Joy Dare

A Gift Outside
Well, with summers in Texas, I can tell you that it is a struggle to sometimes find a gift in the midst of the oppressive heat, but there is something beautiful about taking in the sunlight shimmering on the trees as it begins to set.  I would say twilight is an especially sweet time to me, especially when you can hear the crickets chirping.  Those sounds are summer to me.

A Gift Inside
Saturday, I got the most wonderful surprise!  It is something for our guest room, so I guess it counts as a gift inside.  Now, this gift is not super deep, but when we did our wedding registry, we selected a beautiful comforter set for our guest bedroom.  It was one of those moments where I saw this bedding and just fell in love!  Well, as our wedding day came and went, the bedding was put on clearance.  I looked at our Dillard's, the one in Northpark, and looked online.  The comforter set in our size was nowhere to be found.  I had resigned myself to finding something else for our guest room, but still couldn't find anything else that I liked as well.  Enter our Saturday trip to Dillard's.  The hubs and I decided we would go and look again.  I saw pieces to the set we loved on clearance and in that moment I decided to ask a clerk something I hadn't though of before.  COuld she look and see if another store in our area had the comforter set we wanted?  She was so sweet and said that wouldn't be a problem!  Lo and behold, she found several and I was able to buy it over the phone and htey are mailing it to us!!!  The best part is it was half price!  Anyway, that is major gift that will be inside and that I will enjoy looking at every time I pass the guest room. :)



A Gift Upside Down
I have been pondering over this gift all day and am having a difficult time with it, but maybe rather than a tangible gift, I will used an abstract idea.  Sometimes the gift for me is when my day is upside down, when I feel all out of sorts and the only place for me to go is to Jesus.  The gift of His presence is never upside down, but sometimes he uses my upside down days to lead me to him.

Oh, and this isn't inside, outside, or upside down, but Ann Voskamp's post today is AMAZING!!  Please read it here.

Happy Monday!