my life – JoyReturns

52 Bible Verses, Faith, Joy, Uncategorized

52 Bible Verses for a Joy Filled Year – Week 39

09/24/201704/22/2019 Michele Kearns

This picture was taken this week as the sun rose up over the house. Once I saw this week’s verse I knew I had to use this picture.

The Lord IS light, strength, and salvation. May you and I remember this as we go through this week and may we see an example of all three in our lives.

Psalm 271

Bio: Michele Kearns is the founder and HUG© (Hope Unites Globally) Award-Winner of JoyReturns. She shares her widowhood adventures hoping to encourage widows to move through grief and rebuild their lives by seizing new opportunities. A graduate of Kent State University with a Bachelor’s degree in communications, she’s used her skills while working as a call center team leader, facilitating a grief support group and helping small businesses with various writing and administrative assignments. Michele is a bookworm, lover of golden retrievers and an amateur photographer.

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How Lipstick Helped Me Choose My Word For 2017.

01/11/201701/09/2017 Michele Kearns

Every year, some people chose either one word as their guide for the year. Other choose 3 words for the year.

I tried to come up with 3 words but could not decide on 3 that spoke to me. I toyed with Ask. Seek. Knock. After this verse from Matthew 7: 7, 8 (NIV):

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

I also toyed with the words hope and trust but they just did not speak to me either.

Ultimately I decided to go with one word as my guide for 2017 and it all started with lipstick.

About October of last year, I decided I was tired of naked, nude colorless lips – color was what I was seeking and it had to be bold.

After selecting my lipstick, a thought popped into my head that bold would be a good word for 2017. How I would apply it to my life this year was uncertain.

I kept thinking about other words (hope, trust, nurture, but I kept coming back to bold.

So I decided to use BOLD as my word of the year.

The Meaning of Bold

Merriam-Webster’s site defines bold as

1a : fearless before danger : intrepidb : showing or requiring a fearless daring spirit

2: impudent, presumptuous

3obsolete : assured, confident

4: sheer, steep <bold cliffs>

5: adventurous, free <a bold thinker>

6: standing out prominently

7: being or set in boldface

“Showing or Requiring a Fearless Daring Spirit”

Well that’s interesting. I am a member of Kelly Balarie’s book launch team for her new book Fear Fighting, awakening courage to OVERCOME your fears. Guess I will be referring to her book a lot this year.

How Bold Applies To This Year

I am still not certain about how bold is going to factor into my life this year, but I have some ideas. They include:

Bold Living – Sounds like a lot of adventure this year. Hopefully that means a new job that pays all the bills.
Bold Loving – This makes me nervous as maybe this is the year I start dating again.
Bold Creating – Not only being adventurous in my writing and photography but finding other creative adventures to pursue. Macrame here I come! 😉
Bold Faith – Trusting God.

2017 fills me with hope and excitement. In order to better my all aspects of my life, I am going to need to do Bold things and boldly go where no widow has gone before.

I will keep you posted on some of my decisions and their outcomes.

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Happy New Year From Chippie!!!

01/06/201701/05/2017 Michele Kearns

I am doing some research, planning and reading this weekend, so Chippie decided to stop by and wish everyone a Happy New Year.

My Facebook friends have been following his story for several months. He ran on the top of my neighbor’s fence several times a day carrying black walnuts from the tree in the woods. He would put them behind pieces of the windmill they build for Halloween.

When my neighbors took the pieces of the windmill out to assemble it in the front yard, they discovered Chippie’s stash – and it was a large stash. He was not happy with them for moving the windmill.

At first I thought Chippie was a squirrel, but he was very, very small and never grew taller, longer or wider during the several months I watched him. So I kept calling him Chippie and posting updates on Facebook about his antics at lunch and dinner.

I did get some pictures of him, and since I have a computer again, was able to upload them. Here are the best shots of Chippie from last year. Hopefully he comes back this fall as well.