Note-to-self, and the giveaway winner

Note-to-self:  Rememeber what Beth Moore said about self-pity being a form of pride??  And remember yesterday's devotions about considering all the trials in your life to be a source of Joy and how doing that would produce perseverance and maturity in your life?  

And now, remember how yesterday RIGHT after doing those devotions, school mornings took a long time (wahhh),  I had to car pool b/c it was cold and the other mom couldn't (grrrrrr), and I got to school and my youngest forgot both his backpack and his skates/helmet bag for skating at school today so I had to use up some banked time to run home and get it (sigh).  Oh, and my schedule at work changed 3 times before lunch, including postponing lunch by an hour (Growl - this time my stomach growling), not to mention a morning of getting yelled at and hit at school (ok, he's young and it didn't hurt but still....poor me), and then the basketball schedule (don't even get me started on that). I acted as if my life had been ruined by this schedule and obviously I could have done a better job of it....anyone could have.  

WOW.  

In the realm of facing trials and finding joy instead of complaining..

...in the words of my Junior High daughter...

Yesterday was a huge FAIL.  

And I'm sitting here this morning with the huge realization that: 

a.) Feeling sorry for myself b/c of all I have to endure, really is a manifestation of my pride

and

b.) God is so good...that he's going to give me a chance to do it all over again today, isn't he?? 

I am not going to screw this up today.   

Today I will remember this:

  

""The joy of encountering hardship 

springs from the knowledge 

that God is at work in our lives 

to make us more like Him."

(Cynthia Heald)

 *****************************************************************

So, the winners:

I have 2 copies of Canadian Scrapbooker.  One each for:

The Biehns said... The everyday beauty around me brings me much JOY :)
The cool crisp air, blue sky and fresh fields of white...breathtaking.

and

Bev said... MY KIDS are bringing me truckloads of JOY these days. Watching them participate in various activities that they are now old enough to do, listening to their conversations that I used to think were beyond their years, seeing them interact with others...

Thanks for those notes about what brings you Joy....sometimes hearing about Joy in someone else's life brings an awareness of what's actually in my own life that I've been neglecting, missing out on, or taking for granted.  

I said in the earlier post that the layouts on my page in Canadian Scrapbooker, aren't mine.  In fact, all 3 of the Manitoba scrapbookers this month had our layouts mixed up and placed on someone else's pages.  Jackie, the editor has been apologizing left, right and centre and has more than made up for what little inconvenience it was in the first place, honestly.  It's a fab! magazine.  Please check it out.
Here you can read her apology blog post - and see a larger picture of me in my scraproom :)