The Treasure of a Child's Smile

It is such a joy to see my grandchildren smile…..their smile comes from the inside out, unlike ours (as a grownup) which often comes from the outside in….a forced smile I would say. Children cause you to smile right back at them because their smile is just soooo genuine. You see their shining face and you can’t help but smile right back.


I was also thinking about Chad’s words concerning the Light Shine children. How in their pictures, they were smiling a genuine smile….one he couldn’t have made them smile just for a picture…it was a realistic and “from the inside out” smile. One that showed true JOY !

In Job 9:27 we read
“ If I say, I will forget my complaint, I will change my expression, and smile”

First he tells us to forget our complaints…not an easy thing to do on any given day! BUT that is our instruction so it must be possible to do it!! So, we need to put our problems aside and quit complaining Then change our expression…. be of good cheer…then put on a happy face…and…Smile ! Is that the most appropriate way? The most genuine way?? Probably not…..the best way is to have the Joy of the Lord in your heart and have that joy (His Joy) come flowing out! Then I think our smiles will look more like the smile on a child’s face~sincere and radiant !

Psalm 118:24
This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.


Ps 144:15b
Happy are the people whose God is the Lord


Psalm 146:5
Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, Whose hope is in the LORD

 Philippians 4:8
[ Meditate on These Things ] Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.

Think on these things and you will have the  traceable, trustable treasure of the JOY of the Lord and a child's smile.

TheTreasure of Being a Blessing

When I was back at my Aunt's house after the funeral.....my cousin's wife gave me a card that had been posted on my Aunt's refrigerator and it had alot of wise words ...being wise they were treasures fnd in God's Word ...where the scriptures tied to these words were even wiser! I am sure you can find others as well.....and if you do, just leave them in the comment section for me! thanks !

Take joy in the gift of today....
Count your blessings....Eph 1:3   Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

Shine in the light of God's love...John 3:16   For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son

Forgive and forget.. Psalm 103:12….as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

Encourage those around you... Philemon 1:7 Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints.

Grow gracefully... 2 Peter 3:18 8But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever!

Obey with a cheerful heart..


Be true to your belief...

Be strong in the Lord... Corinthians 16:13   Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong.

Stand firm and be counted....


Keep the faith...


Share God's Word...Matt 28:18-19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father

and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you

Seek simplicity...

Pursue what is true.... Philippians 4:8  Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Listen with your heart...


Memorize the scriptures... Psalm 119:11  Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

Fuel your faith...


Delight in His creation... Psalm 19 :1  The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Celebrate God's promises...

Be earnest in prayer... Acts 12:5   so Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.

Believe in miracles...


Walk not talk...


and Live the life .... Galatians 2:20    I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me

Don't forget to add to my Traceable Trustable Treasures and be a BLESSING !!

The Treasure of HIS Guidance

Well on my Facebook page you might have read the article called

       “ Dancing with God” Author unknown (adapted by me)…If not you can read it now…….

When I thought on the word Guidance, I kept seeing "dance" at the end of the word. And I thought that doing God's will can be a lot like dancing. When both people try to lead, nothing feels right. The movement doesn't flow with the music, and everything is quite uncomfortable and jerky. But when one person realizes that, and lets the other lead….then both bodies begin to flow with the music. One gives cues, perhaps with a nudge to the back or by pressing in one direction or another. It's as if two become one body, moving beautifully. The dance takes surrender, willingness, and attentiveness from one person and guidance(wisdom) and skill (knowledge) from the other.

A second time my eyes drew back to the word Guidance. When I saw "G": I thought of God, followed by "u" and "I”~"God”, "u" and "i" dance." God, you, and I dance. As I prayed, I became willing to trust God to give me guidance in my life. And once again, I became willing to let God lead. May you abide in God, as God abides in you. Dance together with God, trusting Him to lead and to guide you through each season of your life.

The first verse that came to my mind after reading this was :

Psalm 37:23
The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.

How that needs to be true in my life and in your life as well.

Next a PG favorite Psalm 119:105
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

How about Isaiah 30:21
Your ears shall hear a word word behind you, saying, 'This is the way, walk in it, whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left .

And of course one of my all time favorites…Proverbs 3:5,6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.

And in closing, 2 from the Psalms

Psalm 25:9
He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.

Psalm 25:12
Who is the man who fears the LORD? He will instruct him in the way he should choose.

It is a joy to think on these scriptures in light of the “Dance”. The Lord orders our steps if we will but follow his lead and if we acknowledge that he is our lead and we will allow Him to lead, then He will direct our path and show us which steps to take! Having our feet on His paths, following His directions, from His Word is a very basis of whole process.

As we are taking a turn around the dance floor, following our Lord's lead, may we rejoice in the Traceable, Trustable Treasure of God’s loving Guidance .

The Treasure of the Love of Our God

If I sang the song., “The Love of God” once this week to my aunt then I sang it 4 or 5 times. It was one of the first things she ask for and the last as well. What a song to begin and end with!! It speaks such peace and assurance to my soul and it did to hers as well.. I remember George Beverly Shea singing it and Earl Smith singing it .

The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen could ever tell…it is measureless and strong….it will forever more endure….it is the saints and angels song….and it is our song as well.... When you think of someone who is 90 years old and has congestive heart failure and a cold on top of that….who drinks things lukewarm cause the ice has melted and she doesn’t want to bother someone to get more … who rings her buzzer and waits for 30 -45 minutes for someone to come and help her to straighten her covers and pillows.. or use the bathroom… or hand her something she can’t reach …It is hard to imagine that person even singing,  let alone singing about love….but then again it hard to imagine how she could exist without singing about the Love of God!   How could she exist without personally knowing the Love of God…. She is an example of faith—in action-- to me. Oh ,that those who come behind me will find me as faithful as I find her, my Aunt.
The scriptures listed here below talk about God’s love for us….and when we think about his great love, how can we help but sing his praise! I mean scripture says that if we don’t sing his praises that even the rocks will start to do it for us !! God gave His Son ….his erring child He reconciled….And pardoned from his sin...

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. – 1 John 4:9-11


For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. - John 3:16.

Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands. - Deuteronomy 7:9


And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. - 1 John 4:16

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. - Galatians 2:20


Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made
Were every stalk on earth a quill
And every man a scribe by trade

To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry
Nor could the scroll contain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky

Oh the treasure, the traceable, trustable treasure of the Love of Our God…. how measureless and strong… how faithful.... how tender and yet how great!

The Treasure of the Greatness of our GOD

I began work on my next special music song this weekend …I am going to do it with Bethany, my oldest grandchild. It is a beautiful song with outstanding words…..it is my profile song so you can take a listen to it on my page or on Bethany’s.

I love to sing songs that have meaning to my life…and this one definitely does.
I trust as you listen to the words and learn the song that it will come to mean a lot to you as well. It starts out by saying

Give me eyes to see more of who You are
May what I behold still my anxious heart
Take what I have known and break it all apart
You my God are greater still

In seeing the true greatness of our God, the awesome wonder of his marvelous works, and His sovereignty ….we ought not to be worried or anxious for he is greater still.

Deut 5:24 Surely the LORD our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God speaks with man;


Phil 4:6-7 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.


Psalm 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God


Psalm 119:18 Open my eyes, that I may see Wondrous things from Your law.


And no words could say
Or song convey all You are
the greatness of our God
I spend my life to know
And I'm far from close to all You are
The greatness of our God

I can search and study my whole life and it brings me closer to my Lord and Savior but the more I know of Him, the more I realize that I don’t know.

1 Cor 13:12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

Deut 4:35 To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD Himself is God; there is none other besides Him.

But there is one thing that I know and I know it without a doubt…that nothing can ever separate me from God’s love

And there is nothing that could ever separate us
There is nothing that could ever separate us from Your love
No life no death of this I am convinced
That You my God are greater still

Romans 8:38-39 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,  nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

How marvelous is the Traceable Trustable Treasure of the Greatness of Our God

The Treasure of God's Faithfulness

When I was at the hospital this past week, my sister and I sang together... which we have not done in years!! We sang or our Aunt Barbara and we sang some old favorites like In The Garden, Blessed Assurance, The Love of God, The Old Rugged Cross, There's a Sweet Sweet Spirit, How Great Thou Art and Great is Thy Faithfulness….What a joy !!  But I have to be honest, there were a number of them that I had trouble singing without getting a bit overwhelmed ….not only because of what they mean to me, but what I could see they meant to my aunt.  With her eyes closed and hand slightly raised I knew the words to these old hymns were touching her heart and drawing her into communion with her Lord and Saviour.

We sang the first verse of Great is thy Faithfulness…then sang (or tried to sing) the third verse…what wonderful words…. Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth…..thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide…Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow …Blessings all mine with ten thousand beside…Great is thy faithfulness, morning by morning new mercies I see,  All I have needed thy hand hath provided…great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.

How she needed (as we all need) to remember that the Lord provides the  strength we can draw on daily.

Psalm 27:14
Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

Psalm 46:1
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble

And what wonderful assurance that he gives us hope….not only hope but bright hope for tomorrow….and peace that endures.

Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

The promise that His presence will both bring joy and guide us

Psalm 16:11
You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Psalm 37:5

Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass

I thank the Lord for the awesome priviledge of sharing with my aunt who also shared with us…the joy of blessing and being blessed in return….the Lord has it all planned out and in His Sovereignty He provides for his children whom He loves and cares for. He knows just what we need even before we know we need it....Great is Thy Faithfulness…..what a Traceable Trustable Treasure…..Lord unto me!!

THE TREASURE OF A HUMMINGBIRD

Well, as you read on my Facebook status today “MY HUMMINGBIRDS ARE BACK” . Really they never come before the first to the middle of May but this year I was so anxious to see them that I put the nectar out in mid April. Of course having the nectar out early did not mean they would migrate early ! This morning Gregory saw one hummingbird but that means the word is out and eventually I will see more and more of them !!

Romans 8:25 has a bit to say about that
“But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.”

Waiting with patience is not an easy task….waiting is hard enough, but waiting with patience is a skill me need to develop.. And waiting for my hummingbirds to come back each year does help to hone that skill. Now......what else can I learn from my hummingbirds?

Hummingbirds are big eaters.. They eat an equivalent of 1300 hamburgers a day with 60 liters of water. Why do hummingbirds need to eat so much? Because they are active birds flying at speeds up to 55 miles per hour . And their wings beat 50-80 times a second. Even tho they require that much food, they don’t sit and worry over where the food is coming from…they just trust their Creator to provide what they have need of !

Matthew 6:25-26, 31-32
Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

Interestingly, the hummingbirds will return to the same feeders here in my yard year after year. They migrate to avoid the cold and to live where there is abundant food. They are driven by their hunger. They have to drink nectar constantly. What I did not know is this–the nectar they drink is just for fuel to give them the energy to find the insects that they feed on to live. Are we driven by our hunger for God’s word ? Do we need to drink constantly from His word , so we have energy to do what He wants us to do?

Matthew 5:6
Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be filled.
Deuteronomy 8:3
And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.

Lastly Hummingbirds are beautiful colorful creations…and they are busy little guys as well…they have the unique ability to fly forward, backward, upside down, and straight up like a helicopter as no other bird can. They are one of God’s special unique creations….such a Traceable, Trustable Treasure.