Sunrise, Norton Sound, Alaska by ra64

Good morning, beloved,

Parts of our house are not heated now. Now the nice here is we rent our house, so when a problem occurs, such as this one with incredible money needing to be poured out, ahem, it is not our bread. Bad here is when the company we use is so busy, they can’t come until Tuesday. I got to thinking about this, um, issue that has arisen in our house. Curiously, the kitchen remains warm, the laundry room remains warm and the upstairs bedrooms are comfortable.  (Guess where we stay?)

I don’t mind the cold except in my hands and my feet.  I cannot sleep unless my hands and feet warm. I wear socks to bed. I’m thinking of wearing mittens. My husband, my kids do not seem to have such a deal with cold.  In fact, my daughter loves to sleep with her feet exposed. We call that her temperature feet.

We went to the funeral of a dear, sweet friend of our whole family. As we walked in RIGHT on time, ahem, the church was pretty near packed. As we walked to join my parents, I prepared my heart for the next hour. Or tried. Then I began to watch the slide show of this rock star’s life. (Ok, she wasn’t a rock star to the masses, she was a rock star to me.)  Friends, children, grandchildren came to share the story of their own life intersecting with Jo.

However, as I shared with my family on the drive home, the blessing of this hour came in my Dad. Jo loved my Mom and Dad and was a friend to them. She loved them, accepted them and cared for them. I cannot list here all the ways her life filled my parents’ with joy.

Dad made a comment about Jo’s singing voice. He said his daughter’s voice was nearly as beautiful. It was a comment that could have been missed, but it was a complement that blessed me. I reflected with my family how in my life as I reflect, I can remember many of the blessings my Dad has given me. I cherish each one.

There is great power in our words. Words that pour out of our mouths without thought. Speaking God‘s word over a dear one. Encouraging, complementing, or hurting, yucky…we have a choice.

We can either warm our family and friends with our presence or we can be an icy room that people can’t wait to hustle out and shut the door.

Not only that, our thought life, how we see ourselves, how we talk to ourselves can be equally damaging. You see, my singing, I critique and criticize my voice as I sing on Sunday in front. I easily can forget the blessing of just plain worshiping our God. I think God knew I needed to hear my Dad’s blessing. I needed to remember why I sing. I sing not for the applause of the church. I sing for the applause of my Jesus.

Church today. Are you going? Are ya getting ready to worship?

Psalm 104:

³¹ May the glory of the Lord [^Chis manifest presence] be forever.
May the Lord ·enjoy [rejoice in] what he has made.
³² He just looks at the earth, and it ·shakes [trembles].
He touches the mountains, and they smoke.

³³ I will sing to the Lord all my life;
I will ·sing praises [make a psalm] to my God as long as I live.
³⁴ May my ·thoughts [meditations] please him;
I ·am happy [will rejoice] in the Lord.
³⁵ Let sinners be ·destroyed [obliterated] from the earth,
and let the wicked live no longer.

My thankfuls today (well, first yesterday’s):

3 gifts that might never have been (Ann Voskamp, Joy Dare):

121. When Luke was born, the doctor discovered a knot in the umbilical cord. He looked at us and said, this must be very recent. You are very blessed. Yes, yes we are.

122. During the first weeks of Ella in the womb, I began to experience horrible pains. They thought I was miscarrying, nope, appendicitis. The surgery could have snuffed out her precious life. Many ultrasounds later, and months later, we met our sweet girl. Precious.

123. If we had never read a certain book, Almost Amish, and had a weekend to pray and discuss, I’m not sure we would be at our church today. We had a chance to pause and listen. God’s grace. God’s blessing.

Today’s thankfuls:

Three gifts seen only up close (Ann Voskamp, Joy Dare):

124. I’m really thankful for the snowflake. The individual, beautiful snowflake reminds me of the beauty that we are..God sees us as the individual. He made us beautiful…

Snow flakes by Wilson Bentley. Bentley was a bachelor farmer whose hobby was photographing snow flakes. ; Image ID: wea02087, Historic NWS Collection ; Location: Jericho, Vermont ; Photo Date: 1902 Winter

125. Friendships…sounds like a great idea but you have to get up close and share deeply for friends to become sisters. It can be messy. Imperfect.

126. Suffering…sounds like a horrible idea but I’m never closer to Jesus than when I carry His cross and it leaves scars. From afar, we would never wish for pain and suffering, up close, I understand He carries me.

Pray on. Pray on.