Queen Jen's Gems

 Just like any season, we know summer will end soon. For those of us in education, our summer break has ended or will end very soon. When we look back over our summer, we may think about the fun times we had. I am so grateful for the fun times I had this summer💛. You may also look over your summer and think about all the memories you made. Who says the fun has to stop?! It may have to look a little different and can't be at 1pm on a Tuesday because of your work schedule. Yet, we can still make sure we are scheduling time for fun 😊. We can make sure we are still taking time to do things we enjoy and help us to stay healthy in all areas of our life. On my summer break, I started doing my walks first thing in the morning. I loved it- fresh air, sunshine and physical movement to start the day (especially on those hotter days before it got even hotter!). I also loved sitting on my porch in the morning and read my book. One morning, I even read and studied my Bible devotional outside, ...

 When we think about the number three, a few things may come to mind. In sports, three medals are given in competitions when the participants win - gold, silver, and bronze. In basketball, there is a three-point line. In baseball, after three strikes, a player is out. In our country, we have three branches of government- executive, legislative, and judicial. On debit and credit cards, there is a 3-digit number known as Card Verification Value (CVV) that can prove the authenticity of the card. We also can find the number three in the Bible, such as when Jonah had to spend 3 days and 3 nights in the belly of a fish, when Peter denied Jesus 3 times, and when Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness 3 times. The number three is often associated with being complete. In thinking about the number 3 in my post today, I want to focus on the three disciples that Jesus took with him to see certain things and went with him in certain situations. A disciple is a follower of Jesus. Durin...

 Asking questions helps us to reflect on ourselves and the world around us. Lots of questions can be found in the Bible. Today, I focus on one of the questions found in the Old Testament in the Bible. It's found in I Kings 19 😊. That chapter may sound familiar to some as that's the chapter I preached from when I did my initial sermon. Let me tell you, this chapter won't let me go and that's a good thing! In the chapter, we find God asking Elijah a question. Elijah is a man of God who is a prophet, one who is a messenger from God who shares future events. In this particular chapter, we see Elijah is in a low place because he is the only one of God's prophets left and the king's wife has threatened his life. Therefore, he is on the run for his life and is in a cave at the mountain of Horeb. It's there that God finds him (God knew he was there anyway!) and asked him the question, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" (v. 9). Elijah gives God an honest a...

 We have lots of ways to hear information about what's happening around us. There's email, text, letters, phone calls, face to face interactions, social media, word of mouth, and the Internet, just to name a few 😊. Sometimes, what we hear is true and reliable, while other times it is questionable and may not be true. We have to check the sources because some sources are more reliable than others. Information that has gone through several people may not be correct by the time it reaches you. That's why it's always important to check the source the minute someone says, "Let me tell you what I heard." I have used this phrase before, so this message is checking me too! Not only do we need to check the source, but we also need to check what we're listening to and why we're listening to it. Is what we're hearing going to help or tear down? Is what we're hearing going to add value or take from it? Is it positive or negative? Is it encouraging or disc...

 At some point in your life, you may have seen a package with these three words: handle with care. The contents inside are fragile and need to be handled gently. The items are not to be thrown around carelessly or be to run with as they could shatter if dropped. The package must be handled with care. Just like the packages we have received, our lives should be handled with care. Others' lives should be handled with care also. Our lives are valuable, precious and very important😊. We need to be careful how we treat ourselves. We should be kind to ourselves always 💖. We should also be careful how we treat others. Our actions and words can hurt, so we have to choose them wisely. We all have been the recipient or giver of words and actions that hurt at one time or another. Therefore, we have to be intentional with our words and handle them with care. We should also handle our faith with care. Our faith in God should never be taken lightly. We should ask God daily to help us in our fai...

 Growing up, I used to love puzzles 😊!! I loved putting together puzzles of different sizes and different scenes. Some evenings, you could find my family and me in our living room working on a puzzle. While doing the puzzle, there would be laughter and conversation 💚. There would also be moments of frustration of not finding the right piece and moments of false hope when we thought we had the right piece, but it was not. I loved the time spent together as we made so many good memories! Seeing the final picture of the puzzle made it even more special. When the pieces are scattered all over the place, it may be difficult to see how it all comes together to form the picture. Sometimes, you may not know where to start putting together the puzzle. Some people look for the corner pieces, while others may just find pieces that look like they go together and go from there. I do more of the latter 😊. Eventually, all of those smaller pieces are going to connect to form a bigger picture. I...