Birthday Week

Our sweet baby girl is turning 3 on Friday. It's a birthday week! More to come...

Send Some Rain

Just wanted to post the lyrics to the song from the video on the previous post...

2011 anthem/prayer

Gratitude (Nichole Nordeman)

Send some rain, would You send some rain?
'Cause the earth is dry and needs to drink again
And the sun is high and we are sinking in the shade
Would You send a cloud, thunder long and loud?
Let the sky grow black and send some mercy down
Surely You can see that we are thirsty and afraid
But maybe not, not today
Maybe You'll provide in other ways
And if that's the case . . .

We'll give thanks to You
With gratitude
For lessons learned in how to thirst for You
How to bless the very sun that warms our face
If You never send us rain

Daily bread, give us daily bread
Bless our bodies, keep our children fed
Fill our cups, then fill them up again tonight
Wrap us up and warm us through
Tucked away beneath our sturdy roofs
Let us slumber safe from danger's view this time
Or maybe not, not today
Maybe You'll provide in other ways
And if that's the case . . .

We'll give thanks to You
With gratitude
A lesson learned to hunger after You
That a starry sky offers a better view if no roof is overhead

And if we never taste that bread

Oh, the differences that often are between

Everything we want and what we really need

So grant us peace, Jesus, grant us peace
Move our hearts to hear a single beat
Between alibis and enemies tonight
Or maybe not, not today
Peace might be another world away
And if that's the case . . .

We'll give thanks to You
With gratitude
For lessons learned in how to trust in You
That we are blessed beyond what we could ever dream
In abundance or in need
And if You never grant us peace

But Jesus, would You please . . .

so blessed

d

Gratitude

I'm forty and I feel three some days when I think about life and how much more I have to learn. A new year has brought reflection. Tragic news from friends toward the end of 2010 has had me grieving for those who are experiencing hurt and loss. And what I learned in 2010 is this....this life is hard. Even in the best of circumstances, life is hard and if you don't think so, you are in denial. Because our God did not create us to be comfortable in this world because this world is not our home. As Michael Easley at Fellowship this weekend reminded us this past Sunday, this life/world is just a clean bus stop.

What has brought about this perspective on life...
*reading Choosing to SEE by Mary Beth Chapman. Lives changed in an instant and nevermore to be the same.
*a wife learns that her husband and father of her children has cancer. Lives changed in the moment the Dr. gave the news.
*a mom and dad learn their youngest, at age 5, has cancer and has a 75% chance of survival. All that mom can see is the 24% that doesn't survive.
*my dad's cousin and his wife bury their adult son after a fatal car crash. One moment he is eating dinner with them, the next their life on earth changed.

We aren't truly home yet and until we are home with our saviour, we will have disappoint and pain and loneliness.

Edie at Life In Grace and her family lost all their worldly possessions the Tuesday before Christmas when their house burned to the ground. At that moment, God began a new chapter in their lives. He has put them on a new journey. Life will never be the same for them. Not because they lost stuff, but because God rescued all six of them from a burning house and everyday they will be Grateful for His great promise of shelter and safety. Another blogger put together this video using pictures from Edie's blog. I had not heard this song but I plan to make it my anthem for 2011. (Nichole Nordeman "Gratitude")



Be grateful in plenty or in want. God keeps his promises. His plans are not our plans but they are the BEST plans for us because in those plans, we are being made to look like him. There is JOY in being grateful for what God gives and what he takes away.

so blessed
d
What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? Mary Oliver