Musings...

Dear JOY Blog readers,

I am thankful to all of you for reading JOY Blog. God gave me JOY Blog as a Christian alternative to what the culture offers girls and young women! JOY Blog has always been a place where I want to see God glorified above all else! In the past few months, I have not been able to dedicate as much time as I think this ministry deserves.

As Ecclesiastes 3:1(NIV1984) says, "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven." At this time, most of my writing is being done on my personal blog, Musings Made By Mandy. While you may see some postings on here every now and then, most of my writing will be done on Musings. If you would like to read more of my writing, please follow me on my personal blog: http://musingsmadebymandy.blogspot.com/ I would love to see you over there!

In this season, I feel God is calling me to focus in this one place. So in this season of down time for JOY Blog, come visit me on my blog and see how God is working in my life. On Musings, you will see random thoughts, stories, the hard times, and the times filled with JOY. 

So come on over to Musings!

Joy and hugs,

Mandy H.

Author favorites - Summer Activities

Hey everyone!

Summer is half-way over, yet there is plenty of time for some more fun summer activities! I thought I would share some of my favorite summer activities. Please comment what you love to do during the summer! I'll add them to this list! Have fun!

Mandy H.

Mandy's Favorite Summer Activities

• Volunteering! (I love to volunteer! There are so many fun things you can do - visit the elderly, become politically active, help in the Church nursery, babysit for free, be creative and come up with your own ideas based on things you love!)
• Being at the lake (or in the pool). I love to play on the lake. Boating, fishing, tubing, knee boarding, and this year I hope to learn how to wake board!
• Spending time with my family, especially my nieces and nephews!
• Having bonfires.  Even though sometimes it is too warm for that, I love the gathering of people around the fire!
•  Bicycling. I haven't had time to do a lot of it this summer, but I enjoy it!
•  Reading books, watching movies, or blogging on here or my personal blog! This is one activity that I like if it is SUPER hot out and I need to cool off, I head on down to the basement to do these!!!

Remember to share your ideas below and I will post some of them on here! Have a great summer! 

Consider Your Calling...

This is something I posted on personal blog about a week ago.  I have been thinking a lot lately about the place in life that I am. Am I where I am supposed to be? Am I doing what I am supposed to be doing? Most importantly, am I living my life to the glory of God and boasting in Him?

So what is my calling? Many times we get catch up in thinking we are no good enough, strong enough, or smart enough, and we are not...But through Christ's work on the cross, God gives us the strength and the wisdom we need. He takes what we see as unusable and creates new life! So, let us boast, not in ourselves, but in the Lord, because it is through Him that we are who we are today and He will use us to do His work!


These verses show that God uses us all, just as we are, for His glory! Our weakness demonstrates His power! We are to boast in Him!

1 Corinthians 1:25-31 ESV

 

For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."