Summer and Winter

Since the day is absolutely beautiful outside, and since my hubby just preached a tremendous sermon, this post is dedicated to the topic he preached on. It won't be long but it was just too good to pass up. It blessed my heart and I pray it will your too.

The winter here in Ohio, and across much of the U.S., has been a long one this year! I do not like the cold. It sets my "trying-to-wake-up" nerves on fire and the cold leaves me in a lot of weird pain. One minute I am being stabbed internally by a knife, another minute I am being burnt to the bone by a giant blow torch, another minute I am being shocked by an electrical wire and another minute someone is rubbing me down with sand paper. Of course, these things aren't literally happening to me but such is some of the descriptions of paralysis and nerve pain. It happens all the time, but for me, the cold just amplifies it ten-fold! I am VERY tired of the cold and after several months, you get extremely weary and it is very hard to fight the blues!

Last Sunday, my hubby preached a sermon from Psalm 74:17 called "Thou Hast Made Summer and Winter". Oh my, what a message and it is exactly what this frost-bitten heart needed! He talked about how much more we appreciate the summer times of our lives after we have been through a hard winter. How that if we lived in the summer and beautiful weather all the time we would shrivel up and die. It is the falling snow of winter that adds nutrients back into the soil and prepares the ground for a greater increase.

Today as I look at this beautiful sunshine and am soaking in the pure pleasure of warmness and less pain, I know that he is right. I am enjoying this day so immensely because of the hard winter. We do not realize how selfish we have become in the summer times of our lives, until we face a winter. It is then we realize how much more we should appreciate the beautiful days of our lives!

So, my friends, join me in appreciating every single day and living it to the fullest and to the glory of our great God who created both summer and winter!