Spring is in the air, a lot of love and relationships form around this time. Relationships are great, but it's important to appreciate who we are as individuals first.
Being the best us for our own self, is the best gift we can give ourselves, and the world.
It's important not to depend on relationships with people for happiness, if we have no life before them, we'll have no life without them. It's best to Recognize the true source of our Joy and Peace. God's love is above all. When we Put Him first, we'll find the love to healthily love another.
After that the best thing to do is to make sure we're better than good or all around totally Awesome! When we look in the mirror we should be the person we absolutely love. Self-love, strength, and confidence start from within. Everybody may not like the confidence we exude, but some people are depending on it.For the whole creation hopes for and expects the revelation of the sons of God.*
The world deserves you at your best!!
"We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world" -Marianne Williamson
If we have a good relationship with ourself we relate to everything and everyone else in the world much better.
Daylight Savings Time totally got me this year. Although I'm an early riser by nature, on Sunday, I drowsily awoke to the shock that I had overslept and wouldn't make it to church. Instead, I took my one year old daughter Zoe to a nearby park.
Pushing Zoe in her bright red stroller down a paved path, I stopped to show her the buds growing on the cherry blossom trees. In a few weeks, they'll open to much delight. But I was smiling early. The whole park had that whole early spring vibe. It had snowed a few days earlier and giant, glistening puddles were left behind, making the path alternately shimmery in the sun and brown from mud, The weather was nice enough to skip the heavy coats, but still cool enough to warrant layers. Spring- and Easter- is almost here.
Me and Zoe on Sunday, checking out the fuzzy buds.
Nice days spent outdoors bring to my mind various passages from the book of Psalms. David (and the other writers) saw reasons to praise God for creating the beauty found in nature.
"The heavens declare the glory of God;the skies proclaim the work of his hands." Psalm 19:1
"How many are your works, Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number— living things both large and small. There the ships go to and fro, and Leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.
All creatures look to you to give them their food at the proper time. When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things. When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. When you send your Spirit, they are created,and you renew the face of the ground."
Psalm 104:24-30
"When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?
You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.
Lord, our Lord,how majestic is your name in all the earth!"
Psalm 8:3-9
That last passage makes me think of one of my favorite Praise and Worship songs, "I Am A Friend of God" by Israel Houghton.
I missed church Sunday, but not God. Do you have any favorite nature Scriptures? Or praise songs that deal with nature? Share in the comments!
