All posts tagged: Joy

A Merry Heart: The Gift of Laughter

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*Revised from May 20, 2016 “The most wasted of all days is the one without laughter.” ~E.E CUMMINGS Laughter, like food, is the one other universal language that every person on this planet not only enjoys but needs to survive. Laughter is the music that is never out of tune. It is the one song that we all can sing, and find ourselves singing along with even if we can’t explain why. Laughter is a gift, a precious gift given to us from Christ Jesus and one that we can give to others. It is a fire that burns nothing but calories! And who doesn’t like that? Laughter is priceless. Be sure to treasure it and share it with those around you. No day or heart is complete without it. “A merry heart does good like medicine…” ~PROVERBS 17:22 ~Dream. Imagine. Believe. Do. CONQUER!

Jesus, the Oil of Joy: A Poem by Briana Lassiter

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This is a poem about the symbolic oil of Joy that is made from Myrhh and only offers it’s sweet scent once it’s been crushed. Joy on the inside, joy from within. This is joy; the joy you win. Crushed and bruised, this is released, the oil of joy, the oil of peace. The joy You’ve put into me cultivated with care, now is released. It is all you, Jesus my joy. Strength, peace, confirming, fighting, killing, declaring. These are the things that joy enables when crushed beyond belief. This is it! This is the way, this is joy. A heart that is white, a heart that is clean, a heart that is trusting, what is unseen. Friendship and love, never-ending, not losing, This is the oil, pour it over everything *Photo by MI PHAM on Unsplash By Briana Lassiter I’m married to my dearest friend of 8 years and mom to an energetic 6-year-old. My greatest joys come from traveling with my little family, cooking for appreciative recipients, learning herbalism and natural medicine, and every experience I …

Today is a Good Day: Being Grateful for Those Around Us

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*Revised from November 18, 2016 “Today is a good day! Why? Because you’re in it, I’m in it, and we’re in it together! Praise Jesus for making this day!” ~CANDICE COATES The Psalmist said it best Psalm 118: 24 when they said, “This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.” What a blessing it is to not only know that the Word of the Lord is the truth, but to also choose to live it out. The glory of this life is that the Lord did not design it or us to do it alone (GENESIS 2:18). He created us as communal creatures, beings destined for relationship. When we take the time to celebrate those who the Lord has blessed us to do life with, whether that is for a season or for many years to come, we find it hard to not walk in joy. My prayer for each of us this week is to allow the Lord to shift our focus and to enable us …

The Joy in Trusting & Waiting: Faith for Creatives

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“But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You; Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them; Let those also who love Your name Be joyful in You. For You, O Lord, will bless the righteous; With favor You will surround him as with a shield.” ~PSALM 5:11-12 What I have learned looking back over the recent last near twenty years of my life and faith-walk with Christ is that deliverance from the Lord always comes, and there is such joy when it does! And I am not talking about relief which is also a beautiful thing, but pure joy. No matter how long it takes, no matter how bad it looks, the Lord always shows up in a mighty and perfect way because He is faithful. The struggle of trusting, however, comes in the tangent of waiting. Waiting leaves room for our minds to wander in the direction of doubt. Waiting allows the situations and circumstances to sour. But waiting also gives us the opportunity to grow. Waiting really puts our trust to the test. Will we hold on …

The Many Realms Of Romance

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“The beauty of Romance is birthed from the thought of what could be.” ~CANDICE COATES In light of the season revolving around romance in the ‘love’ sense, I felt lead to share this quote that, like countless others, came to me several years ago. The meaning of it is pretty straight forward, although I believe that that romance itself is often shoved into a singular pocket of expression and definition. Whenever most people hear the word, ‘romance’ they initially think, “Girl lonely for Guy, finds Guy within the cliche environment, and then they are in love, DESPERATELY in love.” Romance. The thing is, romance is far broader than that. If you look up the definition of the word, you are going to pretty much get what I described above with this grand definition lost in the shadows and often over looked: Romance: spirit of adventure: a spirit or feeling of adventure, excitement, the potential for heroic achievement, and the exotic* First, as a fiction and non-fiction author who is exploring the genre of clean-read-romance, I would …

Five Ways to Maintain Creative Joy

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Being a creative person is a gift, one that is inherent to us all. Whether you are a writer or an artist, an educator or a parent imagining a new way to get your kids to eat their broccoli, you are operating in your creative nature. For those us who want to take our creative passion to the next level and turn our hobbies into lucrative business ventures, we run the risk of facing burnout. This burnout isn’t just from working nonstop on something awesome. This burnout comes from being unprepared for the reality in the shift that we are making. When our passion becomes a business there is another level of accountability that we have to step into, a level that is not as ‘fun’ as creating itself but just as necessary if we are to be successful. With that in mind, I want to encourage you on ways to keep the glow of joy in your creating even as you stretch beyond your comfort zone and begin to make your passion available to …

Bread of Heaven: A Word of Rejoicing

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Revised from July 27, 2015 “Your Words were found, and I fed on them, and Your Word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. For Your Name is called on me, O Lord God of Hosts.” ~JEREMIAH 15:16 When I read this yesterday afternoon, I absolutely wept with thanksgiving. The words of truth and revelation came to life in an instant as I basked in the glorious presence of King Jesus in worship and adoration. So often, people miss the graciousness of God and His lavish love for His children. Although we lift our hands as an offering to Him, we are the ones who receive. “Your words were found, and I fed on them.” Christ Jesus is the Living Word of God and He alone is the Bread of Heaven. “In the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” ~JOHN 1:1 I have been meditating on the term “Poiema” meaning Poem, and how we, the beloved children of God, are His Poetry in …

Handful of Hope: A Short Story & Encouragement

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She wanted to see if they could float so with faith she tossed them across the sackcloth that would be the sky and watched as her handful of hope like diamonds suspended themselves and twinkled as stars. She wasn’t the King Creator, nor His Glorious Son, but she was born of His Spirit, and thusly imbued with the authority and call to create. She was learning how to do so with a voice and song uniquely her own, a song she longed to sing to please only His ears. So she tossed up another handful of hope and watched it twinkle and grow in light until the inky darkness bled away yielding to the brilliance of life. The cold uncertainty that had once made her limbs stiff with immobility began to retreat as her being grew warm with the fire of expectation and joy. Handful after handful of hope and dreams and faith jettisoned from her vibrant fingertips and ate away at the dreadful nothing that sought to blanket her with fear. Laughter erupted from her …

His Mercies New, His Grace Abundant: Basking In the Faithfulness of God

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Have you seen the sky today? I don’t know where in the world you might call home, but here, in my neck of the woods, the sky is breathtaking. Just typing these words, peering out the window at the glorious display that the Lord Jesus has put on outside puts such joy in my heart and a smile on my face. The Word says that “The heavens declare the glory of God,” and I have to agree. Seeing this evidence enables me to say it is truly well within my soul. “God is so mighty, and so big and so awesome, that HE sustains His creation with the DUST that falls from His feet.” Clouds. They are such marvelous things. The sky is a gorgeous aquamarine blue and is perfectly dotted with fluffy white clouds, framed with even whiter halos of light! Some of you may be thinking, “So what. They are clouds.” But do you know what the Word of God says about clouds? “The LORD is slow to anger but great in power; …

A Heart Filled: Faith for Creatives

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You have filled my heart with great joy…” ~PSALM 4:7 To put our trusting faith in the Lord, not only for salvation but as an act of creative worship, is not only one of the greatest gifts we can give to ourselves but it is a great gift that we can give to our Heavenly Father. Creative worship is the greatest way to say, “Father, I trust you with who I am in you, and the plan you have authored for me.” Faith is the root of our covenant with Him. Faith is what creates in us clean hearts and blesses us to be His righteousness (2 CORINTHIANS 5:21). Faith is what makes us a blessing to our Lord Jesus Christ, and it is faith that so pleases His heart. But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. ~HEBREWS 11:6 Psalm 4 beautifully highlights the dance between our trusting in the …