Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [10.17.15]

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:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/md9/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/julis_travel_log/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/slaunay/

soul getaway

Tanja Brandt
Tanja Brandt
Tanja Brandt

yup, who else wants him?!

when an artist purchases a crumbling bank — and is making this

at the 3:25 mark? the kids cracked up

Nikolai Tolstyh

change the way you frame the world #perspective

how to make an unforgettable entrance

Emily Gibson

 autumn packaged up to inhale 

so they are saying this may be the catch of the year!? I don’t know — what do you think?

“just a few minutes of kindness each day makes a difference”  #WORD

oh, you know — no big deal

 

Facebook

so a police officer gets injured — and a kid grabs a pen to heal him  ?

glory, glory

Gabe Tomoiaga

move along — nothing here at all. nothing like, oh, a kid and a crazy dad and a lion.

 extraordinary

KUSA

83 year old identical twins. Whose ending took everybody’s breath away

look, if even elephants got the memo on love?

Lisa-Jo Baker

encouragement for every parent:

Why My “Difficult” Kid is a Gift and Not a Reason for Despair

a small player with a big worth ethic – what can you go do?

Renee Tessman / KARE 11

 dad battles PTSD after serving his country — so his kids does this 

.staggering

Instagram of the Week

…when you step in from the slapping October rain, and find her there, leaning into her book & her spoon, circling it slow & around, there in a simmering pot of soup…

it’s her old mama who finds herself stirred.

A child offers herself to your own willing imagination, & over the years, calls new & beautiful things out of you that you’d have never known, if she hadn’t come & beckoned you into the miracle of things.

We lit the candles & heaped every bowl full tonight. The lightning reflected off the wet windows long after she’d blown the taper candles out. #1000Gifts#MiracleOfThings#Eucharisteo#BeautifulOrthodoxy

come join us on the Instagram journey?

this most incredible life-changing realization?

Fred Wills, Sr
Fred Wills, Sr

dad’s cartoons. daughter with down syndrome.  celebration of  life!

 You are seen — and right this very moment, He goes before you

hero bride  — who doesn’t hesitate one minute to get right in there

a remarkable must-see story of faith

what happens when 6 brothers — welcome home the strangeness of a baby sister

 “Natasha Boyer, a single mom, woke up on Oct. 4 to an eviction notice taped to her door. She’d missed a week of work while hospitalized with pneumonia, and with that a week of pay. One lost paycheck meant she couldn’t afford her month’s rent.

The 21-year-old, an assistant manager at a local Domino’s, went to work under a cloud of uncertainty. Her almost three-year-old son spent most of his time two hours away with her grandparents. Would she need to move there and be forced to find another job?

Then Sycamore Creek Church in Pickerington, Ohio called to order a large pepperoni pizza.

Boyer’s friend and the shop’s normal pizza driver, Paula, didn’t want to make the delivery. They’d been forewarned that whoever came would hand off the pizza in front of the congregation as part of some kind of presentation. Boyer offered to go instead.

When she arrived, pizza sleeve in hand, the church pastor, Steve Markle, asked her to come on stage in front of hundreds of congregants. He asked for the price of the pizza. “$5.99,” she said. He asked what was the biggest tip she’d ever received. “$10,” she said.

“We’ve been teaching our church this last month about being generous, and so we did something special for you today,” he said. “We took up a special offering for a tip for you.”

Then he handed her a large wad of cash, totaling $1,046. She immediately fell into his arms and began sobbing. The whole exchange was caught on video.

“I was trying to come up with a way to get almost $1,000 to try and figure out how to keep my home so I didn’t lose my job,” Boyer told The Washington Post on Wednesday. “My prayers were literally answered in a matter of hours.”

Markle told NBC 4 in Columbus, Ohio that he hoped the church’s random act of kindness inspires others. It meant so much, he said, that she had a “true need” for the money.

When she got back to Domino’s, she showed the money to Paula, who didn’t express any regret that she didn’t take the delivery. Instead, Boyer said, her friend said, “You can stay now, can’t you?”

Boyer used her miracle money to pay her rent and put a little toward next month’s payment.

“It definitely opened my eyes up that there are still good people in the world,” she said. “I’ve been bitter about humanity in general … maybe I need to start going to church. Maybe this is something, God was trying to open my eyes.”   ~Washington Post

[ print’s free for you here ]

Hey Soul? So here’s the thing: you get multiple choice today:

Busy is a choice.

Stress is a choice.

Joy is a choice.

You get to choose. Choose well. 

Deciding first thing: “My choice is You, God, first and only.” Ps.16:5MSG

Choosing Joy! 

Dare to fully live!

‪[excerpted from our daily devotions in our Facebook community … come join us?]

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.