Singing to the Lord

It's good to sing for the Lord, and for anyone else who will listen too! I sang all the way to work today because it was raining. Rain in Arizona is worth singing about! Music was a big part of my childhood. No family gathering was complete without some form of group singing. My Mom always sang in choirs, with bands, wherever she could sing, she sang. So many times growing up I would walk up to the driveway and hear her beautiful voice through the window.

God loves our singing, no matter how it sounds, it is a sound of beauty to Him. I hope I get to sound like Sarah Brightman in heaven. I think when God hears our voice it somehow transforms into an ethereal sound once it breaks the barriers of the celestial wall.

Once I heard the most beautiful sound walking down the street in Carmel, California. Both my friend and I looked at each other and we knew we had to find the source of that beautiful voice. Our steps us up the steps to a large hall, and right up to a closed bathroom door where an opera singer was practicing. We never forgot that sound!

The Psalms tell us over and over to Sing to the Lord! "Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.
3 Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise." Psalms 33:2

Even God sings......can you imagine that sound?

"The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." Zephaniah 3:17

Animals sing too.....Once a wolf begins howling, other pack members often show a strong tendency to approach that animal and join in. Lois Crisler has said, “Like a community sing, a howl is a happy occasion. Wolves love to howl. When it is started, they instantly seek contact with one another, troop together, fur to fur. Some wolves will run from any distance, panting and bright-eyed, to join in, uttering, as they near, fervent little wows, jaws wide, hardly able to wait to sing.”littlewows, jaws wide, hardly able to wait to sing.” Lisa Matthews / Wolf Song of Alaska Volunteer


Kids love it when we sing too, even though they look at us like we are crazy!

Aging well

Douglas MacArthur evaluated his life on his 75th birthday, saying: "Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. People grow old by deserting their ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up interest wrinkles the soul. In the central place of every heart, there is a recording chamber; so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, and courage, so long are you young. When the wires are all down and your heart is covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then, and then only, are you grown old.

I have found that young people really do like to be around the elderly, provided they are fun, positive and most importantly have not forgotten how to laugh. Let's face it, aging can be humorous!

I think a healthy culture values its elderly population. After all, God greatly values the elderly. He gave them their biggest jobs after they had reached the age where many Americans are living in retirement villages playing golf and bingo!

My folks have done a great job of aging well, I only hope I can do it half as successfully as they have. Here are some of the reasons I believe they have continued to stay young at 81 and 82!

Staying in the Word
Staying positive
Laughing at themselves and the world around them
An extremely active lifestyle
Loving God and each other
Reaching out to others
Giving generously
Staying current with world events
Taking care of their health

I pray for those elderly today who are not well. For those who are alone, and who feel left behind and left out. Who feel they have nothing to contribute. May they find a friend and comfort in You God, and help me to be a friend to the elderly in my own life. Amen

Isaiah 46:4 “Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.”

Meeting God in a garden

"Kiss of the sun for pardon. Song of the birds for mirth. You're closer to God's heart in a garden than any place else on earth." -- Dorothy Frances Gurney

It is good to be able to find a quiet corner of the yard in the mornings. I used to do this when I had a garden and I miss it. I would go and the outdoor stray cat would follow me, her white patches turning blissfully brown as she gleefully rolled in the freshly tilled earth. She was happy to share her territory with me.

Sometimes I felt I could actually hear the plants grow, reaching for the sun. If I got very close, at eye level with the plants I was aware of a whole new universe. I would see the dew drops, and the small bugs crawling in their world, unaware of me and the bigger world surrounding them.

God placed us here lovingly and called it good long ago....

I keenly felt a closeness with my Grandparents there, I have heard all their stories, them trying to scratch out a living from the hard North Dakota soil. How they came home one day to a flash flood, my Grandma desperately gathering chicks up in her apron and bringing them in to try and save them. Tunnels from the house to the barn in the bitter cold of winter so that my Grandpa and Aunt could milk the cows....And saying goodbye to all their animals, each one named, when they left for a better life in California.

They left behind a little grave holding their child Annie, fatally shot by a foster child at aged two. The boy ran away and they never found him. I can't imagine their sorrow. They made it out West, not without difficulty. They started over, pressed on and made a very good life. And their gardens always flourished

They have been reunited with their Annie for many years now, but I remember by being here with them in my quiet moments, I honor their memory and press on.....

"Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed." Genesis 2:8

Eternity in our hearts

Stairway at Butchart Gardens

Living with eternity always in mind changes our perspective on everything else that happens in this life. This is the great challenge, to keep this fixed always in the backdrop of our hearts and minds. In this way, nothing can totally devastate us as it would if we didn't have this hope.

Everything around us, however difficult or bleak the circumstance may be, continues to be colored with this one idea, this one thought. This is not all there is..... Sometimes we feel as if we have one foot in this world and one in the next and we feel the weight of it when life gets to be too much. Some would say that living like that would taint this life, as someone who goes around with one ear closed, half paying attention to everything around them, but really it turns the volume up. Everything somehow seems more brilliant, more vibrant and alive, like a deaf or blind person who has just got their senses for the first time.

Paul felt the weight of eternity too......

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; Philippians 1:21-23

There is no going around it. We will constantly seek more in this life, because we know instinctively that there is more....He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:11

What do you think? Does knowing we have eternity make you sometimes want to give up on this life? Or does it make it easier to go on?

Happy Birthday America!

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness......

I am proud of our country today and proud of the people who even today are fighting for the rights of other countries to have that same freedom. America has historically always been the first to show up when help is needed....to offer aid, to rescue the weak, to never be afraid to jump into the fray in the fight for freedom, all the while knowing that they may have to pay with their own blood.

Freedom is worth it to them, and it is worth it to me.

I am thankful for America today, and proud of who we have always been. A beacon of hope for other nations, a light on the pathway to freedom.

I pray today for those fighting so that we can all enjoy the little things here at home, may they all be able to join us soon!

Enjoying hotdogs, watermelon, homemade ice-cream, fireworks against the night sky, joy in childrens faces, flags flying high, sleeping in safety at night, homemade potato salad, calls from loved ones, laughing through the tough times together......

Convicted

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:7,8

I was convicted this morning as I drove to work. I said things about two people last night in conversation that I never should have said. Comments flung out as added commentaries to the story that was being told. Words that didn't portray them in the best light. It's not that I said anything untrue, or horribly bad. It just that what I said wasn't neccessary, or edifying.

I once shed tears with both of these people. I still pray for them regularly. But at the moment I said those words, I let God down.

I let myself down...
I let those present down....
And I let the ones I talked about down.....

Forgive me Lord. For not loving with my words.

Forgive me for letting my tongue fly carelessly. Help me to see that harmless little comments aren't ever harmless, not if it puts others down. Help me to lift You up in my conversations by using words that build up.

Thank you for this reminder. The two people I talked about have many good and wonderful characteristics and it would have been just as easy to say something kind. Next time help me to remember this and do just that. In Your precious name, Amen.

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Ephesians 4:29,30

Thoughts in the silence

I heard a song lyric that said.....all of creation knows Your name.
It made me want to sit in the silence for awhile, so I did.
To reflect on all that He is, and who He is to me.

On who He is in this world and the world beyond....
So big that it's hard to wrap my mind around.
Where did He come from?
When did it all start.....it's too much!
So I retreat back to the quiet corner of my mind.

I don't have to know all that, I just know that He is.
And that He is totally good, totally just, totally Holy,
and nothing happens beyond His knowledge or control....
My heart tells me, and His Spirit assures me that
He's with me.
And He will never leave....
He loves me.
I don't have to be afraid that I will pull the wrong daisy petal and it will land on "He loves me not"
It will always land on "He loves me."

And all of creation knows His name.......