Happy 1st Day of Spring!

OK, God has such an amazing sense of HUMOR! Today is the first day of Spring... (Happy Spring!).....and we woke up this morning to 3 inches of SNOW on the ground!!!!!! God is full of surprises!

Here is the post I WAS writing for today! LOL!

Oh, I am so thankful for the first signs of Spring! The weather is warmer, the snow has finally melted away, revealing the patches of green underneath, and the daffodils have been peeking up. The sweet sparrows are fluttering, and the morning doves have been awakening me with their beautiful songs. I have been enchanted by their sweet cooing. I have even seen a robin dancing around!

Ah, spring is in the air! When I take deep breaths outside, I can smell the crispness, the cleanness. I am so thankful for Spring.

This Spring I am especially thankful because the winter was long.

I love that God can show us how wonderful Spring is by the trials of the winter. Would I have appreciated this Spring if it were not for such a hard winter?

I am thankful for Spring because it a season of Life, and I am thankful for the Life that brings Spring.

Now, I am looking forward to Spring with eager expectation......hope. I have experienced the death of winter and now long for the new life of Spring.

"HOPE springs eternal".....and SPRING brings HOPE.

Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never Is, but always To be blest:
The soul, uneasy and confin'd from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

-Alexander Pope,
An Essay on Man, Epistle I, 1733

God wants to show us the HOPE we have in a RISEN Jesus Christ through the new life we see all around us. He is NOT DEAD! Hallelujah! He is ALIVE!

"You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. "(in the tomb) Mark 16:6


Oh, how good God is. I love that Easter for us falls in this season of Life. When we experience Christ's resurrection from the darkness of death, my eyes, nose, ears- all of my senses experience the same thing happening in nature.

We see things "spring to life" after a long, cold, bleak season of death.

There is a time for winter. There is a time for Spring.

Lord, thank You for Spring! But, most of all, thank You for Jesus, who IS the Resurrection.

Happy Spring!

Spring has Sprung!

The ladies at the Internet Cafe are hosting a wonderful giveaway in celebration of Spring. For a chance to win some fabulous spring gifts, they are asking that we blog about spring and how we can REFRESH and RENEW our SPIRITUAL LIVES.

SPRING has been on my mind lately, as well. When I was out walking earlier this week, I mediated on the beauty of God and how He illustrates LIFE, DEATH, and RESURRECTION through the incredible miracle of Spring. I blogged about it here.

What I love about Spring is the freshness and clean-ness of the AIR. I love to breathe deeply, drawing the crispness.... refreshing, exhilarating.

I had my girls sit on the front porch the other day, eyes closed, breathing deeply. The breeze was blowing in our hair. The sun was shining down upon our upturned faces and we were WORSHIPPING! We talked about how God is all around us. God is in the still, small voice....the gentle breeze.

I realize I need to do that as well, spiritually. I need to BREATHE God in. I love the song, "Breathe." The lyrics continually say, "You are the air I breathe." I want to breathe deeply, drawing His Spirit of refreshment into my spirit.

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. James 4:8

To me, Spring also means CLEANING! I love to clean out closets, wipe down cabinets, clear out cob webs... It feels so good to shine windows so they are sparkling. Everything seems "right" when it is clean. It smells good. It feels good. It is inviting.

I know that I also need to spend time CLEANING out the closet of my heart! I need to wash the windows of my mind. I need to get rid of the "junk". I need to clear away the dust. I want to continually wash myself in His Word. I want to open my heart to Him for some MAJOR "Spring Cleaning." I want Him to wash away all of the impurities. Colossians tells us to put off the "old self", the old way of living and put on the new self. It tells us to clothe ourselves with compassion, put on love, and let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts. (3:12-17)

And, finally, Spring is a time of PLANTING. God has so much to teach us through gardening! Reaping and sowing....when you sow to the Spirit, you reap life. When you are walking in the Spirit, the FRUIT of the Spirit flourishes in your life- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness, and self-control.

I know that as God plants His Word in my heart, I must tend to the garden. I must water the Word, pull the weeds, fertilize the plants...nourish it. My heart must be good soil. I must have a solid root system in Jesus Christ (being rooted and established in Love). I must tend to that relationship so that it flourishes.

How do I do any of this?

Spend time with God.

Enjoy Him.

Walk with Him.

Read His Word.

Pray.

Rest in Him.

Make sure you head over to the Cafe to check out the DELICIOUS giveaway!

Happy Spring!

I love Spring!

Oh, YAY! I was able to get out and WALK this morning! I love to walk in the very early hours as my time with God....praying and singing and worshipping Him. This was only the third time I have been out....it's FINALLY beginning to warm up and seem like Spring. Oh, how I have missed this time! The birds are chirping (even in the dark!). The air is crisp and clean. It is so QUIET! This is when I experience the greatest connection to Him....in His presence.

And, I especially love this time in the Spring! There is a gentle wind blowing. The grass is beginning to turn green and a few trees are beginning to bud. Soon the daffodils will be peeking out their cheerful heads!

I especially love Spring because it is such a VISUAL example of death and resurrection (especially in the part of the country where I live!). The winter is DEAD. Around the middle of February it is beginning to feel so LONELY, so dreary. It is almost a time of MOURNING. Then, we begin to see signs of LIFE. The birds return. The grass greens. And, then, the miracle of new birth- the trees flower. The spring flowers bloom. All is beautiful. All is ALIVE once more!

I know it NOT an accident that Easter falls during Spring.

God wants to show us the HOPE we have in a RISEN Jesus Christ through the new life we see all around us. He is NOT DEAD! Hallelujah! He is ALIVE!

"You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. "(in the tomb) Mark 16:6

Lord, thank You for Spring! But, most of all, thank You for Jesus, who IS the Resurrection.

Miracle Monday

What a Miracle!


It was amazing to see my tulips peeking through the ground this morning! It has been a long, hard winter with record amounts of snowfall. These tulips are planted around my mailbox near the street. I wasn't sure if they would come up with the mounds of snow, ice, and salt piled on them all winter. Praise God!
To read more of God's amazing miracles, please visit Beth at http://amomslife.blogspot.com
Blessings to you on this miraculous day!

Thankful Thursday

Oh, I am so thankful for the first signs of Spring! The weather is warmer, the snow is finally beginning to melt, revealing the patches of green underneath, and I even saw a very determined flower poking through the snow (maybe a daffodil? Just the greenery had made its way through). The sweet sparrows are fluttering, and I saw two morning doves nibbling at the bread we had put out. I know it won't be long until I am awakened each morning to their sweet song. Ah, spring is in the air! When I take deep breaths outside, I can even smell the crispness, the cleaness. I am so thankful for Spring.

This Spring I am especially thankful because the winter was long. We had record snow falls, debilitating ice storms, and very cold temperatures. I love that God can show us how wonderful Spring is by the trials of the winter. Would I have appreciated this Spring if it were not for such a hard winter? Now, I am looking forward to Spring with eager expectation......hope. I have experienced the death of winter and now long for the new Life of Spring. Oh, how good God is. Easter can only be in this season of Life. When we experience Christ's resurrection from the darkness of death, our eyes, nose, ears- all of our senses experience the same thing happening in nature. We see things "spring to life" after a long, cold, bleak season of death. There is a time for winter. There is a time for Spring.

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and time to refrain,

a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.

I am thankful for Spring because it a season of Life, and I am thankful for the Life that brings Spring.

A Prayer in Spring
Robert Frost (1915)
Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;

And give us not to think so far away

As the uncertain harvest; keep us here

All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,

Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;

And make us happy in the happy bees,

The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird

That suddenly above the bees is heard,

The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,

And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,

The which it is reserved for God above

To sanctify to what far ends He will,

But which it only needs that we fulfil.