November 25: I’m thankful for sunshine! It gets dark so early since turning back the clocks a few weeks ago for the end of daylight savings. I am so thankful that despite the shorter days, we have been having sunny days recently!
November 26: I’m thankful for long quiet Sunday afternoon naps! There is no better way to start off the week than by taking a nice long nap on Sunday afternoon.
November 24: I’m thankful for the song Jesus, Thank You!
The mystery of the cross I cannot comprehend,
The agonies of Calvary.
You, the Perfect Holy One, crushed Your Son,
Drank the bitter cup reserved for me.
Your blood has washed away my sin,
Jesus, thank You.
The Father”s wrath completely satisfied,
Jesus, thank You.
Once Your enemy, now seated at Your table,
Jesus, thank You.
By Your perfect sacrifice I”ve been brought near,
Your enemy made Your friend.
Pouring out the riches of Your glorious grace,
Your mercy and your kindness know no end.
Your blood has washed away my sin,
Jesus, thank You.
The Father”s wrath completely satisfied,
Jesus, thank You.
Once Your enemy, now seated at Your table,
Jesus, thank You.
November 19: I’m thankful for Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord , thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.November 20: I’m thankful for Lauren Daigle. Her voice is so beautiful and her songs speak to my heart and encourage me to worship.November 21: I’m thankful for Caress Mystique Forever Body Wash. I’m obsessed! Long-lasting captivating fragrance released on touch!
November 5: I’m thankful for the opportunity to give to others.
We had the awesome opportunity at my children’s school to pack boxes for Operation Christmas Child.🎁 Once finished packing up all the boxes, my daughter said “It’s so great to get to give to others and be a blessing”😍
I especially loved watching all the people filling their boxes and then praying for the child that is going to receive the box. ❤️ This year our school filled 200+ boxes! That was 100 more than we did last year! 🎄
James 1:17 – Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
If you are interested in sending a box to a child you can read more about it at the Samaritans Purse website.
I have had this song stuck in my head for several days now. I wanted to share it with you.
My favorite part is from verse 3
O wondrous love that sings of Calvary
The sweetest sound this sinner’s ever known
The song of Your redeeming Son
Whose wondrous love will never let me go
VERSE 1
O wondrous love that will not let me go
I cling to You with all my strength and soul
Yet if my hold should ever fail
This wondrous love will never let me go
VERSE 2
O wondrous love that’s come to dwell in me
Lord who am I that I should come to know
Your tender voice assuring me
This wondrous love will never let me go
CHORUS
I’m resting in the everlasting arms
In the ever faithful heart
The Shepherd of my life
You’ll carry me on Your mighty wings of grace
Keeping me until the day
I look into Your eyes
VERSE 3
O wondrous love that sings of Calvary
The sweetest sound this sinner’s ever known
The song of Your redeeming Son
Whose wondrous love will never let me go
CHORUS
I’m resting in the everlasting arms
In the ever faithful heart
The Shepherd of my life
You’ll carry me on Your mighty wings of grace
Keeping me until the day
I look into Your eyes
VERSE 4
O wondrous love that rushes over me
I can’t escape this river’s glorious flow
You overwhelm my days with good
Your wondrous love will never let me go
Your wondrous love will never let me go
I would love for you to follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
You can find me as Looking Joli Good on all three.
My Mom, sisters and I have been reading through this book Ponder The Path by Francie Taylor. It’s been great so far and I definitely recommend it if you are looking for a daily devotional.
I wanted to share one of the devotionals with you that I have found to be convicting yet also applicable to this series of “Ditch The Diet”.
Happy is a man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth understanding Proverbs 3:13
We’ve been tricked!
Women today are being duped into believing that their physical appearance is the key to happiness. Add in the myth of “anti-aging” and we’re caught in a trap, and we’re passing the Baton of insecurity to young women running the next leg of the race. Now they are also striving to have the image that supposedly makes life complete.
But does it?
I met an 80 something-year-old former beauty queen and tap dancer. “I was really famous in my day,” she told me with great pride. It was almost as if she felt the need to validate her presence by describing her past. Did you know that there are a lot of former beauties in nursing homes?
God doesn’t value the currency of good looks. In fact, it must make him shake his Heavenly head as he watches all these organized piles of dust wearing “powder and paint to make a woman what she ain’t.” Sigh.
Happiness doesn’t come from having flawless skin, stylish hair, and a size 2 figure wrapped up in fashionable clothing. All those things are temporary. You will wake up one day at 80, when it will seem to you that it was just yesterday that you were 20, like the former beauty queen, if God grants you that many days.
Happiness is a benefit of wisdom. When we find wisdom from God’s word, we are able to see life through clear lenses, understanding and comprehending that there are far more important issues in this life than whether or not people are impressed with our appearance. Cutting a fine figure is no substitute for being a wonderful human being.
To be happy is to be blessed. Find wisdom. Get understanding. It’s far more valuable than being able to wear a size 2 at age 82.
Happy is a man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth understanding Proverbs 3:13 Read Proverbs 3.
Sunday morning one of my favorite singers at our church sang this song with the choir, and it has been running through my head ever since. My favorite line in the song is…
I know you, I love you
I gave My life just to save you
Love paid the price for mercy
My verdict not guilty
I stand accused
There’s a list a mile long
Of all my sins
Of everything that I’ve done wrong I’m so ashamed
There’s nowhere left for me to hide
This is the day
I must answer for my life
My fate is in the Judge’s hands
But then He turns to me and says
I know you, I love you I gave My life to save you
Love paid the price for mercy
My verdict not guilty
How can it be?
I can’t begin to comprehend What kind of grace Would take the place for all my sin?
I stand in awe
Now that I have been set free
And the tears well up
As I look at that cross
‘Cause it should have been me
My fate was in the nail scarred hands
He stretched them out for me
And said
I know you, I love you
I gave My life to save you
Love paid the price for mercy My verdict not guilty
I’m falling on my knees to thank You
With everything I am, I’ll praise you
So grateful for the words I heard
You say
I know you, I love you
I gave My life
I know you, I love you
I gave My life just to save you
Love paid the price for mercy
My verdict not guilty
Love paid the price for mercy My verdict not guilty, not guilty
If you know me well, you know that I love animal facts!
My favorite of all the animals (besides my precious BT Tessie) is elephants. I love how they have such big personalities and memories and stick together and even cry for each other.
Jen Hatmaker also has a big personality and is one of my favorites. Here is a post from her that I wanted to share with all of you.
#Repost @jenhatmaker
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A few months ago, my girl @nicholenordeman sent me a picture and a story.
It’s about female elephants. See, in the wild, when a mama elephant is giving birth, all the other female elephants in the herd back around her in formation. They close ranks so that the delivering mama cannot even be seen in the middle. They stomp and kick up dirt and soil to throw attackers off the scent and basically act like a pack of badasses.
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They surround the mama and baby in protection, sending a clear signal to predators that if they want to attack their friend while she is vulnerable, they’ll have to get through 40 tons of female aggression first.
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When the baby is delivered, the sister elephants do two things: they kick sand or dirt over the newborn to protect its fragile skin from the sun, and then they all start trumpeting, a female celebration of new life, of sisterhood, of something beautiful being born in a harsh, wild world despite enemies and attackers and predators and odds.
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Scientists tell us this formation normally occurs in only two cases – under attack by predators like lions, or during the birth of a new elephant.
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This is what we do, girls. When our sisters are vulnerable, when they are giving birth to new life, new ideas, new ministries, new spaces, when they are under attack, when they need their people to surround them so they can create, deliver, heal, recover…we get in formation. We close ranks and literally have each others’ backs. You want to mess with our sis? Come through us first. Good luck.
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And when delivery comes, when new life makes its entrance, when healing finally begins, when the night has passed and our sister is ready to rise back up, we sound our trumpets because we saw it through together. We celebrate! We cheer! We raise our glasses and give thanks.
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I have this picture saved in 3 different places & in a frame. (I also have an elephant ring given to me and my girlfriends from @taralivesay – it tells me: never alone.) Maybe you need this too. If you are closing ranks around a vulnerable sister, or if your girls have you surrounded while you are tender, this is how we do it.
Every once in a while I stop and ask myself “Laura, why are you doing what you are doing?” I made a decision about 6 months ago to stop doing things for the wrong reasons. I decided that if something is not bringing joy in my life I need to stop doing it. I can’t say that in the last 6 months I have always followed that decision, but I have tried to keep a check on my motives.
Proverbs 16:2 All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight, But the LORD weighs the motives.
Psalm 139:1 O LORD, You have searched me and known me.
Jeremiah 12:3 But You know me, O LORD; You see me; And You examine my heart’s attitude toward You.
Jeremiah 17:10 I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds.
“Why are you doing what you are doing?”
After making some changes, I have had more peace in the last few months than I have had in a long time. I will continue to ask myself “Why are you doing what you are doing?” and I will also continue to answer myself honestly. Sometimes being honest with ourselves about our motives is one of the hardest parts.
There have been times that social media has been more of a drain on me than an enjoyment, so I have chosen to distance myself from it. There have been people in my life that have been more of a drain on me emotionally than an enjoyment, so I distanced myself from them. The choice isn’t always permanent, but sometimes a bit of separation gives a chance to get things back into proper perspective.
Instead of letting others determine what we do, what we wear, how we decorate our houses, where we choose to go, we need to make choices for ourselves. We should only be trying to make right choices for ourselves and the people and things that are truly important to us.
Saying yes all the time won’t make me Wonder Woman. It will make me a worn-out woman.
I am not talking about becoming self-centered, I am talking about becoming secure in yourself and making choices for yourself, not because of what other people want or what “they” will think.**
I heard this song the other day and the message of it really made me think. It is so similar to what I have been pondering the last few months. What really matters is that when I am alone with myself, do I like the person that I am on the inside?!
Try by Colbie Caillat
Put your make-up on
Get your nails done
Curl your hair
Run the extra mile
Keep it slim so they like you, do they like you?
Get your sexy on
Don’t be shy, girl
Take it off
This is what you want, to belong, so they like you
Do you like you?
You don’t have to try so hard
You don’t have to, give it all away
You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up
You don’t have to change a single thing
You don’t have to try, try, try, try
You don’t have to try, try, try, try
You don’t have to try, try, try, try
You don’t have to try
You don’t have to try
Mm, mm
Get your shopping on, at the mall, max your credit cards
You don’t have to choose, buy it all, so they like you
Do they like you?
Wait a second, Why, should you care, what they think of you When you’re all alone, by yourself, do you like you? Do you like you?
When you’re all alone, by yourself, do you like you?
You don’t have to try so hard
You don’t have to, give it all away
You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up
You don’t have to change a single thing
You don’t have to try so hard
You don’t have to bend until you break
You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up
You don’t have to change a single thing
You don’t have to try, try, try, try
You don’t have to try, try, try, try
You don’t have to try, try, try, try
You don’t have to try
You don’t have to try, try, try, try
You don’t have to try, try, try, try
You don’t have to try, try, try, try
You don’t have to try
You don’t have to try
Mm, mm
You don’t have to try so hard
You don’t have to, give it all away
You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up
You don’t have to change a single thing
You don’t have to try, try, try, try
You don’t have to try, try, try, try
You don’t have to try
You don’t have to try
Take your make-up off
Let your hair down
Take a breath
Look into the mirror, at yourself
Don’t you like you?
‘Cause I like you
**A great book with a lot of great information about a similar topic is The Best Yes by Lysa TerKeurst. She is the president of Proverbs 31 Ministries and the New York Times bestselling author of Uninvited. (Totally not sponsored at all, I just really enjoyed the information in this book.)
November 20: I’m thankful for Lauren Daigle. Her voice is so beautiful and her songs speak to my heart and encourage me to worship.
November 21: I’m thankful for Caress Mystique Forever Body Wash. I’m obsessed! Long-lasting captivating fragrance released on touch! 
Looking Joli Good 