How Do You See Good When Bad is All Around?

If you're joining me here from the Christian Children's Authors blog, welcome!

"I will sacrifice a thank offering to you and call on the name of the Lord." Psalm 116:17

Thankfulness awakens us to God's presence. My heart knows this full well and hearkens my spirit at sunrise. Summer night's heat still lingers so I tip toe outside - coffee in hand - breathing in the new day.

The day before proved challenging. Problem popped up like weeds in the lawn and I nearly lost my footing. I'm ready for a new day - one better than the last. So I take another deep breath and a sip of hot coffee and trace the warmth all the way down. Then I open my eyes - Thin clouds hide the rising sun but daylight reveals God's beauty and provision everywhere - and start counting to ten:

1. A new day
2. Waking up next to my husband
3. Morning's first coffee
4. Pink roses
5. Yesterdays wet fun draped over the clothes line

In this moment my heart remembers that goodness abounds - even in the middle of a challenges. And I can't stop counting, can't stop noticing all God's goodness around me.
    
     6. Ripening raspberries
     7. Bluing blueberries
     8. Cooling breezes
     9. Summer thunderstorms
   10. Silence

When we take a deep breath and start counting our blessings - big and small - our hearts resound with praise to the Giver of all good things. We realize how high and deep, how long and wide is His great love for us; how He takes care of tiniest details of our lives. When we do this - take time to count, to reflect, to remember - our faith grows.

These small recollections build our faith so that when those times of insurmountable problems arise we can present them to God with confidence that He will see us through - the One who makes all things work for good for those who love Him and call Him by name.

It's a new day - a new week. We all face challenges, even our children. When we practice counting our blessings (personally and as a family) our perspective changes. Are you or your children facing any challenges--maybe an insurmountable situation that's out of your control? Take a deep breath and start counting to ten, together. Ready?

Blizzard!

"God's voice thunders in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding. He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’and to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’ So that all men he has made may know his work, he stops every man from his labor. " Job 37:5-7

 

Blizzard warnings build excitement. Like a little kid, I ready my mittens, scarf and hat and dig out my snow pants from the front closet. With gas tanks topped off, the snow blower in place and shovels standing ready by the back door, I start pacing the floors keeping watch for the very first flakes.

There's something magic about snow -the way it falls and piles and drifts and blankets silence upon the ground.

I awake the next morning, like a child anticipating Christmas Day surprises, and peer outside at virgin ground - void of foot prints, tire tracks, and sound. I want to fling open the windows and breathe it all in - the freshness of new fallen snow. It begs a slow start; a reveling in God's wonder and glorious artwork, indeed.

If only we could relish its silence for more than a few hours or a day. That would truly be heaven for me. Isn't that what it means to find heaven on earth? Slowing...stopping...noticing God's miraculous deeds all around us.

So, I dive into waist-high snow and before life starts her constant humming, I find God all around me:

Mama cardinal chirps "good morning"; nature's voice rising, greeting the day, giving thanks for God's protection through the storm.

Glorious midday sun parts the clouds and paints Sky Blue across the heavens.

Neighbors emerge from winter's slumber offering help, encouragement, and much needed muscle. Community forms all around town. Isn't that how we're called to live? Together, not isolated.

After hours of shoveling, lifting and blowing many curse the snow - the forcing of slow - but I revel in it. It places control back in God's hands and sets my mind in awe and wonder of His powerful deeds.

Day #2 post-blizzard we're only now seeing plows arrive in our neighborhood and honestly, it saddens me. As inconvenient as this storm has been to our modern lifestyle, I've loved the pace. It's forced me to readjust life's priorities and given me time to think and serve and play and most of all to find God.

What about you? When life causes you to pause, what do you do?

Motherhood: Partnership with God's Creative Process

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Psalm 139: 13-14




Before anything existed you knew us, called us by name.
From nothing you formed us, knit us together
deep inside our mother’s womb.

Created in your image,
fashioned in your likeness;
we are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Your eyes search the universe and you call it good,
but nothing compares to your sons
and your daughters.

We are the crown of all creation;
the ones in whom you
take great delight.

Partners in creation, you entrust us with your children;
precious ones molded by your very hands
and Kingdom-purposed.

May we as mothers, revel in this miraculous deed;
marvel at the sight of your great work,
recognize your image
in their faces.

Today, and every day, may we
honor and esteem the very hands
that raised and nurtured us.

Happy Mother’s Day

Love,
Dawn