Penned Treasures

Happy Singles Day! If you aren’t single, please find a way to honor those who are. There are some who God calls to be single but the world looks down upon them or tries to place a false identity on them. Refuse to join with culture, making assumptions. Do you know that even apostle Paul was single? Look for the gifts in singles you know and encourage them!

How is the measurement of your love toward others this Valentine’s Day? Is it a “love” with expectancy to receive or the joy to give? Is it of disappointment and fear or of gratitude and courage? We can only truly love if we believe in the one who IS love. Start out your day filling up and focusing on God’s love for you, then share it, pouring out onto others.

Read how a puppy’s antics led me to think about connection with God. Read at https://pennedtreasures.com/2024/02/09/tethered/

I’m taking a break from social media for a while, including my writing pages at Penned Treasures unless I make some blog posts on the website. If the Lord wills, I’ll be back with the Penned Treasures page in about a month. Please pray with me as I seek God’s direction with continued writing, learning more and balancing basic life needs.

“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.” Proverbs 19:21

Obviously, none of us can predict how this next year will go. We can have dreams and goals, and enjoy setting up our new planners, if you like that sort of thing. (I do! 🙋🏼‍♀️) But I know from experience, often I run up against walls and feel frustrated because I set in my own mind how my day, month, or season should be.

I tend to over plan with high unrealistic expectations and then wonder why I can’t accomplish my goals. (Is anyone else like this?!) I’ve been trying to learn over the last few years to relax a little more. It’s a slow process for me.

As 2024 approaches, I hope yet again…to keep an open mind and heart to where God’s Spirit leads. It’s always an adventure, most often a mystery. I think God likes to surprise us! More importantly, he wants us to lean in and trust Him for the ride.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.

“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9

I hope my desires will line up more and more with His. That’s what I want for my goals this year.

Beautifully written by Tessa Afshar from her novel IN THE FIELD OF GRACE. I know this to be true in my life!

Sometimes Christmas is a difficult season to navigate. We may fight the desire to celebrate with the burdens we carry.

And yet it hit me: Christ came for the suffering. That’s what Christmas is truly about. He came to repair a broken hopeless world. He came to make all things new. And as we wait and prepare for Christmas, we can set our minds on this hope, that he’s coming again to
complete salvation in us and take us home. And what a day of rejoicing that will be as we gather in excitement, seeing Jesus face to face, and reunite with our loved ones, healed and in the fullness of His glory.

For those who are wearing heavy burdens of grief or suffering this Christmas, this is a comforting song. Love to all my friends and family and followers going through a very difficult season. -Eve

PS if you don’t have Spotify, look up the lyrics to GLORY IN THE DARKEST PLACE by Sovereign Grace Music. The YouTube version is in the comments.

Glory in the Darkest Place Sovereign Grace Music · Song · 2020

One of my favorite Christmas songs lately. Give it a listen! In fact, hear the entire album!

🎶 Come All Ye Unfaithful
Come, Weak and Unstable
Come, Know you are not alone
….
Christ is born, Christ is born
Christ is born for you 🎶

Sovereign Grace Music 2020

O Come, All You Unfaithful Sovereign Grace Music · Song · 2020

The greatest gift is Jesus Christ. We see the word, BELIEVE everywhere. It’s not about Santa. He’s not who saves. It’s not about wealth and material things. It’s about The Prince of Peace, a Wonderful Counselor, the King of all Kings whose government will never end.

Wow. I just received this today. So I have some catch up reading to do…but wow is this good!

For Day 1, John Piper shares four excellent ways to prepare.

1. Meditate on the fact you need a savior.
2. Engage in some self-examination.
3. Build God-centered anticipation, expectancy and excitement into your home-especially for the children in it.

“if you can only make Christmas exciting with material things, how will children get a thirst for God?”

4. Be much in scriptures and memorize the great passages.

Let’s all get our hearts in order by at least one of these ideas if not all. Thanks to John Piper for the encouragement!

Tonight’s drive home put me in awe as a magnificent display of color beautifully stretched across the horizon. And what a wonderful God this is, who is far more than we can experience with the senses, who brings peace on earth to those who would accept it, and offers forgiveness for every soul willing to admit their wretched, broken need for it.

See my blog entry https://pennedtreasures.com/2023/12/05/on-hold/

For the last several years now, I’ve used a Christian planner which asks me each Sunday, “How have you seen God working this week?”

I’ve come to appreciate this reflection as it helps me not only remember but keep aware of his constant presence in my life. When I see his work, I notice his love and I’m encouraged. No matter how difficult a week may have felt, I see God’s goodness continues to surround me and others. It cultivates thankfulness and positive thinking and keeps me alert as to whether I was even paying attention to his work in my daily life.

This week seemed more about how I saw God at work in others:
*I saw his mighty work in lives celebrated, those who were ushered home into his eternal presence.
*I saw Christian brothers and sisters support one another in grief and sorrow, and in sickness.
*I saw a husband loving his wife being an example of Christ.
*I saw people loving others through simple giving to those in need.
*I saw someone showing servanthood by gathering plates for others.
*I saw others working in the church kitchen preparing the potluck meal.
*I saw young parents lovingly holding their newborn.
*I saw a community of believers work together to share a meaningful Christmas service, and to worship in gratitude.

Yet on a more personal note,
*I saw God bless us with unexpected blessings and care at just the right time of need.
*I felt nudges by Holy Spirit to pray for others, reach out, listen a little harder, and pull away from distractions hindering my relationship with him.

What about you? Have you seen God at work? Rejoice!

This is one of my favorite (digital) Christmas drawings I’ve done. It was from an advent challenge I did years ago. The night was Holy. Oh how often we forget. It was the beginning of a new era. The promised Savior had come. Emmanuel joined us in the form of the most humble circumstance, to experience life with us, and dwell among us. Eventually he would save us from more than was ever imagined. He would save us from our sins. 💕I’m so thankful for this holy perfection…a most absolute true story to never forget. 💕

Read more thoughts in my new article, “The Miraculous Work of Endurance,” on the Penned Treasures Blog at
https://pennedtreasures.com/2023/11/29/the-miraculous-work-of-endurance/

Always feel free to comment, share, or both! Getting feedback helps me grow in my writing and know whether it’s helpful or not.
-Eve Garrison

If you need something to be thankful for, scriptures are full of incredible reasons!

I am thankful that the Lord is working in me to will and to act according to his good purpose to that I may continue to work out my salvation with fear and trembling. (Phil 2:12-13)

I am thankful that no plan of his can be thwarted. (Job 42:2)

I am thankful that through his son Jesus Christ, the law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2)

I am thankful that just as the sufferings of Christ flow into my life, so does my comfort overflow through him. (2 Cor. 1:5)

Eve Garrison
Penned Treasures

We shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!

Where have you seen God’s goodness in your life this year?
Find someone to share your thoughts, and rejoice together!

Very good quote by John Piper. I need to work on this, too! It’s difficult sometimes to wonder why your feelings don’t match up with what you know is true. But our bodies, including our emotions, are broken. We must lean in to what’s true.

I’m currently reading “Searching for Certainty: Finding God in the disruptions of Life” It’s an excellent book so far!

Some of you may cringe that I do this, but I underline great thoughts I want to ponder on or return to. It also helps me process. Anyway, I’m underlining “TONS!”

Here’s a few great thoughts:
“ Your uncertainty is God’s opportunity to grow something uniquely beautiful in you.” Pg 80

“What if we translated current events through the lens of being loved by the Almighty who holds time in his hands? What if you and I were part of the few who interpret tulmult and chaos as opportunity for God to reveal himself? What abundance might we be missing by going with the flow and basing future outcomes on today’s popular mind-sets?”
P43

“Without struggle and storm, the smooth, sunlit days would dream along, serene and unremarkable, taken for granted.”
P63

I love how this author, Shelly Miller, thinks!!

"Bless the Lord oh my soul, oh my soul. Worship His Holy Name. Sing like never before, oh my soul! Worship His Holy Name."
Matt Redmond, 10,000 reasons

So much appears to crumble around us. Life is full of troubles, just as Jesus said there would be. The earth is falling apart, groaning under the pressure of sin, waiting for the full redemption of mankind. My own home fought it all with plumbing issues of 30 plus year-old copper pipes. Our bodies feel it with aches and pains. Our hearts feel it with great losses, death of loved ones, life not as it should be as we see broken homes, dysfunction, drugs, po*******hy, overeating, controlling issues, mental illnesses, and codependency, slavery that tears people apart and causes trauma difficult to overcome.

Every season brings new messes to wade through. But as Joshua in the Old Testament declared to his fellow Israelites…”as far as me and my household, we choose to serve the Lord.” The Israelites had made mistakes in their past and suffered consequences. I’m thinking Joshua hoped they learned those lessons as they move forward with the Lord Most High who took great care to get them this far. They were entering the promised land but would still face battles to claim all that was theirs. They had to trust God would conquer for them as long as they stayed with Him. They had choices to make!

I choose to take the next step forward to freedom. I choose to walk forward in peace, love, and joy. One of the greatest joys is learning to trust the Lord in all things (yes, even the hard things!), knowing my greatest hope is in him.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:19-21



Adapted from October 2015. -Eve Garrison

A cup of tea
A gentle hug
A puppy smile
Sunrays shining
A heart-shaped leaf
to greet the day

It’s those little things
That shape my day
That lift my heart
That keep me sane.
Thank you, God,
for ABSOLUTELY
everything.

-Eve Garrison