"Through It All"

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever." (Psalms 111:10)

 This is actually a pretty good way to sum up all that we have been talking about, because praising God is not just something that He demands or commands, it is something that we ourselves must be drawn to do; it must be like breathing air into our lungs, praise to God is to our souls. Tomorrow we leave for Southern California, my wife and I. It is something I would like to think is a vacation, but usually it becomes more work than I anticipated. Caring for Marianne 24/ 7 is actually not as easy as you might think; but I am not complaining, just letting you know that it's not all fun and games. That said, I do plan to have a little fun, if that is what you want to call it. This Sunday I am meeting up with family for church at Pastor David's beautiful church in Chino. This will be my fourth visit there at his church, and I still don't think I have seen all of the compound. After that, I an off to The Springs at Borrego, where I will camp out till Saturday the 7th. How much golf I get in, I really don't know; but the night sky is amazing, and I plan to enjoy gazing up with my wife. Not only do we get to celebrate the 4th, but my wife's birthday is the 3rd, and I usually plan to take her somewhere on her birthday, so this is going to be something I think she will enjoy. A few years ago I took her to Disneyland on her birthday; but that was before they changed to rules for her to get on one of the three rides she can actually ride on. Now they require you appoint a time to get on a ride; something that usually does not work out for us, so we just haven't been back. Do we get the pleasure we should in all that God blesses us with? I am being serious. Is it too much trouble for us to examine our lives and realize that He pours out more blessing than we can even keep track of? Some people might look at our lives and think that it is tragic; I think it is tragic not to make it a blessing. The amazing thing about our lives, is that we get to experience fellowship with God, no matter what or where! The harder it is to live or do, the greater our chances to draw closer to God; the easier it is to live and do, the less we seem to have time for Him. Wisdom and understanding go hand in hand...

"That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever." (2 Corinthians 4:16-18) NLT