By Sherry Kyle

Are you joyful? Maybe everything is going great! You get along with your siblings, you have fun with your friends, and you enjoy school. But maybe your life isn’t going the way you planned. Your parents are fighting, your best friend is moving, and you’re the last person picked for the team. How can you choose joy this Christmas season when everything is going wrong?

The truth is each day is a gift and created by God, and you can choose joy no matter what is going on in your life. You can choose to focus on how much God loves you, or you can think about all the bad stuff that happens. The more you read the Bible and spend time with God, the more positive and joyful you will be. Yes, you can you choose joy this Christmas season—and every day of the year.

Create these salt dough ornaments to remind yourself to have more JOY!

Salt Dough JOY Ornaments

What you need:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup salt
• ¾ cups water
• mixing bowl
• wooden spoon
• rolling pin
• parchment paper
• Cookie cutters
• Straw
• Acrylic paint
• Black permanent marker
• Ribbon or chenille stems

Step-by-Step Instructions

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1. With parent permission, preheat the oven to 250 degrees.
2. Add the flour and salt to a mixing bowl. Mix together with the wooden spoon.
3. Slowly add warm water and mix until a soft dough forms. If not all the flour mixes in, add just enough water until the dough comes together.
   Tip: Don’t add too much water or your dough will be too moist and sticky!
4. On a piece of parchment paper, knead the dough with your hands until smooth.
5. Roll out the dough to ¼” thickness with a rolling pin.
6. Using the cookie cutters cut the dough into different shapes.
7. Before baking, punch a hole towards the top of the ornament with the straw.
8. Bake on a cookie sheet for 2 hours. If your ornaments seem doughy, bake for an additional hour.
9. Once cool, paint with acrylic paint.
10. Write the word JOY on your ornament with the black permanent marker.
11. Thread a chenille stem or piece of ribbon through the ornament and make a knot.
12. Hang on your tree.

The Lord has done it on this day. Let us be joyful today and be glad.

—Psalm 118:24

Want more fun crafts and activities? Check out Sherry’s new title True Heart Girl’s Devotional: Thinking God’s Way!

Thinking God’s Way Girls Devotional

Friends. Siblings. Social media. Everybody seems to have an opinion about how you should think! But what does God say? Discover true joy and peace as you focus your thoughts on God’s promises! This devotional for girls ages 8-12 will help girls learn to fix their thoughts on what the Bible says is important—what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and worthy of praise—among other things!

Packed with 13 weeks of devotions, relatable stories, Scriptures, and over 40 fun activities & crafts, the True Heart Girls Devotional: Thinking God’s Way helps tween girls ages 8-12 apply wisdom from Philippians 4:4-9 to their daily lives.

This Girl’s Devotional for Tweens is Packed with 13 Weeks of Stories, Bible Verses, and More!

The book begins with a message in a puzzle. As the girls work through each of the thirteen weekly devotions, they discover one more missing piece to the puzzle. The devotional has these fun activities scattered throughout it:

• Memory Verse—age-appropriate Bible verse just for tweens.
• Relatable Story—they’ll enjoy fun, relatable stories about girls their age. The stories feature five main characters who are woven throughout the book.
• Did You Know?—fun facts and information relating to Bible truths.
• Bible Story—stories about biblical people who found true joy and peace through thinking God’s way.
• Key Bible Promise—with a hint to the secret message.
• Prayer—a simple prayer they can repeat and adapt.

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