Hi Everyone,
Thank you to everyone who left a comment on last week’s blog, My Prayer Journal. I greatly appreciate your suggestions, and will try to incorporate as many of them as I can into the final version. Congratulations to Annie Bolick, who will receive a copy once it is published.
As a life-long spiritual seeker, I have a constant yearning to grow closer to God.
This is a page from one of my recent journals:
I believe that each of us is here for a purpose, and that we are meant to discover and hone the talents we’ve been blessed with so we can use them to make a difference in the world.
Some of the prompts I’d like to include in My Prayer Journal are based on this belief.
An easy way each of us can make a difference is by reaching out to someone who has undergone a major life transition. Perhaps someone you know recently retired… had surgery… became an empty nester… was diagnosed with cancer… moved to a new town… lost a loved one… started a new job… had a baby… got divorced… or is struggling in some way. It doesn’t have to be someone you know well… just someone you think would benefit from knowing someone cares about them. 
If you will be hosting Thanksgiving, and have an extra seat at the table, consider inviting someone who may not have anyplace to go. Inviting a single parent, a recent widow, a college student alone in a strange city, or a new neighbor or co-worker to join you, can touch– and help heal– someone’s heart. You may never know how much your invitation means… but anything you do which makes a difference for someone else matters. Kindness counts! If you decide to open your home this Thanksgiving, please leave a comment letting me know who you plan to invite. Thank you for helping make a difference in the world.
Stay Zenspired,
Joanne
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This really resussitated resonates with me.
Hi Joanne! I’m so inspired by you and the way you share your heart so authentically and with such transparency. God IS using you!!! You are speaking life into the hearts, souls and minds of everyone you touch with your prayers, wise insight and suggestions, your words of encouragement and with your beautiful artwork. Love you Lady J!!! I hope to see you here in Florida sometime soon
This prayer journal is going to be amazing, I can’t wait . Thank you
I love all your sayings and prayers.
Congratulations Annie
I am always amazed with the designs you create. God has certainly give you a wonderful gift. Thanks for sharing that gift will everyone
I am always amazed with the designs you create. God has certainly give you a wonderful gift. Thanks for sharing that gift with everyone
I am recently widowed, and wasn’t going to celebrate at all, but a recent friend can not go home to see their adult children this Thanksgiving so I am cooking for them.
Beautiful blog. I so love the earth with the heart and bow. My daughter goes to a Friends school and part of their mission statement reads “Inspired by Quaker values — pursuit of truth, respect for all, peaceful resolution of conflict, simplicity, the call to service — we teach our children that it is possible to change the world.” I thought that art piece so beautifully depicts that belief. !
I look forward to your prayer journal Joanne. I do art in mine weekly and it always gives me joy every morning as I flip thru and claim praises to answers from God an daee my art entry that week and how it related to the prayers that week too.
Your truths are Priceless and I am a total follower.
Well Done!!!!! Your words and art will be putting glorious and useful ideas into many minds. Sometimes the best move forward comes from looking out, not in. Your way of encouraging is beautiful, honest, and allows a person to believe that they can do these things. One thing will open the doors and lead to more open doors, and the goodness will flow in and out.
You are truly creating something needed and useful for this world. Your husband already knew you were something special. Now the world will know it too.
OH.MY.GOODNESS! That’s me!! I never win anything! How fun! Thank you so much! I am really looking forward to using this beautiful book!
Thank you for this post as well. “Live with Intention”. That is such a good and necessary reminder, and one that I have been redefining in my own life this past year since I took an early retirement from my job. God has been teaching me many things, including the fact that I am worthy and I am loved simply because I am His child and not because of whatever title I had or what I accomplished in my career. I love that I have more time for simple, little things like having people over and just spending time with them. One of the people we have invited for Thanksgiving this year is a dear friend of mine and his 2 young daughters. He is going through a divorce and this is the first holiday that they will not be together as a family. I know it will be hard for them and I am praying that time with friends will minister to them.
Thanks again Joanne for your art and your wisdom!
Hello Joanne. We are sharing part of our Thanksgiving with a neighbor who has recently lost her husband. She works that day but will stop by for a snack. We have helped her with gathering and stacking wood for her wood stove and have kept her company when she did not want to eat alone. Since reading your blog I have become more aware of helping and caring about someone who lost a loved one. You sure help with the right words to say.
HI Joanne!
We just finished getting a new metal roof on our home and Patrick, our contractor was working on our house during Thanksgiving day because he was renting a lift for $200.00 a day, so time was of the essence. Remembering what you had written in your blog, I opened the invitation to him to join us for dinner at 4:00. He was most appreciative, but declined because he needed to get all the work finished with the lift so he could take it back on Fri. It made me feel good regardless that he declined the invitation. 🙂
Thanks for putting the thought in my mind to do the right thing.
LOVE and HUGS always,
Glad you had a nice Thanksgiving! <3
nice post.