Queen Jen's Gems

. "Peek-a-boo, I see you." Do you remember playing that game back in the day as a little kid or with little kids you have or know? My Mom used to babysit a lot of kids over the years. I remember my Mom and I playing that game with them all the time. I like to say she babysat the whole community because she really did 😀. Shout out to all the kids that you used to hang out with us! If you're reading this, I love you and appreciate you 💖!! To see their faces light up and laugh when we would cover our eyes and then uncover them in the game was pure joy. They couldn't see our eyes at first as we held our hand in front of them. Sometimes, we would slowly pretend like we were uncovering our eyes and then cover them back real quick. The laughs that my Mom and children had were the absolute best with them! It was so much fun- those were the days I will forever cherish 😀💕. In the game, only your eyes stay covered for a little before they see them. Then the hiding game steps...

 Breathe in. Breathe out. Just breathe. Do any of these phrases sound familiar to you? Maybe you have told yourself this before or told someone else this before. We may be told to do this when we have encountered a stressful situation. We may do this when we take that moment to be still. We may have to intentionally notice and do this a few times or a lot of times throughout the day. When we inhale, we take a breath in. When we exhale, we breathe out. Today, I want us to look more closely at what we breathe in and out. First of all, we need to thank God for the breath He has given us (Genesis 2:7, Psalms 150:6). He's the reason we're still alive and can breathe! Just like we breathe in and out all day, we also let things in and out of our lives every day. In a single day, a lot can go on and we can take on a lot of emotions. First, let's think about what we are taking in. Is it all necessary? Does it all relate to us? Is it really for us or just to impress others? Will it m...

 Imagine you are at your favorite restaurant and you're eating a really good meal. Along with that meal, you have your favorite drink. Now let's imagine at your restaurant you can get a refill of your drink. Since your drink tastes so good, you definitely decide to get a refill😃! So when you're finished with one glass, you get it filled up again. At some restaurants even, the waiter or waitress will ask do you want more drink in your glass before it is empty. They took notice and refilled accordingly. To refill something means to replace something that was once filled. The prefix re- means to "to do again." In the physical state, we need to fill our body with water during the day so we can stay hydrated. Of course, it's not enough to drink 1 cup or 1 bottle of water, but we have to keep getting the cup or bottle filled again throughout the day. We need to constantly check in with ourselves to make sure we are getting enough water in our body. We have to be in...

 For the past few years, I have been choosing a word to focus on for that year. I find Bible verses and practical ways I can walk out that word. Now my word last year in 2021 was wholeness. I focused on being well in my mind, body and soul. Since that is an ongoing process, I will still be working on that this year 💗. But today, I want to introduce you to my word for this year 2022. When I was praying about and seeking a word for this year, several words kept coming to my mind- celebrate, growth, open, progress, grace, explore. All of these are good words! However, I kept praying as I still wasn't sure which word to choose. For the second half of 2021, I had been reading a book about destiny and one of the above words kept popping off the pages at me. The word kept showing up multiple times in one chapter! Now I had been reading this book for a minute as we would say, but I never noticed this word like I did the last week of December. You see, I had already started leaning towards...

"Cherish yesterday, Dream tomorrow, Live today." -Richard Bach  24 hours. 1, 440 minutes. 86, 400 seconds. Today. Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow is not promised. Today is all we have. What will you do today? What will you say? Who will you see? How will you handle what comes your way? None of us knows what a day will bring. At any given moment, our day can change. Situations can change quickly. Only God knows what is going to happen before we do. We should begin each day by giving thanks to God. Psalms 118:24 says, "This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it." Throughout the day, we should remain thankful. We can even say what we're thankful for aloud and write down or meditate at the end of the day what we are thankful for. Now, I know some of us like to fast forward in our minds to what's going to happen (I'm guilty!), but we have to work on focusing on the present moment in front of us. Those moments will never come again. Theref...