Blessings Abundant

How do I live the fullest life here on earth that delivers into the fullest life in the ever-after? To have abundant  life. I’ve heard these words a lot lately. Will I have lived fully or empty? How do I live fully so I will be fully ready to die?

These questions lead me to this one. Do I miss the grandeur in everyday life?  How do I view that which is a blessing in the smallest visible sense? Do I expect my blessings to be obvious gifts of self-pleasure? Do blessings mean an abundance more of something, some physical evidence of right living?

I think about my family gathered together for a meal. We ask God to bless our food. Are we asking Him for more that what is on the table? Or for it to supernaturally taste better? No. We are asking that what we have be enough for completion of His glory. To sustain, nourish, and grow us. For what we have to be enough.

To recognize and receive these abundant blessings is a mystery. It’s not something we can hold in our hands, rub between our fingers, or enrich our senses. It’s really something that grows from the inside-out. I am discovering it is a learned behavior.

Encouraged by the book One Thousand Gifts, I am beginning a journey of penning my one thousand blessings. Along the way I hope to uncover the abundant God-gifts surrounding me.

I begin.

1. The morning sun awakening me through my bedroom windows.

Dreams

I am sobbing right now as one who has been touched personally by a loving God who cares about me in a most personal way. 

It began with me awakening from the most sound sleep I recall having in a long time. But it begins before this as I will explain later.

I wake up and reach for my coffee and Bible study, as usual. Call my mother like I do every morning. As we are speaking on the phone, she is asking me questions  about the near future. I said, “Mom, I just need to keep my head above water for the next 3 

weeks.” 

 My head above water. 

I hang up the phone and repeat those words. My head above water. Where did that come from? Suddenly, like a tidal wave my dream came back from last night. I was in a boat that was sinking. Frightened about drowning, my hands and feet were waving in fear. The voice of someone next to me said, If you keep your head pointed up, and relax, breathe slowly, you won’t drown.”

You won’t drown.

Does God speak to us in dreams? You bet He can. He can speak to us any way He sees fit. I believe that was a beautiful, personal message to me from my Holy Spirit.

He not only spoke in a dream but He gave me the most unusual sleep, without movement all night long. This never happens to me.

It was nothing less than a God moment.

Your Inner Child

Summer is initiated in with an outdoor symphony concert. The orchestra performs down below while the onlookers spread out on a grassy hill that rises high above the stage and surrounds it. The sun had just gone down and the moon is directly over me. A warm summer breeze gently blowing through my hair, I slip my sandals off and let the soft grass tickle my toes. Lying on my back, with the grass beneath me and the cloudless sky above me, the music begins to fill my soul and the inner child in me arises. I close my eyes as my lips curl into a smile. Suddenly the music changes to a tune that begs me to participate. I jump to my feet and begin my version of Celtic dancing. It doesn’t take much for my inner child to come alive and the feeling is freeing. My husband looks on and laughs while my teenage son scoots away in embarrassment.

Summer is a great excuse to let your inner child emerge. Laugh at simple things like blowing bubbles while your dog tries to eat them. Wonder at creation with new eyes, be a star-gazer. Choose to laugh. It’s okay to be silly.

At that time Jesus prayed this prayer: “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike.
 Matthew 11:25

Embracing What Is

A group of women took a painting class directed by a true artist. Each stroke she made on her canvass we were to mimic. Having no high hopes for my masterpiece, I was amazed how my brush strokes came to life. Midstream my artwork  took a turn in another direction so I went with it and changed it up a bit. Embracing my new direction, I chose to make something out of what I had to work with. During a break we all walked around to view the others art. Although we were all painting the same picture, everyone’s work was uniquely different. Passing by some I thought, “I like my version better”, but then there were some that caught me off guard, “Wow, that is really beautiful! How come mine didn’t turn out like that?” As we were nearing the end, the woman next to me made an error in her painting, she tried to cover it up with large strokes of another color paint.  Hearing the disappointment in her voice, “I didn’t mean for it to tun out this way”.

Our lives are a lot like creating this artwork. Sometimes it goes along just how we plan. Other times we take a look at our lives and say “I didn’t mean for it to turn out this way”. Maybe we need to take a step back and embrace what is. God gives us control to change some things in our lives while others we never saw coming.

Embrace the life you have, not wishing for the life you imagined. Take the canvass you have been given and create your own masterpiece with God holding your hand as you paint.


 The Lord merely spoke,and the heavens were created.He breathed the word,and all the stars were born. Psalm 33:6

Mommas Got a New Pair of Shoes

My new pair of tennis shoes felt great as I tried them on. I made the mistake, however, of breaking them in on a 5k walk in the hill country. Half-way  through the journey, I could feel the cuts on the back of my heels. By the time I finished, blood stained socks were my reward. "I can fix this", I thought, so I taped bandages over my heels and kept wearing the shoes. This didn't work. I then tried thicker socks and more bandages to no avail.
This remind me of how I try to take care of my bad behavior, selfishness, poor choices, lets call it what it is ... sin. I may choose to "fix it" on my own by putting a bandage over the problem. This never works, it only hides it for awhile then it festers and rears its ugly head. But if I give my sin over to God, He will wrap the wounds in Grace and bandage them in Mercy.
Let the healing begin!
What about you?
What sin are you trying to bandage up on your own while it festers underneath that cover?

He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds. Psalm 147:3

Kitchen Table Talk

If my kitchen table could talk, oh what it could share. The top is made of pine, a softer wood that hides nothing. Every slash mark written on paper during a game is imprinted atop the table. Every tap of the last domino held in Mexican dominoes is reflected in the dents. The worn green bench with matching two chairs came from another table set my mother had dating back to before I was born. Aside the table sits my ‘youth’ chair, which I sat in until I was a teenager.

Countless days we sat in these old chairs, prayers always preceding a meal. Laughter raising the roof. Yes, there were a few arguments at this table but mostly laughter and joy. Tears were shed when we discussed hard times in our lives or the lives of someone we loved.

I stare transfixed at the table now as the ebb and flow of life is moving around me in fast-forward through years past. Gifts wrapped, clothes folded, Bible studied, home work done.

Children growing.

Years passing.

The day in- day out of life. The things we overlook waiting for some grand event or major holiday. Those little uneventful times are our life. And my kitchen table has seen it all. Have I? Have I savored these moments or rushed through them?

What about you?

How do you savor the little moments in time?

“In the whole of world history there is always only one really significant hour—the present.” Dietrich Bonheoffer

Untitled

A Shadow

Imperceptible, yet ever present

Creeps, seeps, hovers ominously within each of us.

Darkness and selfishness are its abode, shunning kindness and generosity.

But one man banished the shadows, fled from evil, and sacrificed Himself

In His love, his selflessness.

It is from Him that we learn to turn from our shadows

And walk into the way of the light.

 Author
Anonymous 13 year old