Full of Joy

Please welcome my friend, and one of the fabulous leaders from my writing group, Beth Fowler! Her story fascinates me, and I know you will be blessed by reading it. She is writing in response to my question, "Who is Jesus to you?" as part of the Who is Jesus series.   *** Who was Jesus to me? He was a storybook character like Santa Claus and Prince Charming. I went to Sunday school and endured goofy flannel-board stories narrated by ladies that seemed very old to me. At age 12, I quit going to Sunday school and church. My parents didn’t question why. Faith was never discussed in our house. You went to school on weekdays, the YMCA on Saturday and church on Sunday. Now my Sundays were free! Decades passed. M y life looked perfect. In reality, many mornings I woke up angry, but didn’t know why. Time slogged by as I guzzled alcohol, studied Buddhism, attended Avatar (not the movie, but a thought system), consumed legal and illegal drugs, used sarcasm...

(In honor of one of Jase's favorite shows these days!)

After my awful nights sleep at the camp with my girlfriends, Chuck picked me up. As we were driving to my parent’s house, where our kids were staying, I was starving. I needed to eat. We saw an exit approaching where I knew one of my best friend’s lived. I asked Chuck if I should even bother calling since it was so last minute. He encouraged me to just try, and we got off the highway. Katie picked up right away. We exchanged small talk for a couple seconds and then I asked her where she was. When I told her my location, she exclaimed, “Are you serious?!” Turns out, she was about to drive right by the Burger King where we had parked. She then told me to look over at the stop light, and I saw her car! She had her oldest son with her, and her Mom, who I hadn’t seen in quite a long time. We all got out of our cars and joyfully embraced each other. It was a sweet reunion. The first thing Mrs. Dimler (Katie’s Mom) shared was how God had miraculously provided for her and her husband with a...

Thanks so much for checking in, you regular Tuesday readers! The blog post for today, Burger King and a Divine Appointment- Part 2 , is ready and waiting in a Word Document. Unfortunately, Word is acting up, so I need to wait for my Technical Assistant to help me. Will work to get the post up ASAP! Thanks for your patience!

I definitely believe in miracles. I believe in divine appointments. I believe Jesus heals. Stories of this type of power show up in the Bible over and over, but I’ve also got stories of my own. My own two children are examples of miracles and healing. But, today I want to share about a very recent divine appointment . Let me start by sharing the backstory. For about a year now, I’ve been struggling with a physical issue. I’ve been to the ER over this particular issue, have seen a couple different doctors, and even had tests done. Everything “serious” had been ruled out, but no one could tell me why I was having this constant pain. At certain points I was able to shrug it off, and deal with the pain. But most of the time, I was under constant attack with anxiety. What was causing the pain? What if it’s serious, but the doctors missed something? What should I do about it? I’d wake up in the night worried about it. I’d be getting the kids dressed, feel a sharp pain, and start to w...

OK friends, this Give Away ended up being so good for my heart. Ah! I was feeling pretty down about blogging over the weekend, and headed to the grocery store. What better way to cheer a person up than to grocery shop, right?! Yuck. Anyway, when I was done I checked my email and saw a bunch of comments for the Give Away. It just got me so excited to read what you all had to share. I loved it! And now I have some renewed direction and fresh ideas for writing in 2017. Thank you- thank you- thank you for reading, commenting, and being apart of the Full of Joy adventure! I am really happy to announce the winner of the Dunkin Donuts gift card. We are in the full swing of the holiday spirit around here (Thank goodness Halloween is finally over. The last thing I need in my life is a holiday wrapped around fear, gore, horror, skulls, and creepiness. My thighs don't need the chocolate either.), so I had a little elf help me with the drawing. Congra...

Today marks 1 year since the official re-launch of the blog. (You can check out that initial post here .) Even though I've been blogging for years, this past year has been the most significant. Writing weekly has helped to grow me as a writer, but something else happened unexpectedly. I grew closer to Jesus. He gave me a vision for this thing, and He has been faithful to pour into me. The more I write, the more I hear from Him, and the closer we become. I'm so thankful for Jesus. I'm thankful for you readers! I'm thankful for my beautiful friends who have stepped up with me this past year as guest bloggers, and poured their hearts out. Sooooo.....in honor of this milestone, I am hosting a GIVE AWAY! Even though Starbucks is my true love, frugality won the battle, and I have chose Dunkin Donuts as the prize! (With a Starbucks gift card, you can get like 1 1/2 drinks. With Dunkin you can get like 10!) ***To enter to win a Dunkin Donuts gift card, please...

Thank you for checking in, you Tuesday regulars! Stay tuned- on Thursday there will be a special post, and a little celebration! See you then!