Queen Jen's Gems

 Life always brings the unexpected. Some things may be good, while others may seem like an inconvenience. When the unexpected occurs, it can be easy sometimes to look at all the things that are going wrong or could be better. However, what about the things that are going right? Since I have last blogged, the unexpected has definitely happened in my life!! For example, the weekend right before school started, my cell phone died. Just out of nowhere as I was using it, the screen went black. When I tried to turn it back on, it only got as far as the start-up screen. Now, I did have the cell phone for 5 years, so it served me well and I loved its camera 💚! So, I'm grateful for that. Now, I love my new phone features and camera. New isn't always bad 😊. My cell phone going out happened right after another household expense had to be taken care. Yet, I still had to remind myself in the midst of a trying end of August, I still had so much to thank God for! There were still things goi...

 Seeing Friday may make you smile because you're thinking that it's your favorite day of the week or it indicates your weekend is about to start. You also might be thinking it's not Friday yet (or it could be when you read this!). I use this phrase as I'm sure many of you have 😊. Some of you may even say Fri- Yay!! Happy Friday has a very special meaning to me and that's what I want to share with you today. I want to share with you about two special people I worked with. One of them is my teacher friend who teaches at another school district now. The other individual has unfortunately passed away as he was the custodian at our school, Mr. Boo. I was a teacher assistant alongside my teacher friend for a while and it was great! We had so many laughs and good memories working with the students, and I learned so much 💚! When I started working with students in a specialized reading program, I moved to a class next door to my teacher friend. We continued to make wonderf...

 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...