Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [12.15.18]

Happy, happy, happy weekend!

Some real, down in the bones JOY to celebrate today! Links & stories this week 100% guaranteed to make you smile a mile wide & believe like crazy in a Good God redeeming everything — and that there’s love everywhere & for ((you))! 

Serving up only the Good Stuff for you right here:

jpcvanheijst.com
jpcvanheijst.com 
jpcvanheijst.com

…sit with the wonder of the skies above

Good morning, everyone!

don’t hide…share your gifts!

50 of The Most Incredible Photos of The National Geographic Photo Contest of 2018

you should come!?! for a winter wonderland drive!

some wisdom from John Piper: What Should I Tell My Kids About Santa?

really, you should really come!?! Shalom & I kinda couldn’t breathe through this one

What If I Never Get Better?

How Not to Comfort Suffering People

she left her job in the city to love the outcasts 24/7 #betheGIFT

How To Make Your Church an Encouraging Place for Single Moms

 loving each other — is kinda the best

Notorious gang leader now preaches Jesus: ‘I’m a radical soldier for God’

thank you, Samaritan’s Purse: every box is an opportunity to tell a child about God’s Son, Jesus Christ

good, good words: Remember, you’re never alone. Ever.

Want to preach Gospel to yourself every day through December?

Free Stress-Free Holiday Sticky Notes for Your Soul, right here:
No Stress Holiday Manifesto

Print this set of 25 Note Cards, one for each day in December.

For mirrors and sinks and dashboards, for pockets and walls and office cubicles. For this Christmas.

Each card is an affirmation, a prayer, for each day this month.

Quotes from The Greatest Gift and Unwrapping the Greatest Gift, rewritten to be words that you can pray every day,

to keep the focus…to celebrate Christ! 

okay, this 6th grader stands up & says what needs to be said

The Difference a School Librarian Can Make, According to One Dad

THIS: in this season of giving, let’s give kindness

From Cave Divers to a Fearless Flier, Here are the Heroes of 2018 according to TIME

kinda undone: how she’s helping to love thousands of children with cancer? #BeTheGift #TheBrokenWay

because everyone needs a special friend

Roeland Park Police Dept

Police officers respond to shoplifting call, and help this young thief in an unbelievable way #BeTheGift #TheBrokenWay

this one’s for those grateful to be sharing the holidays with family and friends this year…

Nigerian Girls Coding Their Way to a Better Future: their background isn’t defining them

Grateful to Wycliffe Bible Translators and the hope they tirelessly give around the world: “We want to give them the good news of Jesus Christ”

Wycliffe’s mission is to see a Bible translation program in progress in every language still needing one by 2025

Mercy House Global
Mercy House Global

The Best Last Minute Gift Because Time Is Running Out

Let there be peace, and let it start in me…

Post of the week from these parts here

How to Evict Worry, Anxiousness & Fears from Your Holidays (& Your Life)

on repeat this week: O Holy Night

because sometimes we do the unexpected

24 Candle Advent Wreath & Manger with Star: Joywares.ca
24 Candle Advent Wreath & Manger with Star: Joywares.ca 
24 Candle Advent Wreath & Manger with Star: Joywares.ca 
24 Candle Advent Wreath & Manger with Star: Joywares.ca 

… that wonderful time of the year to pull out one of our most favourite family traditions:

Our 24 hole wooden Advent wreath, with Mary on a donkey, headed toward the manger and the coming of Emmanuel.



Celebrate Advent by retelling the greatest love story every told

WOW: This holiday season, discover how giving brings people together, no matter how far apart they may be

yeah… just a little invite? to come experience a Christmas like never before?

Come experience a Christmas like you’ve always dreamed of…

So come Christmas morning — you’ve unwrapped the greatest gift you yearn for — more of Him.

Gather around the Greatest Story this year for the whole family with all 3?

“The Greatest Gift” (adult edition),

“Unwrapping the Greatest Gift” (family read aloud edition),

and “The Wonder of the Greatest Gift”  (pop-up edition with your own 14 inch tree, 25 days of readings, 25 day advent flap calendar, hiding all 25 Biblically inspired ornaments! For any age) 

So you don’t miss out on Jesus this year & the The Greatest Christmas. 

You are my JOY! Thank you, Rend Collective

[ Print’s FREE here: ]

…maybe right now? We just need to hear it like a whisper in the midst of all the noise: kick back the dark with one brilliant turn:

‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.’

The Wise not only still follow the Light, seek the Light — they become the Light.

His grace is always coming to meet us down every road — no matter how steep, no matter how long, no matter how impossible, no matter how divided — Grace is up ahead & Grace is coming up behind & no darkness can extinguish its light

& no hate can silence its love

& no heartache can drown out its healing song.

Some days we just need light in the dark that makes everything clear:

never give up, never give up pressing forward, never give up holding on.

[excerpted from our little Facebook family … come join us each day?]

‪ Dare to fully live!

That’s all for this weekend, friends.

Go slow. Be God-struck. Grant grace. Live Truth.

Give Thanks. Love well. Re – joy, re- joy, ‘re- joys’ again

Share Whatever Is Good.