Begin your week by watching or listening to this song, a new favorite of mine. Broaden your experience and appreciate a different genre of music for a change:

Joy – Rend Collective

“Seriousness is not a fruit of the Spirit — Joy is.” 

 

Today, I am grateful:

For ladybugs

 

For popsicle drips on the kitchen floor, evidence of children in our home

For a deep down joy

For burnt hotdogs

For laughter

For laundry all done

For Olive Garden salad dressing

For a hug from my Dad – there is almost nothing better in this world

For ironing all done

For a long bike ride, the wind in my face, the peaceful solitude and feelings of safety and security

For sitting at breakfast with my family on a Sunday morning – ahhhh.

For a lovely lady named Louene who turned 99 on Saturday

For a relaxing afternoon: Royals on TV, Dad on the couch, visiting with Marlene and Sara

For a husband who does laundry and unloads the dishwasher and makes beds and sets out bagels and fruit in the early morning for company

For watermelon balls

 

For reminders to pray for Munfordville, Adrian, and Magnolia

For a beautiful sister who spent the day at the ballpark instead of at the office

For a sack of cucumbers and gift cards, a thank you from the neighbors for Sam’s help

For the sound of rain and thunder during church

For a nephew who smiles

For a Sunday afternoon nap

For “Love Does” books on clearance

For a box of costume jewelry leftover from the church rummage sale, just for my Bingo ladies

For my middle name

For seeing John and Rachel

That I am not condemned, I am FREE!!

For the tickle in my tummy when swinging on a swing, when walking across a really high bridge, when just a few miles away from seeing my daughters and grandchildren

 

And for this devotion that my Dad tore out of his book just to give to me:

Newspapers recently told of a woman in China who has lived with a thermometer inside her lung for 44 years. Apparently, she accidentally swallowed it during a routine checkup when she was twelve years old, but her family couldn’t afford the surgery to remove it. Now doctors are planning to remove it before it breaks and leaks mercury into her body.

We all have an internal thermometer that measures our emotional health, and that thermometer is gratitude. You can tell how happy someone is by noticing whether they grumble or give thanks, whatever the circumstances. In Acts 27, the apostle Paul was drenched to the skin, reeling from a vicious storm, and trapped on a sinking ship. But he found something for which to thank the Lord, and he led his 276 fellow passengers in thanksgiving. The ability to be thankful in any given set of circumstances is an indication of the health of our souls.

“In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”  I Thessalonians 5:18