a lesson in gratitude

Isn’t it funny how we end up learning something, even as we are teaching? And isn’t it even funnier how some of the best teachers are our five year old students? That, my friends, is one of the best paradoxes in God's world. And we would do well to realize it.

Today in Sunday school, we each enjoyed a lollipop. Mine was apple. And it turned my tongue green. But that's beside the point. Before we dared take a lick, I was informed by five-year-old Kimi that we needed to give thanks. So we did. She said, “Dear God, thank you for these lollipops and thank you for loving us.”

And in that moment, God used Kimi to remind me to "(always!) give thanks to the Lord, for He is (always!) good!" Good, to create us. Good, to love us. Good, to rescue us. Good, to sustain us. Good, to bless us. Good, to even give us taste buds.

i fell in love with fall a long time ago......

The leaves have begun to fall, and I couldn't help but smile as I walked to class today, crunching them underfoot.
Something about this season makes me crave apple pie. Makes me wish for ‘a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils’. Makes me want to snuggle up in Barnes and Noble with the latest children’s book. Makes me want a cuppa something delicious in a little café. Makes me want to go to Boston. Makes me want to stay up late. Makes me take a stroll down memory lane, where I sometimes get lost. But most of all, makes me miss my years in Ohio, my street decked with the most colourful of trees, yards piled high with leaves; even makes me miss raking leaves.
Yes, this season has that kind of influence on me. I can’t explain it, but I certainly do feel it. Autumn is in the air, and I like it.

P.S. And if I could have nominated my street in Ohio for screen-saver-of-the-year award, I would have. And I bet it would have won. It was that pretty.

my simple prayer....

...is to know that I am loved unconditionally by God, and to love Him and others because of it.