I just love love love Bethany’s pictures. She is amazing!

Yesterday was a rough day. Not for anything that I am personally going through, but because all day long, people around me were hurting, and coming to me for prayer and comfort.

It started at the end of the church service, when a young woman told me she has been feeling suicidal. (Please pray for Rose!) It continued at the store I went to after church for some last minute Christmas shopping, when a church brother came up and told me a tale of woe. (Please pray for Derrick!) And, between the church and the store, my husband and I literally risked our lives to corral a neighbor’s Pitbull that had gotten out and lunged at my stepdaughter — while another neighbor was standing safely behind his fence, taking a video with his phone! (Please pray for the family that owns the Pitbull. Their relative, a father of eight children, was recently murdered.)

That’s not all that happened yesterday, just the highlights. The day ended with a 2 hour and 2 minute phone conversation with my stepdaughter who was crying hysterically when I answered the phone. She is facing surgery in the near future, among other things. (PLEASE pray for JM!)

There wasn’t a lot of happiness in my world yesterday. But in spite of it all, I did not lose my joy. Joy that the Lord is using my past history of abuse and trauma, as the training I need to know how to minister to the hurting. And, most of all, joy that Christ is my Lord and Savior, and I know in my heart that my Redeemer lives, and He LOVES me! Wow!!!!!

The joy of the Lord is my strength. (See Nehemiah 8:10)

Joy to the world, the Lord is come — let earth receive her King!

This is my awesome best friend husband and me, playing Mr. and Mrs. Biker Santa a few years ago.

Merry Christmas!

The above article was inspired by Pastor Dave Orrison’s Monday Grace post, entitled God Promises Joy:
https://graceformyheart.wordpress.com/2019/12/23/god-promises-joy/