Thankfulness in valleys.

This weekend, I was in the mountains of northern Georgia and was reminded of something I have been learning: God is good, all the time. His faithfulness exists in the highest and lowest places.

I don’t stop to thank God for his provision and blessing often enough. Or I praise him when I am standing firmly on top of the mountain, but not when I descend into the valleys of life. Yet, there is so much in my life for which he deserves thanks.

Here are a few things that I have been blessed with and feel incredibly thankful for lately:

Rain storms. These have occurred constantly in the last few weeks and I love sitting on my porch, watching and listening to the rain pour down.

Encouraging friends. I am surrounded by people who care, listen, and speak truth into my life.

Coffee shops. The perfect places for intentional, edifying conversations. Or just a good cup of coffee.

Loving family. Two parents, three bothers, and a new sister. I am so grateful to have a home where I feel comfortable and yet challenged.

Yesterday, while looking down into a valley, the words of Psalm 40:1-3 came into my head.

“I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set me feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.”

God deserves glory and a hymn of praise for all that he has provided for me, but also simply for who he is. And sometimes I need to be reminded of that.

Truth and beauty.

i thank You God for most this amazing

day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees

and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything

which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,

and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth

day of life and love and wings: and of the gay

great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing

breathing any- lifted from the no

of all nothing- human merely being

doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and

now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

ee cummings

Not my own thoughts.

I've been reading quite a bit this summer, and these are quotes I've come across that I really like. Just some things to think about...

"If we have no peace it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other"

-Mother Teresa

"When the Gospel says that in the Kingdom of God there are neither Jews nor Gentiles, does it merely mean that all are equal in the sight of God? No-- the Gospel wasn't needed for that-- the Greek philosophers, the Roman moralists, and the Hebrew prophets had known this long before. But it said: in that new way of living and new form of society, which is born of the heart, and which is called the Kingdom of Heaven, there are no nations, there are only individuals."

- Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak