The Complaining Trap

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
Ephesians 1:3 NKJV

Someone heard me loudly complaining about how not enough people were there to help me when I needed it. I hadn’t realized how badly I had fallen into the complaining trap until they strongly pointed out my words. I was quite embarrassed and ashamed and apologized. So this week I am asking God to help me stop complaining and to be more thankful for things. I love that this hymn writer shows us that to avoid the complaining trap we need to begin asking God to tune our hearts to praise and end with confession and thankfulness. May you have a blessed Sunday and watch out for that complaining trap!

The Garden of the King

It is finally really summer and my Tiger Lilies and Shrub Roses are busy giving God glory with their soundless shouts of praise. They do not worry who has been planted near them or what could happen to them tomorrow. They are simply delighted with each day given. I believe that it is because somewhere written in their DNA is the knowledge that they are blooming in the garden of the King!

My Song

The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation Psalm 118:14 NKJV

What I miss most about childhood is baseball.  I loved the summer memories of trying to catch, pitch and the challenge trying to hit the ball. Only once can I remember hitting a home run and it happened while wildly swinging with both eyes closed!

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But this story isn’t about baseball; it’s about music and while the thing I loved most was baseball, the thing I loved least was daily music lessons. I hated not being able to play with my friends till my clarinet lessons were done. I hated sitting trying to remember that every good boy does fine (EGBDF). I hated split and bleeding lips from the clarinet reed. I dreaded sitting Saturday mornings with my music teacher squeaking and squawking through my lesson. But gradually music grew to be less like an unwelcome intruder and more like a family member. Clarinet blended into piano and then guitar. One summer I learned to sing and then music which had always been a part of my life became my song.

 

It is the same way in our relationship with the Lord. Every day we squeak and squawk through the notes to His song. Sometimes it seems like it would be fun to just run off to do our own thing. But if we commit to Him a little every day we will find that slowly we are being changed. Little by little, note by note He begins to teach us the musical score which He has created just for our life. Learning that melody by heart changes His music into our daily strength and song.

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