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Fruits of the Spirit Printables + Mini Devotional
I’m excited to share my free Fruits of the Spirit printables with you today! This subway art based on Galatians 5:22-23 is a great tool for Bible verse memorization and meditation on God’s Word. I’m also sharing a mini devotional on spiritual growth and ways to further study this wonderful verse:
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23 NASB)
I love the phrase “fruits of the Spirit” from scripture, and as someone who loves to garden, I always look forward to harvest time. As we continue into harvest season this year, there is so much rich truth in this verse to unpack! Here’s what I think this verse has to teach us.
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My List of Little Joys – August 2019
Here is my latest list of little joys, part of my effort to focus on the things that I am thankful for and to remember all the little moments in life worth celebrating.
Keeping track of little joys has helped me to see that there is more to my reality than just the problems I’m facing. There are lots of reasons to smile, laugh, and enjoy life, even during rough times.
I’ve been recording some of the things that make me grateful as my own spin on gratitude journaling.
I’m glad I’m revisiting this style of post because *usually* summer offers me a little relief from fatigue and pain and symptoms—and unfortunately, that has definitely not been the case this summer. The weather has been so sporadic that I’ve not been able to benefit from consistenly warm days. We’ve had a day or two of balmy weather, then rain, and the rapid changes in weather sends my fibromyalgia, dysautonomia, and asthma into a tailspin.
It’s rough feeling worse when you were anticipating feeling better. I’m just realizing now how much I was banking on having some more time to write and go do things with friends this summer. Now summer is more than halfway gone, and I’m honestly feeling a bit robbed of my favorite season. (Can anyone relate?)
So I’m recording the highlights from the last couple months in a deliberate effort to remind myself that I *have* been able to do fun things this summer. Also, I want to try to focus more on the good.
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My List of Little Joys – April 2019
Here is my latest list of little joys, part of my effort to focus on the things that I am thankful for and to remember all the little moments in life worth celebrating.
Knowing I’m going to be recording things that make me feel more joyful has helped me to keep up with my goal of gratitude journaling, and journaling in general, more often.
I honestly needed this practice in place over the last couple months. I’ve faced quite a few health setbacks recently, including a sinus infection, an injury, reacting badly to a new medicine I tried, and having to stop a treatment that was helping me, plus worsening insomnia due to tachycardia. Whew, it’s easy to get bogged down and overwhelmed when you see a lot of things going wrong, and it’s easy to dwell on them. Keeping track of little joys has helped me to see that there is more to my reality than just the problems I’m facing. There are lots of reasons to smile, laugh, and enjoy life, even during rough times.
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My List of Little Joys
I want to try a new style of blog post, and would love to hear what you guys think of it!
I’ve been wanting to get back into gratitude journaling after an unintentional break, as well as just journaling in general. I used to write journal entries fairly regularly, but lately its been…every four months or so.
I noticed a funny trend when I’ve been writing in my gratitude journal lately—I’ve wanted to write something down that made me happy, but it made me feel silly to say I was GRATEFUL for it. So I thought I’d combine gratitude journaling with capturing moments that brought me joy.
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Brain Fog Broke My Internal Editor
Fibromyalgia has impacted my ability as a writer, and I’m just starting to understand all the ways it has. I’ve been trying to express it for awhile, with the irony being that it takes way more effort now for me to express anything. Brain fog has made it extremely hard for me to objectively edit my work. It’s like the editing part of my brain is broken.
Blogging has been much harder than I thought it would be, for reasons I didn’t expect. I knew energy to write was going to be a challenge, in addition to fighting through brain fog to express myself. But I wasn’t expecting to have so much trouble evaluating the quality of my work.
I was given a great piece of advice
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To the Christian Who Feels Sad at Christmastime—Here’s What’s Helping Me
We’re getting real on the blog today.
I want talk about struggling with feelings of sadness around Christmas, something that can impact anyone, not only those of us with chronic illness.
In a way, this feels a bit like a taboo subject. I kind of worry about admitting to this struggle out of fear that people will think I’m not grateful for all Christmas represents (it is Jesus’ birthday after all!) or that my sadness means I somehow dislike Christmas (which certainly is not the case!)
I’ve struggled over the past several holiday seasons, and a lot of it has had to do with getting used to my limitations due to chronic illness. Christmas is one of my favorite holidays, so in addition to struggling with not feeling happy, I’m also struggling with not feeling quite like myself. My love for Christmas is a part of who I am, so this sadness is yet another way my chronic illnesses impact my identity.
And I think as Christians we can sometimes feel pressure to feel or act happy 24/7, so feeling sad this time of year adds another layer of complexity—I feel guilty about it!
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Free Philippians 4:8 Printables
I love Philippians 4:8’s reminder of where we should focus our thoughts, and created this printable based on the verse:
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” (NIV)
I’ve tried to memorize this verse, and I always seem to get hung up on remembering exactly which words appear in exactly which order. I think all the “whatever’s” throw me off! That, and brain fog has messed with my ability to memorize things.
So I wanted to create a printable that captured the essence of the verse. A quick glance at this printable offers a description of the kinds of thoughts that are most glorifying to God, and most beneficial for us.
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How To DIY Painted Jars & A Helpful Decorating Tip
I’m going to share how to make these painted mason jars, why I think it’s important to decorate (even just a little!) for each season, and a design tip that has changed the way I decorate and made me much happier. I think you’ll find that applying it in your decorating will help you be happier too!
First, let’s get painting!
I love painted mason jars and painted glass because they’re so easy and versatile. You can use whatever colors you like best, and it’s a pretty inexpensive way to change up your decorations. They make great gifts too!
