Remembering What Hot Weather is For

It has been 100+  degrees for days. The birds, mammals, and humans are stymied and aghast.

The bugs, on the other hand, are engaged in non-ending joyful pandemonium. The cicadas, crickets, and katydids are rejoicing loudly day and night.

I think that God made blasting hot weather because he loves his insects (and perhaps the reptiles, too). All year long these creatures just muddle along. Then for a few blazing weeks each summer, their body temperature hits a point where they feel fully alive.

And what do they do with all that joy?

They praise God all day and night.

So, I can be like the spoiled child at someone else’s birthday party. Or I can be happy that it is someone else’s turn.

What can you do during hot, summer days to remember God’s handiwork and be thankful for someone else’s turn?

Prayer at Easter Season

Good Friday is drawing near. Let us pray a prayer of remembrance.

Will you take some time with me to remember what our Lord has done for us?

Please read a passage daily until Easter:

Matthew 26-28

Mark 14-16

Luke 22-24

John 18-20.

Let us then pray, simply remembering the story back to God by telling him the story. It is a very respectful thing to do.

Keep in mind, there is not a format for this. Simply a time of remembering. You could pray something like this:

“Father in this Easter time I am remembering Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross that paid for my sin. I remember how he shared the last supper with his disciples. I remember that accepting “the plan” for my salvation was difficult and that Jesus sweated drops of blood while he prayed in the Garden. I remember that his friends fell asleep and that he was betrayed into soldiers’ hands….”

Remember right through to Jesus’ resurrection!

Let God know you treasure Christ’s sacrifice, his great power that raised Christ from the dead, and his love for you.

At Least be Grateful for What I DO Have

I was navigating my way home last night from work- through ANOTHER snowstorm. Although I have a tough-looking Dodge Magnum, it is one of the souped-down models without four-wheel drive (I got it because it was cheap, not because it made sense).

Wet squalls buffeted the vehicle; snow froze right to the windshield despite the fact that the defroster was going full-blast. I couldn’t see where the lanes were- just had to guess.

As I sweated down another hill and around a slick corner, I caught myself grumbling, “And as if the snow isn’t bad enough- I’m going to miss another day of work- and pay. Ugh.”

Then, almost embarrassingly (well, it WOULD have been embarrassing if another human had heard me whining), I heard a corrective “thought” down inside me.

“At least, you can be grateful for what you DO have.”

I mean, really. I was going home in a heated car to a heated home to enjoy a cup of hot tea. I could spend the next day watching the blizzard from safety. I could spend a day in wonder of the beauty that God placed in his creation.

So, that is what last night’s prayer looked like. It was just a list of those things that I have been so abundantly given by an abundantly giving God. Large and small gifts.

I don’t want to miss the good God is giving me by pouting.