Godly Insights for the 21st Century Life

Celebrating Thanksgiving last month got me to thinking about what I'm thankful for. Here, in no particular order, are some of my favorite things from the past year. Christian Music:  I have listened to Christian music since fourth grade, but this past year has been a particularly good one. My favorites include "The Breakup Song" by Francesca Battistelli, "Best News Ever" by MercyMe, and "He Still Does (Miracles)" by Hawk Nelson. "The Breakup Song" is written as a letter to fear to pack up and get out of our lives, and I had some fears that needed to go away, and listening to that song helped me to face them and get rid of them. "Best News Ever" is the message of the gospel in song form, and reminds us that the story of Jesus isn't just good news, it's the best news ever. "He Still Does (Miracles)" is a reminder that the power of God to perform miracles is not just something that happened in biblical times, but so...

"The time has come to make a choice, and I choose joy."~" Joy "-For King and Country Ever since I got a link to the music video for this song, I loved it. Not only are the costumes and setting of the video fun, but the song itself is as well. I sometimes struggle to be joyful when I hear about all the things happening in our world, and this song was great at encouraging me that it is not only possible, but also freeing. In pursuit of the kind of joy mentioned in the song,  I joined the Faith Gateway Defiant Joy online bible study led by Candace Payne (aka Chewbacca Mom) and Mandisa. Each week of this six week study had a Joy Lab, which contained one or more activities to do to help cultivate joy in our lives. These challenges ranged from finding old pictures of ourselves to carrying around rocks for an entire week. (The pictures were to remind us of times in the past where we were joyful, and the rocks were to represent the struggles we face that weigh us down a...