What a beautiful day I have had! It has been one of those days that when you get to the end of it you thank God for it over and over and still feel like you can't thank Him enough.
My handsome husband took a day off and while the kids were at school we did what we love to do! We spent it walking around a gorgeous lake, talking, holding hands, laughing about the goofiest of things and enjoying each others company. Then we took a drive in the country.
We looked at each other at one point and talked about how this is what it was like 18 years ago when we first met and fell in love. We spent countless hours just driving the country sides of Middle and East Tennessee -- talking, singing, laughing and just enjoying each others company.
Then we talked about how this is how it will be in maybe only 10 shorts years -- when the kids are in college or possibly settling in with marriages of their own. We dreamed of how when our youngest graduates from college we would reward ourselves with a little red convertible of some kind and I requested a house with a view of the Smokies. We just dreamed some dreams. Sometimes with dreams, the dreaming is more fun than actually getting what you dreamed about it. Does that make sense?
We love our kids dearly, but there is something so precious about stolen moments with the one that you have loved for what seems like a lifetime!
One of my favorite moments today was when we stopped while walking around Radnor Lake and watched turtles sunning themselves on a log, fish feeding on underwater plants and ducks and geese splashing all around. I looked at Butch and said, "It is amazing how the winter seemed to last an eternity and then all the sudden it was as if Someone flipped a switch and it was spring!"
And then I came home this evening and read this:
"He spreads snow like a white fleece, He scatters frost like ashes, He broadcasts hail like birdseed-- who can survive His winter? Then He gives the command and it all melts; He breathes on winter--suddenly it's spring! (Psalm 147:16-18 THE MESSAGE)
You know the days that we live are exactly like that. There are difficult days. There are some seasons of life that seem to last a lifetime. The suffering season that produces perserverence and character and hope is never easy nor is it ever fun.
And then the season is over and we may not have liked it, but we can look back and see His hand and how He skillfully worked through the hard times with us and we remember His Word how it mercifully sustained us.
It is in the winter that we depend on His sufficiency. We trust in His sovereignty. And we persevere. We learn. We lean. We come through the winters of our lives and we are stronger and more hopeful.
It's as if He flips a switch and the cold, hard winter is over and suddenly it is spring.
Blessings,
Dori
