Painting for Joy and Charity

What an amazing week this has been! It started when I had the pleasure of going to see War Room at the movie theater with my neighbor and good friend Kathy. I loved the movie. We laughed and cried and felt convicted.

Then came a time of fasting and prayer to support an amazing event in Birmingham, Alabama where thousands of Christians marched, sang, prayed and expressed a unity of faith and a desire to do something real to help the genocide of Christians happening in the Middle East today.

The word has been spread through the internet about the policies of the United States government which will not allow Christians to come here to seek asylum. We as a nation turned away Jews and sent them back to Nazi Germany during those dark days. We are repeating that evil act today.

The government of Iceland said that they would take 60 people into their small country of 300,000 people. One woman thought that was not enough and so she got on facebook and asked who would take a family into their own home. Within 24 hours 10,000 people had said yes, we will. They all urged their government to do more.

And our government is saying no, none. So, I prayed and thought what can I do? I have no money to contribute. Going on twitter and posting a silly hashtag will not help anyone who is praying not to be murdered or to not have their girls raped. What could I do? I could pray and I am. I hope you will too.

And I can paint. So today I have placed a new planner insert on ETSY. You see it here. I am charging $5.99 for a two page digital download that can be used as a planner insert or any other way you choose. It costs me a few cents to place an item on ETSY and a few more for PayPal to process it. Everything about that I will be donating to Mercury One and the Nazarene Project. It is the prayer of the folks at Mercury One to raise $3 million dollars before Christmas to get many of these families out of the Middle East.

The United States will not take them, but other countries will. It takes $25,000.00 to rescue one family. The pennies I will earn from ETSY are the only way I can help.

It is my joy to ask you to help me help them.And it will be my joy to pray for each and everyone of you who buys this little offering I am making to pray for you and your families by name every day this year.

True joy comes to me when I serve God and place myself out there to serve others.

My joyfilled planner

I have been using a planner as a prayer journal and a place to write about what the Word of God teaches me for quite some time. It reminds me to be intentional about looking for joy in my life on a daily basis. That joy comes first through a relationship with God. Once that relationship is in order, then it is easy to see the hand of God all around me - in His creation and in His influence in the events that happen in my life.

Today our world is so often filled with evil, sadness and corruption that we can grow afraid. When we stand on His Word and strive to be more and more like Him in the small, daily things in our life, then the fear lifts and a sense of peace can ensue even when things in the world are less than peaceful.

It is God who created us and who offers us salvation and grace. It is ours to accept and walk day by day.

I have found great joy in Him as I worked to create images that might grace a joy filled planner. I pray that this endeavor may bring a spot of joy into your life also. You are invited to come and see the planner inserts I have been working on for the last several months and to share with me in making the search for joy in God's world an intentional part of your life. Come and visit my Etsy shop - Planning4joy!

I would be most blessed if you would share it with your friends! Thank you.
Here is my planner for you to see.

Journey to Joy

June 23, 2015

Do you have a planner? Do you love it? When you see it, does your heart give a little sigh of joy? Or does your planner nag at you?

Planners have changed so much over the years. In the beginning, as I recall, no one had planners. You knew pretty much what each day held. Everyone knew. There was work or school, there was family, there was church or synagogue. And there was laughter and joy! Life was simple and good.

Somewhere along the way it was decided that a way to plan would make life better. Places like the local drug store or the hair salon gave out little date books as an early Christmas gift - and a reminder to bring your business their way.

Notebook planners became the thing next. This gave a person a way to track every moment of the day and week so that no time was lost. These were often dated so that you needed to replace it each year and manufacturers started to understand what their customers needed and wanted. Planners for school years came in. Finally you could get the planner ring bound so you could replace the years pages as time went by.

The digital age hit and then there were palm pilots and digital planners of various sorts. Today an app for your smart phone can help you do the planning.

I believe somewhere along the way something had been lost. The planner now can be a tool that so controls our lives that the joy of living the life we have may be lost.

This blog is about finding the joy again. As a life coach and retired clinical counselor, and yes, as someone who creates planners and planner inserts, I want to speak to the wonder of finding the joy again.

I invite you to come along on the journey with me as I seek to live a life filled with joy. Join me as I share with you some tips to help you live your life planning4joy. Welcome!