I was nominated to participate in this lovely blog post and I am so glad because it’s been a lot of fun and has truly brought a smile to my face …
10 of my Favorite Feelings
Blogs By J: 10 of my Favorite Feelings
Category: Portraits of Life – Seeing God in All
I have discovered a new and exciting hobby of taking photos and sharing God’s Words as they inspire me to be in complete “AWE” of how great our God is! I hope you enjoy the photos.
Sunday Quotes
Sunday, June 7th, 2020
Hello friends—
“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” —Rumi
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“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” —Nelson Mandela
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“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” —Leo Tolstoy
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“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” —Mahatma Gandhi
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“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” —Margaret Mead
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Don’t Just—
Don’t just learn, experience.
Don’t just read, absorb.
Don’t just change, transform.
Don’t just relate, advocate.
Don’t just promise, prove.
Don’t just criticize, encourage.
Don’t just think, ponder.
Don’t just take, give.
Don’t just see, feel.
Don’t just dream, do.
Don’t just hear, listen.
Don’t just talk, act.
Don’t just tell, show.
Don’t just exist, live.
—Roy T. Bennett
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Now, you didn’t think I forgot to include a quote from C.S.Lewis, did you?
“Each day we are becoming a creature of splendid glory or one of unthinkable horror.”
—C.S Lewis, Mere Christianity—
Have a Blessed Sunday! Be good to yourself! Be kind to one another! Share LOVE! Please practice social distancing along with good health and hygiene habits! 😷 May God Bless You in a special way today. Amen. 🙏🏻
~Peace~ ειρήνη~Charlotte 🌻🙏🏻☀️💛
ειρήνη– “Peace” in Greek, reference listed the below.
References:
Sharing My Joys
Saturday, June 6th, 2020
Hello all my lovely friends—
I wanted to share some photos and thoughts with you today. I like to surround myself with the things that feed my soul. I’ve got pictures of loved ones in many rooms of my home. I’ve got lots of books from some of my favorite authors; C.S.Lewis, Mitch Albom, Rachel Held Evans, Ken Blanchard, and many biblical reference books and Bibles in different translations. My walls have many positive sayings on them. I have framed some beautiful hand made cards I’ve received. I have dried flowers from my moms funeral and the prayer shawl my church blessed and gave her. These are all precious and priceless treasures to me.
How about you? Do you have things that bring you joy?
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One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Something that one person considers worthless may be considered valuable by someone else.
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Psalm 47:1
“Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God with loud songs of joy.”
Psalm 16:11
“You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
Psalm 30:4-5
“Sing praises to the Lord, O you his faithful ones, and give thanks to his holy name. For his anger is but for a moment; his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”
Press on friends, because JOY comes in the morning! ~Amen💙🙏🏻
Be good to yourself! Be kind to one another! Share JOY! Please practice healthy social distancing along with good health and hygiene habits! 😷 May God Bless You in a special way today. Amen. 🙏🏻
~Peace~ ειρήνη~Charlotte 🌻🙏🏻☀️
ειρήνη– “Peace” in Greek, reference listed the below.
References:
A Bit of Wisdom by C.S.Lewis
Thursday, June 4th, 2020
Hi friends—
Just sharing some love and thoughts with you. I’m a big fan of C.S.Lewis and I wanted to share a few of his words and a video from a radio show relating to “right & wrong” the Moral Law. No big secret, I’m a sinner…we are all sinners. I am not more important than you, I am as important as you. We are all God’s children, life is not (should not) be a competition against one another for the survival of the fittest. We are all travelers on this planet called earth. The journey will always be lighter when you’re not traveling alone. Injustices are committed every day and present in all walks of life, on every continent on earth AND that does not make it right, merely a fact. Real change is possible, real change comes when we are constantly and consistently learning, growing, and helping one another through communication and compassion. We must be able to extend grace and forgiveness as God extends to us. I support all individuals who choose to march and assemble in peaceful protests. I applaud those who become more active in the pursuit of real change by finding ways to work and get involved with local communities and local government. They work to elect officials to improve their communities. They become active by attending local public government meetings, and they work with local churches, schools and law enforcement agencies. We can do this together!
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” —Mahatma Gandhi
“When the police arrived and found no lion, no broken wall, and no convicts, and the Head behaving like a lunatic, there was an inquiry into the whole thing. And in the inquiry all sorts of things about Experiment House came out, and about ten people got expelled. After that, the Head’s friends saw that the Head was no use as a Head, so they got her made an Inspector to interfere with other Heads. And when they found she wasn’t much good even at that, they got her into Parliament where she lived happily ever after.”
—“Chronicles of Narnia” by C. S. Lewis
The video below is titled, “Right & Wrong – A Clue to the Meaning of the Universe” by C.S.Lewis.
Be good to yourself! Be kind to one another! Please practice healthy social distancing along with good health and hygiene habits! 😷 May God Bless You in a special way today. Amen. 🙏🏻
~Peace~ ειρήνη~Charlotte 🌻🙏🏻☀️
ειρήνη– “Peace” in Greek, reference listed the below.
References:
https://biblehub.com/greek/1515.htm
US
Love Conquers All
Tuesday, June 2, 2020
“We are what we believe we are.”
~C.S.Lewis~
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“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
~C.S.Lewis~
1 Corinthians 13:4
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“Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.”
1 John 4:19
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“We love because he first loved us.”
1 Peter 4:8
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“Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins.”
Be good to yourself, be kind and please continue to practice healthy social distancing along with good health and hygiene habits! 😷 May God Bless You in a special way today. Amen. 🙏🏻
~Peace~ ειρήνη~Charlotte 🌻🙏🏻☀️
ειρήνη– “Peace” in Greek, reference listed the below.
References:
A Bit of Wisdom by C.S.Lewis
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2020
Dearest friends and followers—
My heart hurts for many reasons these past few days, I will not list them one by one, I pray them to my Father in Heaven. We are all His children, He has no favorites. What a wonderful example of love. At the end of each day we all must answer for the things we have said and done. Tomorrow is the chance to do better.
“[E]very time you make a choice you are turning into the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different than it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing into a heavenly creature or a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow creatures, and with itself. To be the one kind of creature is heaven: that is, it is joy and peace and knowledge and power. To be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other.” ~C. S. Lewis
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“Be not proud of race, face, place, or grace.”
—Charles Spurgeon—
“All human beings bear God’s image and must be respected for what each person is. Therefore, no external description of one’s being, whether based on race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, can properly be used as the basis for either rejection or discrimination.”
—Bishop John Shelby Spong—
John 13:34
“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”
Be good to yourself, be kind and please continue to practice healthy social distancing along with good health and hygiene habits! 😷 May God Bless You in a special way today. Amen. 🙏🏻
~Peace~ ειρήνη~Charlotte 🌻🙏🏻☀️
ειρήνη– “Peace” in Greek, reference listed the below.
References:
This Is The Day…
Sunday, May 31st, 2020
Dear Friends—
This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it!
Today I am choosing joy
Today I am trusting God
Today I am praying for YOU
Today I am choosing kindness
Today I am…
Friends, this list could go on and on with no ending. May I suggest you make a list for yourself and see what you choose for today. We only get one chance at today, if we wait too long it will become tomorrow and longer yet, it will be yesterday. We live day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute and seconds by seconds. We are not promised tomorrow, we have today to make the best of it. Our world and all who live in it must find ways of peaceful resolutions. Hate must be extinguished. Decisions, opinions and even anger are all possible without violence. Protests should not become opportunities to inflict misguided pain and loss. When protesters turn to violence it quickly becomes a recipe for disaster and many innocent people and business owners suffer. I totally support individuals having the right for peaceful protesting. It’s the violence and property damages and losses I passionately dislike. Just yesterday in my home city a war memorial monument was defaced, the monument had nothing to do with what the protesters were protesting. It is an inanimate object, totally defenseless. We must learn to listen to one another and respect one another so that peaceful resolutions can be found. Just be kind! We can disagree with each other and at the same time find ways to be respectful and kind. None of these are easy, they are actually difficult and take practice and discipline. Destroying property and acts of violence are crimes and should be treated accordingly. We all must pray for our communities, cities and countries for leadership and objectivity for the rights of all. The Bible provides many examples for appropriate actions and behaviors. I would never support stifling ones emotions and passions, anger can be expressed without violence. I personally raise my voice from time to time, I have even been known to curse. I’m not perfect and I also know perfection is not an appropriate goal. I am sharing these things with you because we are all human, we make mistakes. I am not always proud of all my actions and I constantly try to become a better person today than I was yesterday. We all must eventually face the person we see in the mirror. We always have the choice to be KIND TO ONE ANOTHER.
The Bible is filled with verses telling us how to live a life pleasing to God below are a few.
This first verse was part of my daily devotional for today and I read before I even decided to write this post today. I truly felt called to share what was on my heart.
~Isaiah 41:10~
“Don’t you be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.”
The verses found below are interesting to me because the main theme is found in all four gospels. The greatest commandment is to “Love One Another.”
~Matthew 22:36-40~
“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
~Mark 12:28-31~
“One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
~Luke 10:25-28~
“Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”
~John 13:34-35~
“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Be good to yourself, be kind and please continue to practice healthy social distancing along with good health and hygiene habits! 😷 May God Bless You in a special way today. Amen. 🙏🏻
~Peace~ ειρήνη~Charlotte 🌻🙏🏻☀️
ειρήνη– “Peace” in Greek, reference listed the below.
References:
Faith, Heart and Soul
Friday, May 27th, 2020
Greeting Friends & Family —
I fell in love with this song the first time I heard it. It is the theme song to the TV show, Star Trek: Enterprise. With all the spare time I have now with COVID-19 I have been watching some shows online that I had never seen before. I must say that the timing of hearing this song and the poem I posted earlier are not mere chance. I believe with all my heart that the Holy Spirit is working together with God and Jesus for my good. Recently, I made a decision to be more proactive and resilient when it comes to life, specifically my life. I am choosing to live, learn and grow in ways that I never imagined possible. I have largely been living and looking forward while carry most of the weight of my past with me. On some level I convinced myself that I must bare the weight of all past mistakes even if they were not my fault alone. I am good at forgiveness when it comes to others but rarely extend it to myself. Recently, this misguided logic hit me hard and I could not ignore it any longer! I had been placing my judgment above God’s, how dare I! I was so wrong! As humans, it is inevitable that mistakes will be made. That is the ugly truth. God does not have an expectation of perfection from us, He created us. He loves us.
Ecclesiastes 7:20, “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.”
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Philippians 3:12-15, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.”
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James 3:2, “For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.”
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Due to the COVID-19, I’m spending a lot of time alone, this is both a blessing and a curse. I have been cooking, cleaning, decorating, planting, blogging, relaxing, reading to mention a few.
The best advice I could offer anyone is to be in relationship with your Creator, get to know yourself and together create a plan to become the person you were created to be. YOU ARE SO LOVED!
Here’s the poem I mentioned earlier…
Continue to practicing social distancing, good health and hygiene habits! 😊
~Peace~ ειρήνη~Charlotte 🌻🙏🏻☀️
ειρήνη– “Peace” in Greek, reference listed the below.
References:
A Bit of Wisdom by C.S.Lewis
Friday, May 29th, 2020
Hello my friends —
One of my favorite quotes by C.S.Lewis is, “We are who we believe we are.”
Source: https://www.goodreads.com/
“If we really believe what we say we believe- if we really think that home is elsewhere and that this life is a “wandering to find home”, why should we not look forward to the arrival. There are, aren’t there, only three things we can do about death: to desire it, to fear it, or to ignore it. The third alternative, which is the one the modern world calls “healthy” is surely the most uneasy and precarious of all.”
—C.S.Lewis Letters to an American Lady
As I was reading the other day I came across a poem that moved me. I felt like it could have been written just for me. I found these words encouraging and supportive.
Continue to practicing social distancing, good health and hygiene habits! 😊
~Peace~ ειρήνη~Charlotte 🌻🙏🏻☀️
ειρήνη– “Peace” in Greek, reference listed the below.
References:
https://biblehub.com/greek/1515.htm
She Chose by Cara Alwill Leyba
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8147108-if-we-really-believe-what-we-say-we-believe–if
Turning The Other Cheek
Monday, May 25th, 2020
Hello friends—
Happy Monday to everyone! I want to share some thoughts about “Turning The Other Cheek.”
Have you heard the phrase “Turn the other cheek?” It is a familiar phrase to me and I have been hearing it since I was very young. The psychology and theology of it makes sense, it can also be very tough to put into practical application. For most of my life I have passionately defended myself, though I have not always done so in the most appropriate matter according to others. Too often, I find myself “taking the bait” when I am subjected to someone else’s ideals for life/work/living. Slow but surely I am learning that some people are just looking for a fight, “pot-stirrers” I like to call them. I’ve learned that some people are never satisfied and are always looking to start chaos. I’ve learned and continue to learn that when I react to these “fishing expeditions” it is like pouring gasoline on a flaming fire. Responding to “pot-stirrer” is feeding into their pathetic need to be reckoned with and it places them in a position of authoritarianism. Most importantly, respect yourself and trust your gut! Know your value and know that your value is not dependent upon someone’s slanted opinion. You are a child of God! You are precious! You were created on purpose and with a plan!
I don’t usually quote or use Wikipedia as a source but in this case I’m using the basic narrative for the phrase, “Turning The Other Cheek.”
Turning the other cheek is a phrase in Christian doctrine from the Sermon on the Mount that refers to responding to injury without revenge and allowing more injury. This passage is variously interpreted as commanding nonresistance, Christian pacifism, or nonviolence on the part of the victim. It has also been interpreted as a way to embarrass a bully. *See below link to this information.
—Matthew 5:38-48—
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Continue to practicing social distancing, good health and hygiene habits! 😊
~Peace~ ειρήνη~Charlotte 🌻🙏🏻☀️
ειρήνη– “Peace” in Greek, reference listed the below.
References:
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