The Seasoning of My Speech

Days that are “dotted with difficulties” go down better when “seasoned with trust and thankfulness.”

I’ve been trying to use less salt. I blame my poor sense of smell for limiting the flavors I taste in foods. Maybe it’s all in my head, but I compensate for the lack in my tongue with salt sprinkled liberally on everything on my plate at the start of a meal.

I am sure my salt consumption is negatively way off the chart when considering heart health. So I decided not to eliminate it entirely, but to limit my intake by substituting spices on my food instead.

Funny, then, that I came across this sentence today in Sarah Young’s Jesus Calling devotional reading for today.: “Let your thoughts and spoken words be richly flavored with trust and thankfulness.” I like that. Apparently my thought life and my vocal interactions with God can be a little bland, as well. The solution then is to season them with words of gratitude and thanksgiving. My day will be better as a result, and my God will find my words tasty, as well.

“May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in Your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.” (Psalm 19:14 NIV)

 

Morning Musings

Sitting on the back deck in the beauty of the morning, enjoying my surroundings… the fresh fullness of the newly-garbed trees in the woods… the sunlight beaming on the outstretched leaves of the potted and in-ground plants… the birdsong filling my ears… the gentle breeze fanning my skin. I have a new-found appreciation for the setting God has set me in… to think that I get to live in this place!!! It’s such an incredible answer to a long-ago prayer. I’m simply grateful.

How quickly springtime is moving into summer! I feel that the days are rushing by. Ann Voskamp says that the way to slow time is to give thanks… that one’s appreciation of the moment and expressed gratitude for it hold it suspended in time for a bit – perhaps so we can soak in it and absorb it into our souls… like nutrients our bodies, minds, and spirits need… true soul food.

The passage of the seasons of my life seems to be accelerating as well as I age… or maybe my appreciation of each is just deeper, aware as I am that none of us know how many more of them we have left to enjoy.

I love what I read in Ann’s blog this morning: “The best way to prepare for what’s ahead is to be present to what is now.” And so I sit, doing exactly that.

Every time I see a red-bellied woodpecker now and hear its throaty call, I wonder if it’s the same one whose life nearly ended the other day (see earlier blog post) and if he is deeply thankful to be seeing and enjoying this new one.

So am I.

“This is the day which the Lord hath made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.”

(Psalm 118:24 KJV)

 

GRATITUDE for the Little Things

My daily journal entries have been a little different of late. Normally I start my devotional time with a review of the past twenty-four hours and a listing of things I am thankful for, just to get my thinking started along the right track. But since my elbow injury at the start of the year, my entries (when I could write them, lol) have been different, smaller in scope and more specific in detail. “Got three curlers in my hair today!” was a biggie. “A six degree change in my arm extension at the therapist's office!” read another. “Flossed my teeth for the first time in...” well, never mind. No need to gross you out when you're kind enough to read my blog. But who ever took the time to realize that it takes two fully functioning hands to be able to floss one's teeth?! I surely didn't. It was just one of those things I did without thinking as I prepared for the more important moments of the day. Now those little victories have become my day.

God has used this circumstance to reinforce what I read last year in Ann Voskamp's bestseller, One Thousand Gifts. A life-changing read, it details her journey from a mere existence into a fully-lived life by finding joy and expressing gratitude for the very smallest elements in it. More than just noticing those moments as they blew by, she captured them, on paper, sometimes with her camera, and always in her heart. By giving thanks for each one she allowed the love of the Gifter to fill her life with joy...on a moment to moment basis. And then she went on the hunt for more!

My biggest worry in my lengthy recovery time surprisingly has not been about whether my elbow would ever be fully functional again, or whether my employer would hold my job, or where the money would come from to pay my bills. It's been about wasting this unexpected gift of time off from work I've been given. I've made lists and then fretted when items haven't been crossed off and rooms remain cluttered and others' expectations haven't been met. Yet my journal entries have shown me that in God's eyes, at least, I've gotten it right.

We've all been given just a limited amount of time on the earth. With our career paths mapped out and our bucket lists getting longer by the day, we're on the run to get it all done before time is called. And yet, it's not about the length of time we're given but what we do with those moments that counts. God can use a setback of some sort to take our eyes off our futures and set them squarely on today. The secret to not wasting a lifetime is to not waste a day. Perhaps the biggest blessing of this whole situation for me is learning that giving gratitude for the little things... is really the biggest thing there is.

“In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”

(1 Thessalonians 5:18 KJV)