Hope, Where Do You FInd It?. . . .Day #3 of Thankfulness

I love to hear the rain on the tin roof. 

There is something so soothing.

I have fond memories of sitting with Chelsea on the porch. 

Reading stories, listening to the summer storms.

One night, when she was little, we slept outside, on the porch. 

It was so much fun.

It was so cold in the morning.

Her daddy had headed to the barn, 

so it was just the two of us to keep warm.

All the kids love the rain on the roof. 

When I was pregnant with Eleanor; Gary, Elijah and Cedric carried the
TV and VCR up to the hay mow and we watched a movie up there.
This was before flat screens.
It was raining. 

The smell of the hay and being all together was comforting.

Those were days of peace. 

Untold joy.

And God is still the same God he was then; in those wonderful, warm moments. 

He is still the same God in these cold and painful times. 

He is working out his plan in us.

    Habakkuk 3:17-19

Though the fig tree does not bud

and there are no grapes on the vines,

though the olive crop fails

    and the fields produce no food,

though there are no sheep in the pen

    and no cattle in the stalls,

 

yet I will rejoice in the Lord,

    I will be joyful in God my Savior.

The Sovereign Lord is my strength;

    he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,

    he enables me to tread on the heights.

We need to be ready and aware of His working,

There is much Grace poured out for me. 

I am a fool if I do not have eyes to see.

I can not make my heart respond, but my mind knows. 

In time my heart will feel again.
 For now I lean on what I know.

Day #3 of Thankfulness;
I am thankful for Chelsea:

For entering my life in a different way than the other kids

For teaching me how to farm
and fill a diaper bag

For the way she giggles with her eyes
For sucking her tongue and playing with our ears
For messes she and Mal made. . .everywhere
For the hundred times a day she would change her clothes
for the joy of watching her grow

For her quiet ways, so like her father

For her creativity
For her independence
For her honesty
For her soft, inner strength
For babysitting while skyping 250 miles away
For giving us the gift of a grandchild
For her love for her husband
For the way she loves her daddy
For the lessons she has taught me over the years about grace

Psalm 100:4
Enter his gates with thanksgiving
    and his courts with praise;
    give thanks to him and praise his name.

"There is no one like our God.

For greater things are yet to come

And greater things are still to be done. . .in this city."

He is the hope to the hopeless.

And as we struggle through these days;
as we learn to live differently

we Hope. . .not as this world. . .

but with the hope that there will be a time when all things are set straight. 

Jesus is coming back.

He is our Comforter

He will wipe away all our tears. . .

And there are greater things to come.