joy | Real Life on Rocky Top

The Fourth Day of Christmas

Dec 18 2019

The Gift of Joy by Kristi Nolan, a dear friend who has encountered JOY

If you asked me, Kristi, to describe 2019, JOY is not the word I would use. Disappointment, anxiety, depression, loss – those are the words that would quickly spill from my lips. But 2019 was full of milestones that should cause my lips to smile and my eyes to brim with watery pride: our oldest child graduated from high school; our family took an amazing vacation; we received a special scholarship we’ve been praying about for three years for our middle child; just to name a few.

Thankfully, the gift of God’s Word reminded me that the difficult period we have walked through was meant to produce something much different: Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds… James 1:2. I don’t know about you, but trials don’t typically make me feel “joyful”. God’s Word doesn’t just tell us: Have Joy in your trials. He tells us how and why — because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything…..James 1:3-4. There is purpose in our trials, and an unexpected gift: JOY.

Jesus gave us the perfect example of this: …fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand on the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2-3.

Jesus knew the cross was going to be painful, so He looked past the coming trial and saw the JOY on the other side.

JOY isn’t just available to us on the other side of difficulties – JOY is a gift of living and walking with Jesus: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23.

In Luke 1 we see a young girl, Mary, already pledged to be married, encountering an angel who brings her what must have been confusing and frightening news. She immediately travels to visit her cousin, Elizabeth, who is also unexpectedly with child. When Elizabeth hears Mary’s greeting, the baby in her womb leaped and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Mary’s response is what we call “Mary’s Magnificat”. It can be found beginning in Luke 1:46: My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior… Her spirit, like her cousin Elizabeth’s, was filled with JOY. Mary chose to receive this most unexpected gift with joy.

What unexpected situations have filled your year? Are you choosing JOY in this season? Are you taking time to remember the JOY of your salvation?

If not, I pray you will spend time with Jesus and receive the gift of Joy He brought on a cold night in Bethlehem.

My Royal Supply Bag

Nov 11 2018

Approaching Veteran’s Day, a question popped up from the past on my Facebook: “Would you be willing to fight and/or die to protect those you love?” Most, including myself, would quickly say “Yes”!

But there is the more difficult question: “Would you be willing to change for those you love?”

Would you choose to forgive instead of growing bitter?

Would you choose peace over strife?

Would you choose joy instead of sadness?

Would you choose hope over despair?

Would you choose to bless instead of curse or gossip?

Would you choose to be kind instead of being rude?

Would you choose to demonstrate love rather than hate?

I want to say “yes” to change. But trying harder doesn’t make change possible…. There may be behavior modification for a while, but true change comes only from within – it comes from the heart.

Peace, love, joy, kindness, patience, and forgiveness are only possible when they are flowing out of a relationship with God. I have access to them through my relationship with the King!

Addy, my five year old granddaughter, was playing in her room with a backpack filled with “stuff”. Her daddy asked her what the bag was for and her reply was “It’s my royal supply bag.” Inside the bag was her crown, a beautiful gown, some slippers, a wand, and a sword and various other “princess” necessities. Her daddy asked her, “Why do you need all this stuff?” Her reply, “Dad, I’m going to be a Queen one day!” Addy definitely sets her expectations high!

As followers of THE ONE TRUE KING, our expectations should be HIGH! Christ gave His life for our ability to have heart change.

We have a royal supply bag with us at all times. John 14:17 tells us that His Spirit dwells within us – His Spirit IS our never-ending supply of His truth, forgiveness, peace, joy, kindness, and hope. When we access those royal supplies, His love will be on display in our lives!

Romans 12:2 says “Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…” The word “renewing” means a total renovation. If my mind is going to be renewed resulting in true heart and behavior change, I MUST renovate my mind with His word!

If I want peace in my home instead of constant strife, I need to meditate on His words of peace and allow His peace to flow out from me.

If I want to experience true forgiveness for others rather than bitterness, I need to remember the forgiveness He has extended toward me and His forgiveness will be produced in my life.

We all have a royal supply bag that was given to us when we entered into a relationship with Christ. This royal supply bag was costly………….it cost the Almighty King of the universe, his one and only Son.

Put on the garments of praise instead a spirit of despair: Isaiah 61:3
Put on His robe of righteousness instead of spirit of shame: Isaiah 61:10
Fight your battles with the sword of the Spirit instead of words of hate: II Corinthians 10:3-5
Embrace the King as your Abba daddy instead of living with an orphan spirit: Romans 8:16-17
Walk in His peace instead of anger: James 1:20
Walk in God confidence instead of fear: Romans 8:15 and II Timothy 1:7

We have those “supplies” at our disposal – but we must access them by saying “Yes” to renewing our mind with His Word and allowing Him to change our hearts!

When the Floor Gives Way

Feb 02 2018

Today I welcome to the back porch of Rocky Top, Amy Daniel. Amy is the wife of Joseph, mommy to Addy and Aubrey and works part-time as a registered nurse. She is also my middle-child! Most importantly, Amy is a beautiful daughter of the king. You will love her heart for Jesus and her honesty in this blog!

It was ONE of those days! The baby was sick. People seemed to be coming against me from every side. My mood reflected the circumstances of the day.

As the kids napped, I went to Jesus, praying He would revive my soul. However, instead of allowing Him to do what I knew He would do I made other choices.

I chose to be discontent. I chose to grumble and complain about unfair circumstances. I chose not to listen to Him.

Nap time was over and I chose to begrudgingly resume mom duty. I took the kids into the kitchen to feed them a snack and that’s when it happened. The floor gave way beneath me. Literally. Unbeknownst to me, the tile in my kitchen had formed a giant bubble in the middle. When I stepped on it, tile and grout flew everywhere. No injuries were sustained. Panic ensued as I frantically called experts to diagnose why my floor gave way.

The diagnosis was surprising. When the tile was originally laid, no room was left for expansion. So when humidity entered, the tile expanded and buckled in the middle. Thankfully, it was fixed by laying down new tile and leaving room for expansion.

As I thought about the floor giving way, the Lord began to speak to me. I had let discontentment, bitterness, and grumbling creep into my soul. When circumstances don’t go the way I plan or seem unfair, there is a choice to be made. I can explode with anger and throw an adult temper tantrum or I can rest in the promises of God.

“For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” I Corinthians 3:11

When He is my foundation, the floor can literally fall out from beneath me but I will stand firm because my feet are planted in His strength and not my own.

The tile had no room to expand so it exploded. So often in my life I leave no room for the Lord to work. I am so busy trying to control my circumstances that I never stop to offer them to the only One who does have control. The result is discontentment and grumbling.

II Corinthians 5:14 “The love of Christ controls us…” Honestly, most of the time I allow external factors to control me……the kitchen floor, the broken relationship, the sick child, the unpaid bills. When I choose to shift my focus off self and circumstances and onto the True foundation, then the love of Christ starts to pour out of me. Joy comes then! At that moment I realize the repairman who God brought to my home may need to experience the love of Christ. Or maybe God allowed the floor to explode just so I could share my story with you!

Stand firm on the Foundation of Christ, allow room in your life for Him to grow you, and refuse anything but His love to control you!

Look What God Has Done!

Dec 24 2016

Christmas is almost here up on Rocky Top. The kitchen is a mess: powdered sugar everywhere, dishes in the sink, and the garbage is overflowing. “All is Well” is playing in the background and though my life might appear to be “picture perfect” on the outside to some, my eyes well up with tears.

All is not well. Hurt, pain, tragedy surround Rocky Top as well as others in the world.

My eyes might be filled with tears but truly there is much joy in my heart. Preacher said Sunday that if we want Joy in our hearts, we must not look at circumstances, what others have said about us or have done to us, but we must look and see what God has done. In Luke 1:47, Mary rejoiced when she saw Elizabeth. The word “rejoice” in this passage means to shout loudly “Look what God has done.” As an unwed, pregnant teenager in a culture where stoning was the punishment for immorality, Mary had many reasons not to be joyful. Yet, she made the supernatural choice to choose Joy.

As shared before up here on Rocky Top, my dad was not a good man for most of his life. He had 4 wives. Mom was his first. We might have lived in the same city for many years, but his visits were not frequent. Dad’s life was about dad until he met Christ. After thirty years of many calling out his name to the Heavenly Father, Dad received Christ in February of 1995. His life changed radically.

Christmas times after that were so much different. Dad would come visit before Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Presents would be exchanged, meals eaten, prayers said. He always, always left to drive home before Christmas Eve. We would beg him to stay. Not sure why he wouldn’t.

One Christmas day we received the following email from him.

To My Girls:

As I sat down to write, it is Christmas Eve night. I attended a candle light service and was feeling a loneliness that I never felt before. Because I have no Christmas tree, I came back to my apartment and placed the candle in a bowl and lit the candle again. As the light from the candle begin to glow, I knew that I was not alone. Christ was by my side and I began to rejoice in His Love.

From the light of my small candle, I knew that God had not only given His Son to guide and love me, but also has given me a gift of very precious daughters. The gift that each of you have given me is more priceless than any material thing on this earth, and that is my grandchildren. Each one of them holds a very special place in my heart.

You have taken the love you have in the Lord, and placed it in the hearts of your children. I know that you could not have accomplished this without the help and love from your spouses. I feel very proud and blessed to know these fine men of yours. For each is a very loving husband and father.

My candle is just about out. Although it will stop burning, the love I have for the Lord, you, your husbands and the grandchildren will burn forever. I pray each day that God will guide and protect you, and that He places an Angel by the side of each grandchild to protect them.

May Christmas be alive in all our hearts each day and may the Son of God always be with you.

With All My Love, Dad

And so friends and family, Look what God has done!

Merry Christmas and may your life this season declare: Look What God Has Done!

The Summer of No Regrets!

Jun 08 2016

It is summer up here on Rocky Top! For many families that means VACATION!!!

Our family is no exception to that! We just returned from our first extended family vacation in four years! Between a move from the Bayou state, two grandbabies being born, a wedding, graduations, unexpected deaths, elderly parents, new jobs and just life, it has just been hard to get away. We have gotten together several times a year up here on Rocky Top, but it is different when four separate families choose to take off work and drive and/or fly to a separate location to spend a week together. Coordinating everyone’s schedule is almost an impossible task.

As I sat under a canopy on a beautiful white sandy beach watching my two adorable grandchildren creating sand castles, my son attempting paddle boarding, my husband casting his rod in hopes of a fish, I realized all the work to get here was worth it. However, it wasn’t just about having fun together as a family, there were some other lessons the Lord taught me this past week about the importance of a family vacation.

Laughter……..nothing like laughing together and sometimes even at the expense of one another to bond you together as a family. Most nights after small children were in bed we played games. We won’t talk about the night we played Catch Phrase and my job was to describe “Skip to My Lou”. I jumped up from my chair to act out skipping. Bad idea. My knee decided not to cooperate and I almost fell on the floor. My mind and body were in two different places. We all laughed until we cried. Proverbs 17:22
Memories……..things happen on these trips that are forever etched in our minds and bind us together. One night a storm was raging at 5 am. I looked out the window to see our rented tandem kayak floating in the ocean. I ran up and down the hall screaming “Wake up! Everyone go help dad rescue the kayak.” The son and the son-in-loves all threw on clothes and rushed out to the beach while lightening was striking the shore to rescue the kayak and whatever could be salvaged. Of course the night before, it was “the mom” who suggested a storm was coming and it might be best to take down the canopy and move the kayak up even closer to the house. But who is remembering??? Philippians 1:3
Grace……….spending a week together with four families at various stages of life, various personalities, various strengths and weaknesses gives us all a chance to give grace to one another. Some of us are neat freaks; some leave all their belongings everywhere; some drink coconut water; some eat one gallon of ice cream daily; some take long walks; some like to just sit and read; some are competitive and some just don’t care about winning or losing. Many people want their vacations to just be all about themselves. Yet, what better way to learn grace than by practicing it by accepting each other’s differences. Taking a multi-generation vacation is such a great way to not only build bonds but to learn how to extend grace to one another. II Timothy 2:1
Prayer.……..of course there was prayer at every meal together. BUT this is not what I am referring to. Toward the end of our time together, we gathered in the big family room after the children were put to bed. John (Preacher), Dad, or Papa John as those in our family call him, asked all of us to be prepared to share toward the end of the week the answers to the following questions: What is your family thankful for this year? What in the coming year will require your dependence on the Lord? How can we as a family pray for your family? As we shared the answers to these questions, some of us were a bit emotional (me, in particular). Doing family this way was foreign to me growing up. This time of family prayer was so special to me personally. James 5:13-16
Intentionality…………none of the above just happened, the week didn’t just happen, our family didn’t just happen. It was all “intentional”! Many years ago, an older women challenged me to live my life without regrets. Don’t just live your life. Live your life on purpose. Decide what is important to you, to your family and do “it”! Whatever “it” is, do it! Preacher and I decided years ago when the children were young that we might not drive fancy cars, own a fancy house, jewelry or the latest designer clothes, but we wanted to use what money we did have to build our family by taking vacations. In the early years, it was simply driving 20+ hours to spend time with his family at the beach. One year we had a garage sale to raise funds to go to Disney world together. A vacation for your family might be a few days in the mountains or exploring a new city. The point is to get away from your normal routine and spend uninterrupted time together as a family! This trip happened by our family sitting together over a year ago talking about how we all needed to get away to a beach house. Dates seemed to elude us. However, my precious daughter-in-love worked on dates until we could see a possible window. It took persistent intentionality! Galatians 2:20, I Timothy 6:11-12

Sitting on the back porch of Rocky Top today soaking in the sun of the summer, my prayer for your family is to live this summer INTENTIONALLY as you laugh together, make memories together, give one another grace and pray together as a family.

May the Summer of 2016 be the Summer of NO REGRETS!

Category - joy