Counting My Blessings - Day 5

O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our maker. Psalm 95:6 KJV

(Drawn, I think, in 6th grade -- another found treasure placed with the Thanksgiving booklet)

Counting My Blessings - Day 4

Slow, lazy Saturday mornings........... Several cups of coffee, laundry, cleaning, reading, more laundry, more cleaning, more reading..............

Clean windows looking out into an Awesome Autumn Day.......

A thoughtful mother who held onto my third grade Thanksgiving poem collection that blesses my heart 39 years later........

The help of my tween daughter with the mopping.......

The napping husband dreaming of somewhere good to eat out later this afternoon.....

A few stolen minutes on the laptop to count my blessings...........

The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it. - Proverbs 10:22 KJV

(Cornucopia Cover of 3rd Grade Thanksgiving Poem Collection - Mrs. Bettye Burns Class)

Counting My Blessings - Day 3

Image courtesy of www.birdfreak.com

And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. - Genesis 1:20 KJV


When I behold the birds' song and beauty my heart responds with worship.

LET HEAVEN AND NATURE SING!

Counting My Blessings - Day 2

I am thankful for God's Word.

As our pastor, Bro. Doug Dezotell, reminded us Sunday, God's Word has been given to us in order that it may change us. I am thankful God provided His Word for His children and I am thankful to live in a country where today I can possess it without fear of persecution from my government.

I am thankful for our pastor and his beautiful wife. His gentle spirit is a blessing to us all.

Count Your Blessings

Ephesians 5:19-20 (New International Version)

¹⁹Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, ²⁰always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday season. I know it's not very commercialized and maybe that's part of the appeal. The time change brings a good excuse to slow down, rest, and do a little blessing counting before the rush of the Christmas season hits home.

I hope to post some thankful thoughts throughout the month. Would you join me in a little blessing counting?

I am thankful for the old hymns and the comfort they bring to my soul. I am thankful for gospel greats like Hovie Lister and the Sensational Statesmen and the way it lifts my spirits when I watch this YouTube video of the two:

Seasons Greetings

Storms tend to create seasons in our lives at times. Have you heard the forecast?

Many times I have heard it said, “You are either about to go into a storm; you are in a storm; or are coming out of a storm.” Can you relate? Had any bad weather in your life recently? Been praying the storm would finally pass, anyone? Feeling your life looks more like hurricane season?

I can relate. Most of you are aware of our current season of healing following Mike’s car accident on April 24^th of this year. Reviewing my past blog posts it seems I may have invited a storm.

From Life Changing Heat: “Heavenly Father, thank You for Your promise to see Your children through every trial. Help us endure them as a testimony to Your faithfulness.”

From God of the Wind: “Thank You, Father, for gentle breezes and for winds of change.”

From The Whirlwind of His Storm: “Heavenly Father, thank you for the whirlwind of Your storm. Send me out through the storm, Lord, and keep me planted until you do.”

“Send me out through the storm” I say? Be careful what you ask God to do for you. The answers might come in forms that make you uncomfortable; that stretch you; that drive you closer and closer and closer to Him and His infinite love, grace and mercy. How else are we going to get there?

Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.

2 Thessalonians 3:5 NKJV

When I read this scripture in my quiet time one recent morning I immediately thought of the wind that directs the sails. Then I recalled my post, Adjust the Sails. The word “direct” in this scripture jumped right off the page and into my heart. I mentally pictured someone shoving another person, as if pushing them out of the way of danger and into a safe place. I think that’s the kind of driving and directing God does for us in these storms.

I am hoping that God will allow me to once again share through my blog things that encourage me and are revealed to me through life’s storms and through life’s fair weather. I pray it will be something to encourage others on their journey.

Thank you all for your prayers over the past few months for Mike and all of us as he’s been recovering from his accident. Friends and family have rallied around us and helped us in so many ways and we are so thankful for all of you. Mike’s continuing physical therapy continues to improve in his mobility.

(image courtesy of www.heartlight.org)

The Whirlwind of His Storm

From today’s reading (March 11^th, 2009) in My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers writes:

Watch for the storms of God. The only way God plants His saints is through the whirlwind of His storm. …. Let God send you out through the whirlwind of His storm and don’t go until He does.

What a picture this paints! “The whirlwind of His storm……” – I think of the tornado and how it displaces everything in its path, apparently without any sense of order or purpose but pure, deadly destruction, yet the whirlwind of God’s storms is such the opposite.

God’s storms prepare us and then direct us onto the paths He has planned for us; the places He has gone ahead of us and made clear. His storms do not mangle us or break us down as we may perceive with our earthly vision; they build us up and shape us with His heavenly vision for His heavenly purposes.

Isn’t life all about perspective? Doesn’t our vision get clouded and distorted by the things of this world? Oh that we may obtain the vision to find the beauty in the storm!

Heavenly Father, thank you for the whirlwind of Your storm. Send me out through the storm, Lord, and keep me planted until you do. In Jesus’ name. Amen

Image from www.heartlight.org