Good morning, Dear Friends and Prayer Partners! This is the day that the Lord has made and we will rejoice and be glad in it! I was awakened by lightning flashing and thunder booming this morning, a welcome sound, but that just gave me the incentive to stay in bed awhile. All this sorely needed rain is bringing a cold front in, after all the beautiful weather we have had. Hard to believe that although it is 66 now, tonight it will drop to 48. At least, that's the prediction!
All the pollen is now wet and we have relief for awhile until it dries out. I wish it would also take away the worms, but I am happy for the pollen dampening. I tried to sweep off the porch yesterday, and got a lot of pollen dust blowing.
I drove to Walmart to fill the tank and was glad to find the price was lower than most gas stations...not low, but lower. The wind was blowing so hard that I thought I would lose all my hair! After I left there. I stopped at the park and saw quite a few people out , enjoying the sun and wind. I watched an egret stroll up to a picnic table, and look longingly at the people eating, hoping for a tid-bit. The squirrels always beg, and now it looks like the egrets have picked up the habit. But God is good!
From Quiet Moments with God:
The desire of a man is his kindness. Proverbs 19:22 KJV
How much sweeter everyday life would be if teatime manners were valued! Tea-time manners are more than waving a pinkie in the air, knowing which fork to use, or remembering where to place one's napkin after a meal. These are secondary to the real reason we have manners.
Manners are merely behaving as though Jesus were our honored Guest--as if eveery other person we meet were His personal emissary. It means doing and saying what makes others feel comfortable.
Some years ago, the members of an entire church in Scotland were able to produce one of the most remarkable preachers of the time just by showing him Christlike manners. Here's what happened:
Ian Maclaren, author of Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush, was learning to preach without notes at his first church assignment in the Highlands. At times, he would stop in the middle of a sermon and say to the congregation, "Friends, that is not very clear. It was clear in my study on Saturday, but now I will begin again."
After one particular service when his memory had failed him, Maclaren was approached by a gaunt elder who took him by the hand and said, "when you are not remembering your sermon, just call out a psalm and we will be singing that while you are taking a rest; for we all are loving you and praying for you."
With such parishioners, how could Ian Maclaren have done anything other than grow in his preaching abilities and pulpit composure? That first Highland church made Ian Maclaren. Years later he said, "I am in the ministry today because of those country folk, those perfect gentlemen and Christians."
If one has developed a sinse of manners, then he or she is less likely to have to stop and say, "What would Jesus do in this situation?"
Little drops of water, little grains of sand.
make the mighty ocean and the pleasant
land. Little deeds of kindness, little
words of love, help to make earth happy
like the heaven above.
Julia A. Fletcher-Carney
I always give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers with thanksgiving, joy and love!
Love and hugs,
Amaryllis
