Wouldn’t you know it in this day of technology that I would have to start a NEW blog spot with a NEW title and NEW name!  Penny From Heaven was already taken by a book series and if this blog ever takes off I want it to be unique and something people will remember thus the new name “Peace Joy Penny”.  I prayed long and hard about this name and kept coming back to the fact that every time I am polorized by finding a coin on the ground it brings me such peace and joy.  I am usually in a turmoil of some kind and seeing that coin grounds me.  Not remotely like but kind of like Christopher Reeve in the movie Somewhere in Time.  Remember, he was back in time with his love Jane Seymour and they are moving right along in their relationship it is too good to be true for him then suddenly, without warning he sees a penny.  That penny is from another time and it polorizes him and throws him right back in to current day!  He is shocked out of his fantasy world and put right back where he belongs.  There are moments when I find a penny that the movie comes to mind because that coin on the ground shocks me back in to trusting God when trusting God is the remotest thought from my mind.  It brings me back to my center of peace and joy.  I hold that coin in my hand, thank God, reflect, put it in my pocket and go home and write about it. 

Yesterday I was able to take my grandson Brody out for a “date”. He is 3 and we went to the Children’s Museum where we had a wonderful time.  Just so happened that my friend Suzanne was the storyteller there that day. She is a gifted children’s book author.  I had no idea she would be there so it was a treat for us all.  Then we went to Barnes & Noble to find “uncle Matt’s book”.  When we didn’t see it on the shelf Brody said “grrrrr that makes me sooo mad!”  Who knew?  We did find it eventually and made sure it stood out (if you know what I mean).  B & N saw us coming - like a grandma is going to tell her grandson NO he can’t purchase a book!  Well, we purchased 2.  Yep, as he said “that’s what I’m talking about”! 

As we walked to the car I found a penny.  The date 1999.  That is the year I started my tenure at Christian Creative Learning Academy.  That ministry I lived for 13 years (with a short 9 month hiatus).  God reminded me that I trusted Him all through those years and now He is giving me the opportunitiy that I prayed for to be a stay at home wife, mother and grandma.  I just wanted the opportunity to experience it since I never had.  I am finding that my heart is really in the ministry and serving God where ever I am.  My greatest ministry is to my family.  I desperately miss serving at the school seeing the parents, students and staff AND church staff on a daily basis.  Being in the “trenches” as it were.  Knowing that God is giving me this opportunity right now is sobering because sometimes I feel like I am “choking on the quail” as the Israelites did when they complained about not having meat in the wilderness.  Trusting God for me was never an issue.  I always have trusted Him but giving up control for me is an issue that He continually deals with.  Patience is a virtue and God has been infinitely longsuffering and patient with me.  I am so glad because otherwise I would be left to figure it out myself (not a good thing!).