March Marvels: Share Four Somethings - Serenity in Suffering

Waving farewell to another month, I rejoice in a glance back at my March Marvels joining Heather Gerwing as she hosts a monthly feature called, Share Four Somethings, where writers share the fourth Saturday of each month something in each of four categories from the previous month.

January 2022 brought new categories for contemplation, and enjoyng the new categories. The four categories remain the same, something loved, something gleaned, something braved, and something achieved.

The premise delights me; the new categories falling right in line with my one word 2022 journey with resilience! Looking back over the previous month through these four categories helps me linger with God’s goodness, and ignites my gratitude.

something loved

My March Marvels: Share Four Somethings starts off with an opportunity of supporting a Dear Friend in lauching her online store. Tamika Thompson affectionately known on social media as “Lady T”, is a Christian stylist, model and now entrepreneur, with the launch of her Princess Dress Store.

Lady T offered selected followers an opportunity for participating in a pre-launch of her store a few weeks back. Enjoying a lovely shopping experience we also provided valuable feedback for final tweaks of her store for the official launch coming soon.

Not only was the experience delightful on her website, but the merchandise truly blessed me. Committed to excellence, Lady T offers beautiful, high quality personal care, beauty, clothing and accessory items at reasonable prices. She even has some tempting candy and treat items!

personal photo of clothing and accessories

My items arrived carefully and attractively packaged, including fabulous samples specially presented in a gorgeous goodie bag! Lady T demonstrates her love for the Savior by serving her sisters with a heart full of love on her blog, instagram posts and now through her Princess Dress store.

Please head over to @princessdressstore on Instagram to learn more and follow today for alerts on the official launch. And if you are not a follower of @ladytamikastylist on Instagram, follow her today!

something gleaned

Something gleaned this month truly offered marvels for pondering, nine to be exact. Jessica Thompson’s newest release, “How God Loves Us”, explores the Fruit of the Spirit, not from the perspective of fruit inspecting our own lives, but as a definitive way God loves us.

We all know as Christians, the Fruit of the Spirit provides evidence of our salvation and continuing maturity in faith. Sadly cringing at the mention of spiritual fruit, I view these nine traits as a checklist standard. But what if these nine characteristics of God evidence the way God loves us?

Jessica Thompson diligently and thoroughly explores how God lavishes each of the nine characteristics of the Fruit of the Spirit upon us through forty devotional readings in this new book.

Firmly rooting each characteristic in the intrinsic attributes of God, she illustrates each of the nine facets in God’s unconditional love for us. Ultimately demonstrating God securing us in His love, so that we may then display the same love to others.

My biggest takeaway from this book came in understanding the Fruit of the Spirit was not a spiritual maturity checklist, but God’s demonstration of His multifacted love for me.

The more time I spent recognizing those characteristics of His love for me, the more I began viewing them in my own life, as His love transformed me.

something braved

A new category starting in January 2022, something braved gives opportunty for reflecting on the hard places we often walk or times we step out of our comfort zone.

This month pushed me outside of my comfort zone in making a video of myself reciting Romans 8:1-21. Back in February I joined Janet Pope in her challenge of memorizing Romans 8 throughout 2022, completing all thirty-nine verses by December 31st.

Having already memorized Romans 8:28-39, I saw the challenge of memorizing the remaining twenty six verses the perfect opportunity for cementing this amazing chapter in my soul.

Naturally the over achiever in me took over, memorizing more than the weekly commitment. But in my defense, memorizing the first twenty-one verses genuinely opened my eyes to the message of the chapter.

Janet encourages posting a video of our progress in our special group, which I avoided for weeks. Finally stepping out of my comfort zone I made the video. Uncomfortable with seeing and hearing myself on video, it took no less than one dozen attempts before I reluctantly settled on the final video submission.

Janet provides excellent encouragement for us, and shares her own journey of memorizing Romans 8. By the way, if you have not read her book, “His Word in My Heart: Memorizing Scripture for a Closer Walk with God”, I highly recommend it!

something achieved

Rounding out my March Marvels: Share Four Somethings is another new category, dedicated to things achieved. For goal setting geeks, this category offers an opportunity to shine. But even if goal setting makes you squeamish, right here is the place for celebrating even baby steps towards getting things done.

So much of spring speaks of God’s faithfulness and illustrates the eternal hope we have in Him. I wrote an extraordinary, lyrical article showcasing the beauty of God’s faithflness in spring, which is featured in the debut print issue of Calla Press Literary Journal, set to release next month.

As you know, I have been featured on the Calla Press website many times, and have another article which will be published there soon, but it is truly an honor and privilege to be featured in the debut print issue of this beautiful journal. Several talented writers are likewise featured along with beautiful poetry. Each and every article is a triumph of praise and testimony for the greatness of our God. The Calla Press Literary Journal is now available on Etsy for pre-order. No pressure to purchase, I only wanted to share God’s goodness in choosing to place my article in print and share a blessed resource with you.