HE will do it!

I think sometimes we {me for sure and for certain} 

fall into the trap of thinking that if God calls us 

to something or puts something on our heart, 

it's totally up to US to do it.  

Reading in Psalm 37 this morning and was comforted by verses 4-5.  

Take delight in the Lord,

and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord;

trust in him and he will do this:

Such a beautiful reminder that HE will do it!  

If you'd like to print out a copy as a reminder, 

you can get either a PDF or JPG HERE.  

Shannon's Sweet Finds

I love to read and I read A LOT. 

I usually read on my Kindle app and because I am a fast reader

 I am always looking for books that have gone free or are 

on great sale each day in the Kindle store

so I don't have to spend a huge fortune to feed my reading habit.  

As I hunt for free and sale books each morning I usually come up with 

quite a big list of books that are great deals. 

I often post them on my personal Facebook page but was hesitant

 to do so every day for fear of irritating my Facebook friends who aren't big readers.  

But then I started hearing from reading friends how 

much they loved the free or sale book posts and several said...

Why don't you start a FB page so you can post them everyday?

So...I did! 

Shannon's Sweet Finds is an open page where I post free and/or sale books each day.  

I only post about twice a day- with a single post 

for sale books and another for free books- 

with more books in the comments of each post. 

The thing to remember is that Amazon prices can change hourly, 

so grab these quickly before they go back to full price.

And if you didn't know it already, you can give free or sale Kindle books to others! 

Check out my post on my other blog HERE to find out how! 

It's super easy and a great way to share good deals with a friend! 

Even If

A sweet friend sent me this song after seeing my post from yesterday.  

It perfectly goes along with Daniel 3:18. Love it so!

& if not.....

I seem to be in a season of life when so many around me are hurting & struggling. 

Friends with children and parents battling cancer, 

friends with serious relationship issues with those they love, 

friends battling addiction and big work issues, 

friends fighting for custody of their children 

and dealing with abusive and dangerous ex spouses, 

friends with broken and bruised hearts. 

I feel like I spend much of my day praying to God to comfort them

and care for them - that they would feel His mighty arms around them. 

And He keeps drawing me to this verse- Daniel 3:18.  

Daniel 3 tells the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. 

If you don't know the story, basically Nebucchadnezzar {a King}creates a golden statue, 

but Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse to bow before it. 

The three are thrown into a fiery furnace, but they emerge unscathed. 

Nebuchadnezzar is impressed; he promotes the three to important public positions 

and emphatically praises their God.

I love this story because sometimes, 

the answers we get when we pray are hard to swallow

and the road we must travel is not an easy one. 

Sometimes we feel we are being dropped in a fiery furnace. 

BUT, regardless of the things of this world we must go through, 

He is still good. 

He is still the King Most High. 

He still loves us more than we can ever imagine.

He is still worthy of our worship. 

It is still worth it to worship Him, regardless of what happens in my life.

If you need a reminder of this, you can print your own out HERE.  

2015: Throw Kindness Around Like Confetti

I truly love January and the beginning of a new year.

Each year in preparation for the year ahead,

 I create something that lists my 

goals, prayers, and hopes for the following year. 

{Here are my lists for 2012, 2013 and 2014.}

These aren't really resolutions, just things I want to keep at

the front of my mind and heart 

as I approach the following year.

 I pray about the things God has in store for me in the coming year

 and ask him to lay those things on my heart.  

He is always so faithful to do so!
It seems like listing them- and looking at them often,
makes them sink in more than if I just write them in a journal.  

Here's my list for 2015: 

My favorites this year are:

Throw kindness around like confetti

Find joy in the journey
Prepare to make lemonade
Be a rainbow in someone else's cloud
Be as quick to kneel as you are to text
Wear love everywhere you go
Treat everyone like it's their birthday

If you'd like to print your own copy, you can do so HERE.
I included both the PDF and JPG and a version without the year on it too!

Word of the Year: SERVE

Can you believe it's 2015?

It is closer to 2030 than it is to 2000.  Wow. Just wow.

I spend lots of time leading up to the new year thinking

 about and praying about

 my word and verse for the following year. 

This year my word is SERVE and my verse is Colossians 3:23-24. 

I've always been someone who felt called to serve others 

and to serve when and where I can. 

But the problem is that I, like most people, tend to add service 

on AFTER all the other things in my life. 

I serve when I have extra time and that's not what

 I believe God has called me to do. 

So this year I plan to put serving others at the front-

 to purposefully and intentionally plan to serve. 

To pray for and look for opportunities to serve others 

and to do so faithfully and sacrificially. 

I always make a print of my word and verse for the year 

and this year I offered to make one for my friends on FB.  

If you are interested in downloading one of their words which included:

trust, pray, love, intentional, discipline, free, order, strong, 

hope, seek, perseverance, shine, breathe

you can find them all HERE.  

Do you choose a word and verse each year?

 If so, what is yours for 2015?

New Year Scripture Writing Plan

NOTE: If you get a permissions error when trying to find one of the scripture writing plan, it just means it's being updated or their might be a newer version. Just click the blog header above so that you are taken to the most recent version of the scripture writing plans!  Occasionally there are mistakes and changes to the plan and those are done on the most recent version.  Thank you!  


Happy New Year! 

Can you believe it's 2015? 

I love the beginning of a new year. 

The promise of a blank slate, the chance to start new, 

to cast off the old and begin new habits.

I personally can't think of anything better that starting

 the year immersing myself in God's word! 

For the last few months of 2014 I'd been writing scripture each day and it has been such a blessing to me! I posted a plan for November and a new one for December here and on FB and have heard from so many of you that you loved them too.  In the last few days I've received tons of messages and emails asking if I plan to post one for January so here it is!  

Reading scripture daily is great, but there's something 

about writing it each day that truly brings it to life for me. 

Praying it is a blessing to you as well! 

For those that have asked, The Bible I use is this one and I LOVE it so-

 it has NIV on one side of the page and The Message on the other side!