The Goodness of the LORD

 Hello dear Ones!

Here is this week’s Scripture writing verse. With the size that I wrote everything, I did not have room for a large drawing, plus truth be told, I didn’t have a concrete object come to mind to illustrate this verse either. But I decided a pretty little flower vine might be just the thing to brighten it up. Though honestly the words themselves, when really thought about, are so entirely beautiful on their own. . . 

Just starting with the first thing mentioned—the goodness of the LORD. Has God not been good to you? I know He loves you! And so often in our busy lives we rush around and don’t even notice the many blessings. I had this illustrated to me in a personal way just today. Our family had an appointment we needed to drive our daughter to in a city an hour and a half away. During rush hour. At the end of an extremely busy week. Not exactly the way I would prefer to end my week—I would much rather be winding down and relaxing, not gearing up for a battle with getting to the appointment on time and staying safe in rush hour! 

I did all the preparations ahead of time that I could—filling the car with gas, packing food, water, the things my daughter would need with her, etc. At the right time, I picked up my husband who thankfully was going with us, and the moment our daughter was out of school we met her in the parking lot, scooped her up in the car and took off! We literally did not have a minute to spare, if we wanted any hope of getting to the appointment on time. As we drove along, I found myself subconsciously pressing my feet firmly on the floorboards of the car, willing us to go faster and faster. We arrived only four minutes late, but had a good appointment and then geared up to face the rush hour traffic that was still going on (and worse!) for the return home. 

And here is where my lesson came in. As my husband was driving along, he said to me “You know—at first I was stressed about having to make this drive, at this time of day. But then I decided to just change my point of view and look at it as a little mini vacation get away with my family.” 😳 Wow! THAT got my attention! Because he was right! And I “could” have chosen that viewpoint as well! And so better late than never! “You are absolutely right!” I replied. And you know what? I could feel the stress leaving almost instantly! Had not God been providing for us all along? I had gotten my van back from the shop several days before this appointment, so we could drive it up on this trip instead of my husband’s smaller car which would have been much less comfortable. We didn’t get lost in finding our destination. We never had to completely stop still when there was traffic slow down on the trip up. WE WERE NOT INVOLVED IN AN ACCIDENT when we passed the remains of one, the reason for that slow down. We had a lovely appointment. We were all together, happy, done with the busy week and ready to rest and worship at church. And the cherry on top—God showed my husband a possible short cut, which we tried on the trip back and it worked beautifully! It isn’t going to necessarily cut TIME off of our subsequent trips, but it takes us a ways further down before we get on the freeway, and we avoided almost all of the rush hour traffic on the return trip getting on the freeway where we did. Isn’t God good?! He didn’t have to do that for us, but He did!

Well, dear One—this is what I am currently pondering. How many times I could improve my days by simply changing my own attitude. Because God is SO good to me!

Until next time, 

Friend