Got to be Thankful!

Verse of the Day: Psalm 27:1 "The Lord is my light and my salvation - whom shall I fear? The Lord is my stronghold - of whom shall I be afraid?"


    It's the middle of March and it's snowing. Light flurries, and it's not sticking, but it's still snow! If you know me, you know that I like the weather to stay consistent with the season. Today it's not. It's cold. As I went through my day, wishing that the weather was warmer, and it was raining instead of snowing, I began to think about my bad attitude. After all, "This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!" Who makes the snow fall? God does! I realized I'm not just complaining about the weather, I'm complaining about the day God has made. He's in charge of the weather so I will rejoice and be glad it!


Here's a hymn that I've had stuck in my head lately, it doesn't exactly go with the theme of this post, but it's inspiring, I think.

Higher Ground

By: Johnson Oatman, Jr.

I'm pressing on the upward way,

New heights I'm gaining every day;

Still praying as I'm onward bound,

"Lord, plant my feet on higher ground"

Chorus:

Lord, lift me up and let me stand

By faith on heaven's tableland;

A higher plane that I have found-

Lord, plant my feet on higher ground

My heart has no desire to stay

Where doubts arise and fears dismay;

Tho' some may dwell where these abound,

My prayer, my aim, is higher ground.

I want to live above the world,

Tho' Satan's darts at me are hurled;

For faith has caught the joyful sound,

The song of saints on higher ground

I want to scale the utmost height

and catch a gleam of glory bright;

But still I'll pray till heav'n I've found,

"Lord, lift me up on to higher ground."

Something to think about

Verse of the day: 1Timothy 4:8
    "For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come."


Inspiring song: Take My Life and Let it be Consecrated
By: Frances Ridley Havergal (1st, 5th, and last stanzas only)

Take my life and let it be

Consecrated, Lord, to Thee;

Take my moments and my days-

Let them flow in ceaseless praise,

Let them flow in ceaseless praise.

Take my love- my Lord, I pour

At Thy feet its treasure store;

Take myself- and I will be

Ever, only, all for Thee,

Ever, only, all for Thee.

Take my will and make it Thine-

It shall be no longer mine;

Take my heart- it is Thine own,

It shall be Thy royal throne,

It shall be Thy royal throne.



    This morning before I read my Bible, I thought about my day yesterday. Yesterday, my family went to the Putnam museum in Davenport with my friend Christina and her mom, my grandma, the Bertlings, and the Hans. That morning when I got up I put on a green (of course, it was St. Patty's Day!) striped shirt, green nail polish, and a sparkly pin that said I (heart) Jesus. the pin was new, and I was excited about wearing it. We drove the one-and-a-half hours to Davenport, and got just a little lost in the process of finding the museum. We did get there eventually, got our tickets, and ran up to the second story of the museum to become CSIs and investigate a couple crime scenes (and learned we were not made to be CSIs, even though it was a lot of fun). That took about an hour, then we ate lunch and watched an Imax movie about Jerusalem. After that, we explored the rest of the museum, the American history section, precious stones section, Japanese section, and ancient Egyptian section, which I thought was pretty cool. The whole thing took the whole day. This morning, I thought to myself,
    "You know Lydia, you wore that Jesus pin all day. I wonder if you hadn't been wearing it, would people know I was a Christian by the way I acted, talked, walked, and dressed? I hope so."
   Just some food for thought. Hope it sets you thinking.

A Day in the Week: Wednesday

   Today is Wednesday, which is not my favorite day of the week. It seems Wednesday (and the two days leading up to it), is the most difficult day of the week for me. Why? That's actually what I'm wondering too. Maybe it's because it's the middle of the week. You know, like when you're climbing a mountain, the steepest part is always near the tip, but once you're up there you just have the easy part, going down, left. It might also be because the weekend seems so far away. I guess I'm just writing to kill time before I go to tap and gymnastics. I have about a half an hour before I have to get ready. Right after I'm done with tap and gymnastics, I'll pull my pants and sweatshirt over my leotard, grab my old purple backpack and squeeze out of the crowded waiting room into the car and drive strait to church for the prayer meeting. You bet I'm hungry when I finally get home! Here's one thing I've found today that I can be thankful for: I've finished a long writing project that I've been working on in school! Yay! Now I can start working on something else! So, another day in my life! Farewell!

A Day in My Life

I've decided, since I've been writing about all this deep stuff the last couple weeks, I'll write about my everyday life today. Except it won't exactly be my everyday life, because today wasn't exactly the usual. So, I woke up at 7:00 this morning, as usual. Instead of doing my devotionals right away as usual, my dear brother burst into my room, imploring me to get out of bed. It hit me that we were going swimming that morning. After trying to wake up for a while, I heard Dad calling for us to hurry from downstairs! Yikes! Where did my morning go? I jumped out of bead, dug in my closet for something to wear, quickly combed my hair, ran downstairs, pulled my tennis shoes and my jacket, and headed to the indoor swimming pool at Camp Courageous. I was a little drowsy until I got into the water. We swam for a half an hour until eight, then took our showers and headed home. We ate our breakfast (oatmeal, toast, and pears), and hurried to try to finish our school before Brandt, a three year old boy that we babysit sometimes, arrived at 11:00. It's funny how quickly you get things done under pressure! I actually got my schoolwork done before Mom picked him up from preschool! Of course, starting school right when we got home helped a lot. For the next four hours, Christopher, Esther, and I switched off playing with Brandt. Then, after his mom picked him up, we three packed our instruments (Chris' cello, Esther's viola, and my violin), and hurried off to orchestra, or rather quartet (there are only four people in it). Christina, the other quartet member was sick and couldn't be there. :(
On our way home, I made a last minute decision to go with Mom to a jewelry party thing that some friends of ours were having. It's a party that helps sell jewelry that's made by poor people around the world. The organization shares the gospel with these people, and helps provide for needs like medications, schooling, etc.. That was my day in short, and since I have to go to bed now, I'll have to finish up. Good night!