The Shack

Have you read "The Shack" yet? I highly recommend it. Hang in there for about the first 60-70 pages ... and then hold on for dear life! We all have a deep sadness in our lives that needs to be healed by Papa, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This book helped me confront my deep sadness and allow it to be pulled out by the roots and then replaced by His love.

How I loved the conversation between Mack and the Holy Spirit concerning the idea that emotions were either good or evil. Sarayou explained that emotions are a result of our perception to a situation. If we are perceiving it correctly, then our emotions are good; however if we perceive a situation wrongly it is then that our emotions are bad. When I perceive that God is involved in my life and that no circumstance is able to separate me from His love, then the following emotion will be healthy and good. Conversely, if I perceive that God is not good and that He is not able to work all things together for good - then my resulting emotion is inherently evil.

Do you struggle with worry? Mack learns that worry is looking at the future without God in it. Worry is when you look ahead and doubt that God is good and is worthy to be trusted. I hope that I never worry again ...

The most touching lesson of "The Shack" to my type-A personality, is that life is not about what I do but is about basking in His love for me. I feel the pull toward intimacy with Christ as never before. I feel the joy of His presence as I rest in the pleasure of His love.

Oh! One last thought ... if you don't have the courage to read this book ... just remember that Papa is especially fond of you!

Girlfriends

I am discovering that the older I become ... sigh ... the greater is my desire to reconnect with girlfriends. I guess that as you become comfortable in the sweetness of your marriage and that as your children grow up and begin to fly away - that you look back with fond longing at those years of giggling with the girls ... setting days aside for shopping together ... evenings aside for talking together ... and realize the treasure found in girlhood friendships.

There is such joy in the re-connect! With childhood chums ... with teen-age cliques ... with college friends that you may have roomed with or only known from a distance. The value of these friendships is that we dreamed together ... we believed in each other when it was only a mere possibility. And, of course, knowing each other when we were a size 8 doesn't hurt either!

Could it be that when we are with the women who loved us long ago ... that it turns us into girls again? Could it be that as we share our hearts and our memories that we realize that our life has had significance and that someone remembers our name?

In these busy days of carpools and college hunting ... counting calories and cutting coupons - let me encourage you to "re-connect"! Take the time to write a note or make a phone call ... send an e-mail or buy a plane ticket! God has created us to love one another and has given us a taste of heaven on earth in this miraculous gift of girlfriends. Excuse me ... I need to go and try to track down Joni James ... and Mary Ann Cassiano ... and Diane Phelps!! Let's see if they still remember -

Spring Conference with Babbie Mason and Sharon Daugherty! April 4&5, 2008

Spring Conference reservations can be made on our website www.justjoyministries.com
Go to the Store page and you will be able to purchase tickets. Print up your confirmation, this will be your admission ticket! Only $25.oo

Spring Tea Party at Just Joy June '07

The season is changing ... autumn has already arrived in Western New York regardless of the date on my kitchen calendar. The shadows are lengthening ... the sky has turned from summer blue to autumn gray ... geese fly over my yard and let me know that they are leaving. My girls have exchanged their pink lemonade for apple cider and tonight we are having vegetable soup for dinner. It's autumn ... whether my heart likes it or not.

Why do I dread winter so much? I am a beach girl at heart with an addiction to summer sunshine, iced tea with lemon and five dollar flip-flops. I find that my aversion to the season of snowstorms, icicles hanging from my roof line and down jackets has even sucked the life out of the glorious days of fall! Why do I do this to myself?! I long to believe with the Psalmist, that the Lord has caused "my lines to fall in pleasant places." (Psalm 16:6)

I am in a new season of life as well ... the season when my children begin to fly away with the birds of summer. Three gone ... and two to go. Although I don't look forward to the day when the beds stay made and I am only cooking dinner for two, I refuse to let the next season steal the joy of these days of lingering children. How I love hearing my girls visit at night as they share their secrets and their clothes! I love seeing their scribbled teen-age notes on the refrigerator door and their jackets flung on the back of the kitchen chairs. It will be the next season soon enough .. and for now ... I relish these days. I hope that you do, too.