Ahhh…
Crisp fresh air wafts through the kitchen window slightly opened this early morning while I drink my first cup of coffee.
Serenading my soul is a choir of birds rehearsing a new selection of songs in a neighboring tree.
Waiting to debut their spring collection of May flowers, are blossoms that hold out their cups thirsty for a drink of April showers.
Here I am before the Lord, rejoicing under the umbrella of His showers of blessings, humbled and thankful for a generous God whose blessings are a continual rain poured from the windows of heaven.
We are taught as little children to…
Count your many blessings
Name them one by one.
And it will surprise you
What the Lord has done.
By Johnson Oatman Jr.
How revealing these simple words of encouragement;
Just begin to count your blessings.
You’ll be surprised and soaked in His showers of blessings,
Before blessing number two is even uttered.
Outside the window from where I sit, I eavesdrop on a music session practicing thru a personal playlist I imagine God selected just for me.
From their innate being, this choir was created to sing for their Creator.
Surely, we were created to sing a joyful song for our Creator also…
“Every blessing you pour out I’ll turn back to praise.”
By Matt Redman
Yes, just start counting and it begins to rain.
We are a blessed people to call each other family.
We are rich in treasures not weighed from the scales of the world.
We are an imperfect people yet rich in love
Because of a perfect God who loved us first.
Look no further than the front door of home to find daddies who love their daughters.
And mothers who love their sons; and vice versa.
Cousins are writing their legacy chapters watching movies together past their bedtime, riding bicycles in their pajamas, swimming in their underwear, and making breakfast memories at their weekend sleepovers with their grandparents.
Cousins are learning to serve and serve one another in the smallest acts of kindness. A Godly trait that will find them one day serving a lost people desperate to find their way to Jesus.
Cousins and even sisters are forming friendships that will follow them down the by-ways and interstates of their life.
In the sisterhood of cousins there are celebrations of your sassy self, your princess self and fancy self; a safe place where dreams are encouraged and let you find your voice.
Families that play together, stay together.
There is never a shortage of kisses in family.
The family portrait is framed in their parents love for each other that lives on in the generations beyond them.
Families are not without challenges.
Some challenges only God can fix.
Our families biggest hurdle to cross over are the miles that separate our addresses. As the years keep climbing, so does the painful miles and mountain of our hurdle.
Cousins on one side of the hurdle don’t get to grow up together, share clothes or make milestone memories on weekend sleepovers; they only hear about these Friday nights together over the internet; braving the best smile they can in their watching.
The miles are never your friend, but somehow you make peace with the pain of distance, embracing the light left on in the window of home for each other.
That the miles and smiles of those homes who keep the candle burning for you in the midnight hour are always worth the journey, however you have to get there.
The birthdays are getting away from us and there’s no time to waste a single minute of the family clock that God has given.
God is about the unexpected, and families are to be on the continual lookout for the next rainfall from heaven, His showers of blessing for us.
Life is brief.
Life is but a mere breath of opportunities
We are either embracing them or bidding them a sad good-by.
April Showers are bringing forth May flowers all year round in our lives.
Sometimes we must be still to hear the choir playing “your song” outside the kitchen window. We only need to count to one before God surprises you for all that He has already done.
The inner child must never forget getting wet at those grandparent sleepovers.
To remember being a child of God during those April Showers which spring forth our May flowers of blessings;
Rejoice under the umbrella of His showers of blessings,
Humbled and thankful for a generous God
Whose blessings are a continual rain poured from the windows of heaven.
Apples of Gold Encouragement 