Laced With Grace

Read: John 15:12-17

“This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
~ John 15:12 (ESV)

Friendships are vital in our lives. God has blessed me with some incredible friends, near and far. My friends comfort, pray, and encourage me when I need it most.

One of my friends is a four-legged, furry type. Over the years we have had several dogs, but Corky is the cutest and most loving, furry friend we have had in this home. Some of you may remember we rescued Corky from the pound last year. I guess that is why he is so attached to my husband and I.

The other night I was taking some photographs for an online publication. I was sitting on our living room floor to get the photograph I wanted. Corky came running in to see what I was doing. He started getting into his ‘cutie-motion’ to make sure that I would not forget about him. He ended up getting his portrait taken.

For some reason, our impromptu portrait session reminded me of the song, “Oh, what a Friend we have in Jesus”. Don’t ask, my mind sometimes just goes off and I cannot stop myself singing about Jesus.

In John 15, Jesus is telling us to love each other just as He has loved us. He goes on to say:

“No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” ~ John 15:15

It is so beautiful that we can take all of our cares, our hurts and our sorrows to Him, Who really cares because He has been there. Jesus understands when I ask why my friend is going through breast-cancer or why my other friend has a hard time finding work. I may not get the answer to my prayers, but I know that Jesus loves us through the good and the bad.

“What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.”
~ Joseph M. Scriven

Thank you Lord for Your incredible love and Your friendship. Even though I might not understand the ‘whys’ of life, I know that I can trust You for my future and the future of my friends. You are always at our side in the good and the bad. I can take all my pain and grief to You, so that I do not have to carry the load alone. In Your precious name, Amen.

Photo & Content Copyright © Iris Nelson

I have an ornery side to my character.

It’s my Dad’s fault. No. Actually it’s my Dad’s, Dad who is at fault. I hail from a long and silly heritage of practical jokes and teasing of family members.

Good Grief!

Right now let me publically state my apologies to my family. They have lived with my hare-brained antics now for years and have accepted my need to giggle at their expense as part of daily life with Lynn.

My poor husband after 18 years of marriage still stumbles into my outrageous humor set-ups with full trust. However, he has come to love this oddball side of my charm. *grin* He laughs right along with me. My son and daughter, poor kids, well, they have already inherited this family disease. I already feel sorry for my future grandkids.

I’m telling you about this quirk in my personality to bring you into our family dynamic in hopes you might appreciate the humor and the wonder of the story I’m about to share.

Two weeks ago after dropping my daughter at school, I came home and went into her bedroom to get her dirty clothes to start the wash.

What is it with teenaged girls? It must have been another fashion crisis meltdown that particular morning. Clothing lay crumpled on the floor, flung around the end of her bed and in the giant pile of shoes in her closet. Sheesh!

Feeling charitable, I decided to hang the clothes up. As I was working a shirt onto a hanger, I heard the padded footsteps of my husband. We live in a single story home with several hallways. He was perusing the hallways looking for me. After 18 years of marriage, I know this man well. He doesn’t yell… (like me, HEY, HONEY, WHERE ARE YOU). He doesn’t even call my name. He walks. He paces. He searches and when you’re married to an ornery blonde like me, his search efforts are futile.

Ahem.

So, I hear the pacing of the man. I grin to myself and move farther into my daughter’s room to see just how long it will take for him to find me. Nothing like an impromptu game of hide-n-seek in the morning to tickly my funny bone. Yessiree. I stand in my daughter’s room and continue to hang clothes in the closet. My concealment is perfect and my husband continues to walk the halls.

I hear my husband open the door to the garage. Nope.

I hear him walk the hall by my office again. Nope

Next he walks into our bedroom…. For the second time. Nope, not here.

At this point, I’m struggling to conceal my glee at his wanderings.

Finally, I decide the poor guy needs to get to work so I make some noise in the closet.

He picks up on the clue and moves directly down the hall toward me.

He rounds the corner of my daughter’s bedroom and I start giggling straight off.

I love this man. He’s not mad. He’s actually just glad to find me. He starts to laugh and then holds out his hand to show me something.

He shyly says, “ I found your glasses in our bedroom after searching the entire house for you twice.”

I grin.

He says in a half serious half kidding tone, “I thought you were raptured.”

I rush to him and throw my arms around him, “Oh honey, did you think I was raptured without you?”

He didn’t really reply. But we embraced and I rushed a prayer up to Jesus with a heart full of love and hope for this man.

So, I ask you today; Is my husband a believer or is he not?

Oh how I pray with fervor and passion that on the day of the rapture all of you will find that Mr. and Mrs. Donovan left planet earth together.

Hearing my husband’s words, “I thought you were raptured,” compels me to continue to pray for his salvation.

Don’t give up hope for your unsaved loved ones. Your influence and prayers are monumentally important.

Be blessed this day and come Lord, Jesus, come. Lynn

Find me daily at

Don’t you love this quote?  I think so many times we try to make ourselves “happy”…..always looking for a “feeling.”

Some search for the feeling, buying and spending, buying and spending.

Others look for the feeling at the bottom of a glass of wine.

Still others may search for the feeling in the eyes of another.

But, WHERE does JOY- pure, real joy “come” from?

How do we get it?

How can I live a JOY-FILLED life?

Authentic, sheer joy can only come from a RELATIONSHIP with Jesus Christ.  It is ONLY when we realize who we are in Christ, what we have through Him, and experience a living, breathing relationship with Him that we will possess the fullness of joy.

“Blessed (happy) is everyone who fears, reveres, and worships the Lord, who walks in His ways and lives according to His commandments.  For you shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; happy, blessed, fortunate shall you be, and it shall be well with you.” Psalm 128:1-2 AMP

“….you fill me with JOY in Your presence..” Psalm 16:11 NIV

How am I FILLED with joy?  It happens in His Presence!

When I sit before Him, loving Him, asking Him to fill me…..He fills me with joy.  When I love Him, and praise Him and seek Him with all of my heart, I will find Him and He will fill my heart with joy.

Joy is not DEPENDENT on our feelings or our circumstances.  In fact, God’s word tells us to be “joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer” (Romans 12:12).  James tells us to “consider it all joy when we face trials of many kinds” (James 1:2).  And Peter encourages us to rejoice in our inheritance as we “suffer grief in all kinds of trials” (1Peter 1:6).  As Believers, we WILL face trials, but JOY continues to flow through us.

The “joy of the Lord is our strength” (Nehemiah 8:10).  Where does my strength come from?  How do I find strength to face trials?

The joy of the Lord is my STRENGTH.

My strength comes from the joy of my relationship with my Lord……the joy of WHO He is…..what He has done for me….who I am in Him…and the glorious inheritance I have in Him.  My joy comes because I am a new creation in Him.  The old has gone and the new has come!  The joy comes because I am more than an overcomer in Christ Jesus!  The joy comes because I have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. The joy comes because I have an eternal hope of what is to come. The joy comes because I am a wonderful, beautiful child of God!  It’s NOTHING of me…..but ALL of Him.

Father God, in the beautiful Name of the Lord Jesus, I praise You.  I glorify You.  I magnify Your Name on high!  I ask You, Lord, to help me fall in love with You more and more.  Lord, I want a relationship with You!  I want to bask in Your presence and know You.  Lord, I seek You with all of my heart, my soul, and my strength.  Lord, fill me with all that You are.  Lord, fill me with joy.  Fill me to overflowing with exuberant, boundless, glorious joy!  Open wide my mouth, Lord, and fill it with Your praises!  In Jesus’ Name we pray.  AMEN!

Thirsty for Him and THIRSTY for His joy,

Tracy