Appreciation

"This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it."

Psalm 118:24

I was talking with my husband just recently about a "life verse," that is, a verse to live by, and keep the Lord close. I told him that I'm not good memorizing, but I have a few verses of Scripture that I keep close to my heart. The above verse is one of them. After I quote it, I try to add, "and I will do my best to fill it up."

First of all, we are to realize that God has given us this day. Good or bad, we have another day to live and count our blessings. Not all days are beds of roses, but God plants the garden, and we are just the gardeners. Each situation is sent from God to either lift us up, or strengthen our spine. We can gripe and complain, or we can seek to help others through our own struggles. We can't control what comes by, but we can control how we react to it.

How we fill our days reflect our character and walk with God. Do we fill our days with trivial pursuits? With feeding grudges? With looking over the fence to greener pastures? Or do we fill our days with Bible reading (to get closer to our God), praying for those in our circle, and outside our circle who are struggling worse than we are? Do we remember past shortcomings in our family and friends, or do we let go of it?

Can we look out the window and NOT see God's blessings? Is the sky blue? No? Are thunder clouds hanging low? Well, does anyone near you need rain for their garden? Do you see flowers blooming? Birds nestling in nearby branches?

MY yard has hummingbirds and cardinals, petunias and roses. If I want to just see problems, I could keep looking close, and then I would miss the things just beyond. I experienced 90 degrees and "tropical" weather today in the Low Country. Some say it's too hot. I say, you don't have to shovel humidity. (I am a transplant from the north where they had a frost this week.) I am very satisfied with hot and humid, over hip deep snow and 30 below zero.

We can always find something to complain about, but that doesn't get us anywhere. Let us just look around to see that there are blessings to rejoice over.
Let us all see that "This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it."
Psalm 118:24