I love this devotion this morning. I tend to allow my emotion to rule my mood, and when I’ve spent the night tossing and turning and worrying and missing and grieving and regretting, I then wake up with my mood already set in motion for the day. This was the message I needed today, thank you Lord:

Come to Me with your gaping emptiness, knowing that in Me you are complete. As you rest quietly in My Presence, My Light within you grows brighter and brighter. Facing the emptiness inside you is simply the prelude to being filled with My fullness. Therefore, rejoice on those days when you drag yourself out of bed, feeling sluggish and inadequate. Tell yourself that this is a perfect day to depend on Me in childlike trust. If you persevere in this dependence as you go through the day, you will discover at bedtime that Joy and Peace have become your companions. You may not realize at what point they joined you on your journey, but you will feel the beneficial effects of their presence. The perfect end to such a day is a doxology of gratitude. I am He from whom all blessings flow!

2 Corinthians 4:6; Matthew 5:3, 6; Colossians 2:9-10; Psalm 150:6

I began my day yesterday feeling worry and sadness and a knot in my stomach over a situation I really cannot control any longer, but I spent my morning at work dwelling on the devotion from Ecclesiastes and by the afternoon, my mood had lightened a little, I was re-focused on the blessings that surround me, and by the end of the day, I was able to put myself into making Christmas cookies for the ladies tonight and do love, rather than feel sorry for myself. It DOES work to depend on His Word and meditate on it day and night…

I am grateful for vanilla almond bark dipped pretzels and the mess they make on the counter.

I am grateful for the girl who leaves for lunch and whistles a happy song all the way out of the building, almost every day.

I am grateful for the easy graham cracker/butter/almond things that Mom used to make at Christmas time.

I am grateful for bluebonnets.

I am grateful that a radio station this morning accidentally had dead air space and allowed me to drive to work in silence to reflect on a doxology of gratitude and “I am HE from whom all blessings flow” while loving the beauty of the morning sunshine.

I am grateful that this guy and his wife thought up this funny airport activity and posted it to youtube so that I could laugh out loud in the quiet of the house before leaving for work:

Cell Phone Crasher

I am grateful for a partner who enjoys being in the kitchen, helps make dinner and then washes the dishes, and goes through a huge bag of pretzels looking for the ones that are not broken, just because.

And I am grateful for memories of Hutchinson Friends Church, singing the The Lord is in His Holy Temple at the beginning of the service and the Doxology at the end of the service, with the voices of Roy and Anna, Clarence and Violet, Bob and Wilda, Lowell and Josephine, Ralph and Shirley, Elwood and Norma, Bob and Zetta, Harold and Delores, Orrin and Verna, Mom and Dad, Carolyn at the piano and Verna at the organ. Ahhhh, those were the days, and I love my heritage and those Quaker “traditions.” I can still smell those blonde wood pews and feel that finger thump on my head when I was too noisy.