Lighthouse Keepers

Is joy the same as happiness or contentment? What is Joy and do you have joy? Where does it  come from? Can we have joy in difficult times? I love people. There. The secrets out. I just love people. I really enjoy having one on one time with people. I love to see where they are at in their walk  with God. If I can sit down with someone and find out where they are in their faith, I walk away  blessed, and encouraged. But what’s the real reason behind this joy that I find? I’ll answer that yet. :) I’m a pretty happy girl if I can take a drive to good ole Tim Hortons, or if I can have a relatively  clean house, or if my children are having a good day, but that happiness is not lasting once the  children start crying all on the same day or even the same hour. Once the house needs to be cleaned  again (or you find out that there’s another whole area of the house that you didn’t get to), that  happiness is soon turned to unhappiness. Don’t even g...

When anxiety and despair come knocking what do you do? (Source) I have never really struggled with anxiety to the extent I'm sure some of you have, but within the last year the Lord has been revealing to me how much I depend on controlling certain areas of my life for my sense of security. With my parents moving to Mexico for missions, raising young children; which is the most faith testing experience I have ever gone/am going through, becoming pregnant after struggling with infertility, this year has been a bit of a hard one. Not that these things are bad, but they were unplanned, unexpected and disrupted what I thought I had going for me, or how I had things planned out in my head. The Lord has been so kind and gentle in reminding me of his promises and his care for me in every situation. I am learning that resting in Jesus no matter how difficult the battle may be whether it is an internal or external one is really the safest place to be. This is a process though...

I’ll never forget the day when my second oldest, who couldn't have been more then four at the time said to me, “mommy are you happy at me?” And I immediately said “of course I am happy about you. I love you so much!”  Then she completely caught me off guard and replied “then smile at me.”    Even as I write this I feel the power of those words coming from my little girls mouth. It made my stomach turn.  It literally shook me and broke my heart that she could sense that I was obviously not happy and simply did not have joy right then.  I could tell her that yes I was happy but I knew she knew better. That day I realized that I had been depriving my sweet precious family of a vey powerful and wonderful gift.  The gift of joy. I had had a hard day..or probably a hard week and I had let it drain me of joy and happiness and my dear family had to feel the consequences of it. It was not fair at all. Since then God has so often reminded me of that day and I ...

Joy! It has always been a favourite word of mine. Partly because it’s my middle name and I’ve made a collection over the years of quotes and anything really I can get my hands on that say Joy… including my daughter’s name “Joyanna”. But mostly because when you see and spend time with someone who is joyful it is like a breath of fresh air and you walk away feeling uplifted and encouraged. How does one get this joyfulness? Webster's defines it as “the source or cause of delight” So where does your source of delight ultimately come from? There are little simple gifts that make us smile, a warm cup of coffee on a cold morning, watching your child finally comprehend something you have been teaching them, a hug, a walk, time with a friend, a good book, a beautiful song. There are so many things that bring us satisfaction. But what about when you’re having a crummy day and you’ve warmed up your coffee 3 times already and it’s sitting cold again, nothing goes right, dinner burns, ...

Did that just happen? Really 2015 is over? These years really do go by too fast! A new year is upon us once more. It is a good time to reflect on what we learned in the past year and to think about God’s purpose for our lives. One thing I can tell you is that even though I started writing some of what I will share months ago, I wait with actually getting it all down until that clock is about to strike midnight and that calendar is about to open to a new page; a new year!  The excitement builds up you know, and the closer to the new year we get, the better this post should be, right? (Besides, I was only asked to write this three month ago.)  Ok… I admit it…It actually has more to do with this bad last minute habit thing I have going on. If I were to make resolutions this year, that should probably be one thing I should change. Our homemade gift exchange at church was a fine example of why I need to work on that one. However, I really do find a new year exciting. M...

I don't know about the rest of you but I love Christmas! Its seems that every year, about the same time as the furnace kicks on , is when I start feeling excited. Christmas is coming! I know that many of you get overwhelmed with the holidays because there is often much to prepare. I'd like to try to offer a few tips and suggestions that might help to make things less stressful and therefore make the holidays more enjoyable. For the meal... Who says you always have to have a Turkey Dinner for the holidays? It is delicious but there's so many other things that are just as good. Try to think of a meal where you can do some of the prep work a day or two ahead of time. Or have a pot-luck. Maybe have it for supper and then have some of the guests help with the preparations or even bring it already prepared. I think everyone has one or two meals that seem to always turn out well. Why not make that? Even if its beans and rice! Snacks are always a favourite. Choco...