TRIPLE DIGITS

It IS August and it IS Texas---why would I expect it not to get this hot?  Truth be known, I actually do not mind these insufferable temperatures -IF- there is a breeze blowing to help keep me cool.  As my neighbor who walks about a dozen miles every day told me recently, "A good sweat is cleansing---purges the impurities."  I know she is right and I do work up a sweat EVERY DAY, but after a while, you begin to wonder---is it EVER going to end?  Of course it is.  As Solomon wisely told us, 

" To everything there is a season"

Ecclesiastes 3:1

SO it is summer-it is Texas and it will be hot.  When you begin to feel like the highs in the 90's means a cool front has passed through, you know it is hot.  BUT---this too shall pass and though, it may be a while, the cool will once again return.  Life is lived in cycles---some large, some small, but we pass through this world just as Solomon described from season to season.

We all have our favorite seasons,  and look forward to their return.   BUT---if you do not learn things about each and every season you enjoy---you soon will find yourself living in want for that which you like most.  The goal should always be 

Finding things in the moment which bring you joy and being content with where you are should be our goal.  How easy it is to pine away for what we love most, but is there not something--even in the hottest day of summer or the most frigid day of winter that we can enjoy and find the contentment of the moment?  Summer can be pretty miserable, but my flowers are loving the sunshine and showing their most magnificent colors.  On the most frigid of days, I love to layer up and take a brisk walk to enjoy the winter landscape.  There is something about a barren tree that speaks to my very soul.

SO, yes, I am tired of dragging hoses around, and breaking out in a sweat every time I walk outside, BUT I am busy gardening--one of my favorite activities and admiring the possibilities found in my yard.  I look forward to the trees changing colors, and actually enjoy raking the leaves.  I will spend hours in my sunroom in the midst of the misery of the Texas winds this winter watching the birds I have been feeding since summer knowing they will highly entertain me.  AND then spring---and the absolute joy of planting and seeing the flowers bloom once again.  There is always something to appreciate---find beauty in, and look forward to.  Instead of focusing on the negative, could we all instead relish the positive?  Could we be thankful in the moment and praise The Creator?  Thoughts on this miserably hot summer day to remind me of all I have to be thankful for.

"You alone are the Lord,

Creator of the heavens

and all the stars,

Creator of the earth

and those who live on it,

Creator of the ocean

and all its creatures.

You are the source of life,

praised by the stars

that fill the heavens."

Nehemiah 9:6