Be Still...Discarded Blessings

Outside. 

My new favorite thing is my front porch...or maybe my backyard sitting area...or maybe the back porch. Oh, I can’t decide on one! That’s a great problem to have!

There’s shade and my favorite glider under the front porch. In the backyard, a nice fire pit for S’more making and a couple little garden spots. A table and shady umbrella, hammock, smoker and my herb garden all on the back porch. Each area offers some kind of pleasure for me to enjoy. Quietly. Still. 

Even though I can’t come up with a favorite, I love to sit outdoors and listen. Birds chirping, squirrels squawking, hummingbirds whirling, frogs croaking and today a deer running through the yard. The one thing I’m missing is a water feature so I could enjoy the babbling sounds of water. It’s on my wishlist though! 

As I sit here enjoying God’s gift of nature, I am amazed and calmed. Relaxed. I hope I’ve described it well enough for you that you can form some kind of mental picture in your head. How sweet it would be if you could come sit a moment with me sometime. 

As I sit here rocking in the cool of the morning, I’m reminded of all the goodness of the Lord. I know the Garden of Eden was perfect, but this spot is pretty much so to me. The simple gifts of God we so often take for granted. Unopened gifts. 

God. Good. Love. Pleasure. Joy. Peace. My goodness, I could go on and on listing words which come to my mind. Somehow I feel so close to God in my special places. Nature. His design. His creation. 

I know Covid-19 has brought many people downtime we don’t normally experience, and people have been doing things out of the norm for the most part. However, as things start to get back to “normal” as possible, let’s not forget to slow down on a regular basis and enjoy what God has given us. Let’s not allow the noise of the world around us to cause us to lose sight of these simple blessings. 

Psalm 34:8 says, “O taste and see the the Lord is good...”

John 1:3 says it like this. “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”

God did it. We enjoy it...if we’ll just slow down a little more often. I feel it’s a trick of the adversary to make us so busy that we can’t enjoy what and who God has given us. Instead, we just get busier and busier, try to accomplish more and more, and become too exhausted to rest in the Lord. Don’t fall into that trap! I believe Heaven will be a little bit like this; just read how it is described. In the midst of God’s holy presence, seeing Him face to face, enjoying the special places He’s prepared for us. All time stands still. I can only imagine!

Invest in yourself. Find or create a space of your own for you to enjoy the simple gifts of God. You won’t be sorry and God will get the glory...and those we interact with on a daily basis might just enjoy our company a little bit more too. 

Don’t be guilty of discarding the simple, beautiful blessings of God. Be still. Enjoy yourself today.