My grandparents on my maternal side were beautiful, and they produced heirs who were also. My father was and is still a very handsome man and the genetics from his bloodline produced some stunners on our family tree.

Physical beauty is a big market and most of us are attracted to the promises of and the appeals. I possess an ocean of lotions and potions, colors, and sprays. I can go from looking like a dish mop to a polished piece of silver in minutes.

I have reached the beginning of my elder years, my vanity wants you to notice I said the beginning of! I am wearing a crown of mostly white, I have areas of skin that resemble parchment paper. I am in a constant battle of little travel bags trying to settle under my eyes and the ever-present frown lines hanging around even when I’m not frowning!

1 Peter 3:3-4 ESV “Do not let your adorning be external-the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear-but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in Gods sight is very precious.”

1 Samuel 16:7 ESV “But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

This is how I wish to grow, in the days I have left, which I hope are still many but when my frame has become tiny and fragile and my hair has thinned and is completely white. The wrinkles on my face reflect the wear, and tear of this life. The many miles traveled leaving their unmistakable mark.

I want my beauty to reflect the love and strength of Jesus Christ in my life, and his love that shines out of my eyes. I long to grow into God’s version of beauty~possessing a gentle and quiet spirit of peacefulness, kindness and joy!

Will I continue to slather and spray, of course! The best is yet to come!

Be blessed today and thank you for joining me. 🥰

For the ability to pray!

Dear Lord, thank you for knowing all we are feeling. I thank you, Lord, for knowing my heart and spirit better than I do.

I am so thankful for the times of understanding when I don’t understand, let alone know what to say, and it’s such a comfort to know I can sit with you and say nothing at all, and you hear my heart.

The prayers when all we can do is look up and shake our heads, no words can form, no real thought can settle, even that lends to the frustration because there’s so much that needs to be expressed, released but often we can’t. Thank you for being there; thank you for knowing.

Thank you that the silent tear makes so much noise in heaven. Thank you when we feel the most alone; we aren’t. Thank you for loving us when we feel the most unlovable, and thank you for seeing the beautiful rose instead of the thorn.

Thank you, Lord, for taking sadness to peacefulness, turning anger down to a simmer, filling the lonely spaces with your graces, and for loving us as we are this very moment.

We fail, and we fall, but then you know that and love us anyway. We resist and refuse, yet you remain right at our sides. You never let us remain but always are moving us closer to you. Thank you for always being there!

I love you, Lord Jesus with all my heart and that doesn’t even come close to the love you feel for us. Thank you for You! In your name I pray! Amen

May your day be blessed with peacefulness. Thank you for sharing some of your Sunday with me. 🥰

I don’t know about you, but I tend to hone in on my faults and graze over my attributes. Yet, I do know plenty who hone in on their abilities and ignore their shortcomings.

Anyway, back to those of us that need to cut ourselves a little slack.

I appreciate the fact that I am not a personality that accepts inadequacy within myself. Let me clarify; I do not expect to be a champion in everything I do or attempt to do. But within my physical and mental ability, I expect the most from myself.

We as human beings have limitations; we have our styles, our strengths, and our gifts. I am speaking in general; if I start a new job, I work until I am the best I can be in that position. If I join a group or a club, I am the type to be involved, learn the ropes, be of value.

These last few years have brought many trials, heartache, fears, unwanted emotions, and anger. God-fearing solid family and friends also blessed me during these turbulent days. I did not walk alone.

I could have let all the adverse effects of the challenges turn me into a bitter, sour person, or I could turn to the author of life and ask for his assistance.

The faith to believe in his healing power, whether in my granddaughter’s body, my attitude, and everything in between. I began praying for peace, strength, kindness, and joy, asking the Lord to show me where I needed to grow and change, thus initiating the changes I so desperately needed to evolve in my life and spirit.

You see, I grew up around an angry person who focused on the negative, which had a significant impact on how I view and react. I suddenly reached a place I hated within my life and myself and set out to change it.

Philippians 4:13 NLT “For I can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength.”

Galatians 5:22 NLT “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness faithfulness.”

Have these changes happened overnight? No! I have to pray for strength, change, and the genuine desire to do so on a daily, some days hourly basis and a constant diet of fruit salad!!!

The point is, I am here and there starting to notice changes within me, and I firmly believe and urge you and myself included to pat ourselves on the back when we see a positive difference. It’s healthy to recognize strides forward, keeps us motivated to continue in that direction.

I’ve been noticing little character changes within myself lately and I am excited about them and decided to be proud of myself today, I may be the only one to notice my changes (here on earth) today but I’m a start and a good one. Be your cheerleader, and let yourself be ok with recognizing your growth!

Be blessed today and be a blessing to someone! Thank you for joining me. 🥰

Father God,

You sent your son Jesus to earth. He was a reflection of you!

He led by example and allowed us to receive the beautiful life-changing love you offer.

Thank you, Holy Spirit, for filling me full of your presence, quietly molding, shaping, reworking and smoothing. I know this is a daily work in process, Lord, but I want you to know that I want to follow your teachings, examples, and ways.

I have lived in my flesh and experienced anger, frustration, hurt, dismay, disloyalty, pain, and suffering; however, I do not wish to carry with me these offenses.

I am on a mission to rewire my thoughts, fleshly desires, and impulses to align with your instructions. I am praying away the unwanted reactions, memories, and emotions that frustrate me daily and find by doing so, I am becoming more peaceful. Thank you, Lord, for the path of peacefulness.

I thank you, Jesus, through the gift of the Holy Spirit that we can, in your strength, change the way we think, walk, talk and act, and by doing so, we become a beautiful reflection of you! Thank you for your assistance in becoming that reflection. Thank you for being a reflection. In your name, I pray. Amen

I like the changing me; I am a work in progress. Join me today on a quest for the peace that comes from the reflection of Jesus.

It’s going to be beautiful weather in my region today, and I am off to the beach so I can watch the sun reflecting off the water! Be blessed today, and thank you for joining me. 🥰

Good Morning Lord,

I’m feeling the changing of the season starting to creep not only in my yard and the air but in my spirit as well.

Soups, Apple cider, flannel blankets, and football…

In the dark corners of our minds, the thoughts of the holidays loom and are stretching their limbs from their year-long slumber. Recipes to try, treats to bake, shopping to get started…

As beautiful and cozy as this all sounds comes the stress of winter. The heating bill weighs heavy; elements often make simple life challenging, and for the already maxed out budgets, how does one include extra presents, trimmings, and wrap?

You Lord, that’s how!

I offer this intercessory prayer, Father God. I lift to you the single parent whose daily life is a big juggling act. I lift the burdened head of household working sun up to sundown, trying to make ends meet. I lift the tired and discouraged; the ignored and forgotten.

I hold the ones facing the bright lights this year with a dimness of heart because of a death of a loved one, an end of any sort.

Lord, as we approach the sharp coldness that winter brings, may it also bring the warmth of your love. I pray that the Holy Spirit gently wrap us in the blanket of your safekeeping, hope, and security.

Fill us from the inside out your loving light so that we may reflect you, bring light to the darkness covering our land, and warmth to a cold heart. I pray for healing within families, bodies, minds, and spirits. I pray for forgiveness of wrongs and the strength to make them right. I pray for hearts to be opened to you and your love.

I pray this season we are approaching be ushered in with thank fullness for all we receive from you and the heart to share it.

In your beautiful name Lord Jesus, I pray, Amen. 🙏

I hope you have a blessed day, and thank you for joining me. 🥰

I am pretty sure every one of us knows that person who has a knack for delivering a compliment without truly expressing one or at the least leaves you to question whether that was even a compliment at all!

They deliver comments in such a manner that to ask or respond makes you look petty and or confrontational. I struggle with these personality types and often need the assistance of prayer to let the comment slide and just keep on walking.

I found sound advice this morning on how to handle the passive-aggressive personality.

Proverbs 15:1 ESV “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”

I have found ignoring or at least walking away and letting the comment evaporate because it meant nothing anyway as it was air from a mouth peppered with discontent.

I can choose to let such comments disrupt my day or I can choose to turn the other cheek!

How does one achieve the ability to turn the other cheek?

Romans 12:12 ESV “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”

Yep, it’s an instant prayer to the Holy Spirit, his strength in taking my footsteps and mind in a direction The Lord would want me to take…the path of Peace.

I pray for peace today…be blessed, and as always, thank you for joining me. 🥰

At 7:02 a.m., my instant messenger pings, and usually, when I am in my morning devotions, I ignore the sounds and calls of social media. This morning I couldn’t miss the second ping, which meant one of the seven friends within this chat group had responded. I am typically able to ignore many pings but today felt different!

Even though we expected to receive this sad news, prayers were said yesterday, and hope was expressed and released. Hermione, the cat, was seventeen and a half and was diagnosed with possible kidney failure. Today my friend grieves as her beloved pet crosses the Rainbow Bridge and joins many pets who have left us all too soon.

Today would have been my grandpa’s earthly birthday. Bella the Schnauzer and I shall take him a bouquet of flowers from my yard. Another dear friend just lost her father a little over a week ago and a childhood friend still grieves deeply as her mom has only been gone a few months.

Psalm 34:18 ESV “The Lord is near to the broken-hearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 ESV “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

Matthew 5:4 ESV “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

Dear Lord Jesus, I pray this simple prayer on behalf of those in the raw stages of loss and mourning. I hold up those to you in the time to move on stage, Lord, help them to settle into their new, new. I lift those in the background of mourning where one we loved and miss has been gone for a long time, and their memory is a blessed smile. Thank you Lord for wrapping your arms around your children who are suffering and in pain, please Lord let them feel your love and comfort, fill them with your peace. Help them each day in their healing, and we give you all the glory for knowing one day we will be reunited with those we dearly miss. In your name I pray. Amen 🙏

Death seems to be looming as vibrant summer greens are transforming into beautiful shades of red and gold. The leaves are dying and falling to the ground, covering the grass like a blanket, and there is the crispness of Autumn in the morning air.

To the believers in Christ, in His Father’s word, his birth, death, and resurrection. Death is a new life! We may miss each other for some time, but we will be together again! On this we stand, on this, we believe…Hallelujah, Amen!

Be blessed today, and thank you for joining me. 🥰

This has to be hands down the most challenging job in existence!

The human will begins with our first breath and doesn’t cease until our final. We, of course, learn to succumb to specific rules and regulations. The guidelines of life within nature and sharing space with its inhabitants, but this doesn’t come without a struggle for dominance.

God has much to say regarding children; the Lord loves the innocence of a child and their freely given unconditional love.

Proverbs 22:6 ESV “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

Hebrews 12:11 ESV “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained.”

I remember growing up hearing my mother say, “this hurts me a lot more then it hurts you,” at the time I thought she was nuts and then I became a mom…

Ephesians 6:4 ESV “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”

Colossians 3:21 ESV “Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.”

I believe that the Lord is warning us from disciplining in our anger, and our frustration of the moment. We are warned to watch our tongues and not to provoke to anger! Discipline is not the tearing down of, the beating of, the destruction of…

We can get our message across in a manner that points out the wrong, teaches the correct and show that for every action there is a reaction! It’s that simple, it’s called “Spiritual Law” what you put out is going to come back around!

Proverbs 23:13 ESV “Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die.”

No, God is not giving us free reign to hit our children with rods! He is stating tho that when we punish our children, and we are carrying the heavy load of guilt. To Stop!!! Children need discipline within correct boundaries and we as their parents are the ones responsible.

I have raised my three children, and now I watch them bringing up theirs, the lessons, struggles, and challenges that each new age brings. I’m glad it’s their turn, and I’ve graduated to grandma. ❤️

Be blessed today, and thank you for joining me. 🥰

Good Morning Lord,

I pray for clarity!

I pray that any darkness permeating within me, my family, and our lives be brought to light. I ask for any wrong within us to be revealed so we may replace it with your right. I pray for your protection when evil is trying to invade.

I ask for the truth to be known and self-knowledge to replace the lies, visions, and ideas we might have created about ourselves that aren’t in line with your word and plans for our lives.

I humbly ask Lord that you equip us with your heavenly hosts. The mighty warring angels that surround and protect. The Holy Spirit that gently leads and guides. Your word is a lamp to our feet, music to our ears, and hope for our future.

I pray for your peace that surpasses all understanding and the path to achieving that peace. Your joy Lord that overflows abundantly upon your children who turn to you so the son shines upon their faces, that we may, in turn, reflect him!

I have been on a frantic pace these past couple of days and I have missed my happy place and that’s here in my land of Sunshine with you who join me regularly. I appreciate this special place you have given me, Lord, a place where you and I meet every morning and those who read meet you every day!

Thank you Lord for your words, your inspirations and your blessed love each and everyday. On this I stand; on this, I pray. In your glorious name Lord Jesus. Amen 🙏 ❤️