Queen Jen's Gems

 When we hear the word smile, we may think of a picture being taken or the song ("You look so much better when you smile"). Smiling is usually associated with being happy and excited. But is it always? Do we always feel like smiling? If we would be honest, we don't all the time. And I don't know about you, I have shed many tears in 2020 and there are times that through the tears I have found myself smiling. You see, even when we don't feel like smiling, we can still have joy. Joy goes beyond our circumstances and how we feel. Joy is found in God and knowing Him. Nehemiah 8:10 talks about how the joy of the Lord is our strength. That has been my life verse in this season! We can have joy through the good and bad times. We can still muster up a smile even when it's hard and have tears in our eyes. I know because I'm still working through things with loss. This same joy that rocks and comforts me can rock and comfort you. God's joy lets us know we're ...

 Grow. Gracefully. Two words that have power by themselves, but when put together, even more. You know how some people really love numbers and others love words? Well, I really love words! Let's take a closer look at the words grow and gracefully. Grow is a verb that means to increase in size and develop and reach maturity. Gracefully is an adverbs and means to do something in an attractive, elegant and respectful way. Grow gracefully means to increase in awareness and thankfulness of grace. The more we grow as individuals, the more grace we should show. Grace is being kind and merciful. We have to show grace to ourselves and others. Let's be honest..it can be hard to show grace, especially when we feel that we or others have done something so bad and don't deserve grace. We all make mistakes and none of us get it right every time. That's okay! God shows us His grace all the time and I'm so thankful! Growing gracefully has nothing to do with perfection, but everythi...

 To be planted is to be rooted in something. It is rooted in a particular place. We have lots of plants in our house. For those who knew my Mom, you know she loved plants and had a green thumb. It seemed like my Mom could get any plant to grow! She could take the tiniest plant and get it to grow. She could break off small pieces of other plants, put them in a different pot and get them to grow. My Mom was the Queen of plants! Now I'm definitely not the Queen of plants like my Mom, but something rubbed off about plants on me and my brother. All of the plants in our house (the ones here before she left and new ones we got) are all alive and growing! Thank you God! Thank you Momma! So you might thinking: What was her secret?! I thought about it too and I figured it out. Secrets will be revealed shortly! Let's take a look at our lives through the lens of Jeremiah 17:8 for a minute. The first part says, "He will be like a tree planted by water: it sends it roots out toward a st...