric for the sashing... it is an odd choice

for me since I don't really love red all that much. 

It was a labor of love hand stitching all those wedges together to

make each Dresden. 

I cut all the sashing and got to work. 

I put the quilt top together...

I HATED IT! 

Seriously Loathed it. 

All I saw was the red. 

eww. 

I didn't even take a picture of it. 

I folded it up and put it away. 

I did tell my Mom about it. 

She kept telling me that she would pull it apart....

She took it and ripped out all the stitches.

(What a MOM) 

she then carefully washed 12 HUGE blocks 

rolled them and placed them carefully into a bag.

Which I carefully placed onto a shelf into my closet. 

I wanted to forget about it. 

I was annoyed and frustrated by it.

It was not how I envisioned it. 

My Mother knowing how much work went into 

all those blocks kept at me. 

"lets take it up to Kindred Quilts and figure this out" She'd say.

So one day in the fall we did just that. 

I picked out a cream color Kona to do all the sashing with. 

A wonderful Lady won owns the shop figured out all the math for the sashing and the all that

stuff that goes into a quilt. 

We came home and the fabric sat and sat. 

Mom finally cut it last week. 

(I was in no hurry) 

Mind you I have no directions for this quilt... 

it was something that was in my head 

Also, I am not a quilter.... really I am not. 

Quilters would not consider me to be a QUILTER. 

with that said. 

I actually started to get excited about getting the quilt top together. 

So I began. 

Got it together... and realized that I had pieced it together all wrong. 

Oh I was not happy. 

but, I was going to leave it. I was going to leave it together wrong, 

because I was frustrated and sick of this quilt. 

My Mom dropped in yesterday. I brought out the quilt top to show her...

"Amy, I will rip it apart for you." she told me again. 

No Mom, No. I don't want you too.... 

She took it anyway. 

She sat and drew me a picture of how it is supposed to look.

Of how it will be when It is finally finished. 

How could I have seen it so differently in my mind

I loved the idea of it. I loved the vision I had

standing in a tiny little quilt shop in Lancaster with Jen, a year ago. 

The vision I had was so different then the one that my

Mom had just loving drawn out for me to see. 

She had showed me that what will be the finished 

quilt is more beautiful then anything I would have ever imagined 

or dreamt of in my head.  

  I received an email from her last night that simply said. 

(All unwanted stitches removed, ready for a good pressing, and then ready to stitch!  
Didn't, take long.   Talk to you on Sunday,  Mom) 

Which started me thinking. 

that quilt is like my life. 

I had a grand dream of what I wanted it to be. 

I wanted to quickly stitch up some pieces of fabric together. 

Held together by more pieces of thread and fabric. and when I thought 

I had finished it I disliked it. 

My Mother, like My Heavenly Father told me, 

I will take it out for you. I will help you to make it the way it is supposed to be. 

(and he does that for me, when I let HIM)

and He has done that for me my entire life. 

And My Mother showed me that in helping me with this quilt.

No, I wouldn't have dreamt this life for me. 

I wouldn't have chosen this  bumpy road or journey for my life. 

I didn't envision it this way, But When God looks at our Whole lives

He sees the completed Quilt. 

He sees all the unwanted stitches. He sees all the scars. 

He sees where he has mended us. and Healed us. 

and carried us along. 

He sees the beautiful Quilt that my Mom drew out for me yesterday. 

That he can use to bring others to Him. 

If I can touch one person with the trials that I have gone thru in my life,

Then every bump, scar, bruise is worth it.

Because in the end, He will take that quilt even with all its imperfections

(and it will be more loved and beautiful for them) 

 I am more loved and blessed and beautiful for every scar I have. 

I am more desired and gifted then I ever allow myself to feel. 

I have a precious, precious gift of my  life. 

No one else has my story. It is only mine. 

and I am so grateful for it. 

I needed this quilt to be a reminder of all that I just wrote about. 

I needed to make every single mistake

so that I could allow correction to take place and heal my heart. 

Thank you Lord,  that you used my Mom to show me that lesson. 

Thank you Mom that you allowed God to work in you to help me. 

This verse has been in my head all week. 

I found it on pinterest and I understand why now. 

I recreated it and please fell free to take it. it is high res so you can print it out if you want to. 

Romans 5:8

The Message (MSG)

 ^6-8Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn't, and doesn't, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him. 

*revision to this post. 

The image above was recreated by me, 

I  found it on PINTEREST. 

I didn't have a direct link back to the 

picture. until now. Mollie at 

http://crookedtooth.tumblr.com/

emailed me to let me know that the image was indeed hers. 

just to be clear, I just was so moved by it that I honestly and truly recreated it in Photoshop.

sorry to offend anyone. 

what direction will you go....

I have had this lamp for maybe 15 years. 

I bought it and rewired it and 

made it good as new. 

I love it. 

It has traveled with me to all the places we have ever called home. 

It needed a new shade... 

so I ran down to Target bought a white one and 

I thought it needed a little something. 

Ahh, maps. 

So I grabbed an Atlas and some Mod Podge

and started to rip and glue. 

and I was happy. 

Sorry for the dark photos it was night.... 

and have I ever shown you my little turtle...

Heather Bailey. I bought the kit about a year ago..

I didn't have any polyfill to stuff her with so I used rice. 

Makes her good and heavy. 

We have been experiencing a few bumps in the road as of late...

and Jen sent me this verse yesterday. 

Which helped. 

No not worry but instead  pray  & do it with Thanksgiving. 

I need to put it in our Father's very capable hands. 

I need to give it to HIM. 

He can handle it when we can't. 

We  ( I ) need to do this with everything. 

EVERYTHING. 

So what direction will you go. 

are you going to worry..... 

or instead are you going to pray about everything and Thank Him

for everything he has done. 

Everything trial every bump in the road... 

Everything. 

Feel free to copy this verse. That I have made

Print it out....  or send it to costco and have it made in poster size 

Hang it on your wall so that you can be reminded to Give it to HIM. 

and be Thankful.