GOOD MORNING!! What a great morning it is! :) I AM HOME! It is so nice to be home!! It has been almost 2 weeks that I have been gone. Home sweet home for sure! It was such a blessing to be with my family. It was a blessing to visit with my grandma before she passed away. The viewing and funeral brought back floods of memories as 250+ people came through visiting with the family. Friends, neighbors, extended family, lakers. What a blessing. The floodgates of tears did come at the last good-byes. Seeing grandma in the flesh for the last time before the casket was closed....that was a bit hard. But.... overall, there was closure. There was rejoicing. And, there was much time spent with family during the unrushed trip to Northern Indiana. Praise the Lord that I was blessed to be able to resign from Corporate America to be able to spend time, unrushed. What a blessing!
Well... this morning... we are going to add a few things to our daily "reading". I have thought this would be coming as I have just been stirring inside, but have not been ready until now. Along with our Proverbs chapters, we are going to add in Psalms. I heard Billy Graham talk about reading Proverbs and Psalms every day, "Proverbs helps me in my relationship with men, Psalms helps me in my relationship with God." So.... check out the "Bible Reading Schedule" tab to see what chapters to read each day. We will continue to read Proverbs 31:10-31 daily, as well as our regular Proverbs verse. Ok... let's go...
Reading Schedule Today: Proverbs 31:10-31, Proverbs 30, Psalms 30, 60, 90, 120, 150.
Here, we see that our Proverbs 31 friend keeps her Lamp continually burning. It is continually burning, in troubled times, God is close. In sad times, her Word is at hand. In sorrowful times, she is still being guided by the Holy Spirit. In tough times, she is being comforted by her closest friend, Jesus. During the night, even she, even our excellent Proverbs 31 friend.... even she during the dark hours of the night may weep, may cry, may mourn. But PRAISE THE LORD, JOY COMES IN THE MORNING! Throughout the mourning and sad times, JOY will come!
The WORD. The WORD is our Lamp. At a time of loss, death, or trying times, the WORD is there to comfort us. We are not macho to try and just "stay tough".... even the Word acknowledges that there are times when weeping may come, sorrow may arise.... but there is a time to look forward too... a time of JOY. A time that JOY will arise, and sorrow will not remain. It will not be night forever. JOY will come! But even during those hours or days where the night seems to be all we can see... the darkness seems to be all there is, the LAMP does not go out. We are not alone. If we could see through spiritual eyes, we would see our friend, our confidant, our comfort, Jesus, sitting right there with us... and probably even joining in our tears. Crying with us with compassion for our loss, on behalf of our sadness.
But... PRAISE THE LORD, He does not leave us there! He does not leave us there in the darkness, in the night. He is WITH US until the morning comes. He is with us to see us to the JOY! And the JOY WILL COME! With the joy there will even be a time of dancing! Where the music is turned up, we are spinning in circles, arms spread wide, just thinking, thanking and praising God, "Does it get any better than this? Could I be more blissful?" Our faces to the sun, eyes closed, heads faced up to the heavens, "Does it get any better than this?"
Morning will come. Joy will come. But tears are ok. Cry if you need to but look forward to YOUR MORNING. Your morning where there will be no more mourning. It will come. Keep you lamp on. Cry and be comforted. You are not alone. Your morning will come. :)
Well... this morning... we are going to add a few things to our daily "reading". I have thought this would be coming as I have just been stirring inside, but have not been ready until now. Along with our Proverbs chapters, we are going to add in Psalms. I heard Billy Graham talk about reading Proverbs and Psalms every day, "Proverbs helps me in my relationship with men, Psalms helps me in my relationship with God." So.... check out the "Bible Reading Schedule" tab to see what chapters to read each day. We will continue to read Proverbs 31:10-31 daily, as well as our regular Proverbs verse. Ok... let's go...
Reading Schedule Today: Proverbs 31:10-31, Proverbs 30, Psalms 30, 60, 90, 120, 150.
Psalms 30:5b, 11a - Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. You have turned my mourning into dancing for me.
Psalms 50 - PRAISE THE LORD!
Proverbs 31:18b - ...her lamp goes not out, but it burns on continually through the night [of trouble, privation, or sorrow, warning away fear, doubt, and distrust].It's ok to cry! Cry it out. In the Bible, we know of the word lamp as it refers to the Word, the Bible, Jesus, Jesus being the "way", the guide, the lamp! The Lamp... guiding us to where we want to go, guiding us to the next place, giving us light, revealing, exposing, showing us the way. The Lamp.
Here, we see that our Proverbs 31 friend keeps her Lamp continually burning. It is continually burning, in troubled times, God is close. In sad times, her Word is at hand. In sorrowful times, she is still being guided by the Holy Spirit. In tough times, she is being comforted by her closest friend, Jesus. During the night, even she, even our excellent Proverbs 31 friend.... even she during the dark hours of the night may weep, may cry, may mourn. But PRAISE THE LORD, JOY COMES IN THE MORNING! Throughout the mourning and sad times, JOY will come!
The WORD. The WORD is our Lamp. At a time of loss, death, or trying times, the WORD is there to comfort us. We are not macho to try and just "stay tough".... even the Word acknowledges that there are times when weeping may come, sorrow may arise.... but there is a time to look forward too... a time of JOY. A time that JOY will arise, and sorrow will not remain. It will not be night forever. JOY will come! But even during those hours or days where the night seems to be all we can see... the darkness seems to be all there is, the LAMP does not go out. We are not alone. If we could see through spiritual eyes, we would see our friend, our confidant, our comfort, Jesus, sitting right there with us... and probably even joining in our tears. Crying with us with compassion for our loss, on behalf of our sadness.
But... PRAISE THE LORD, He does not leave us there! He does not leave us there in the darkness, in the night. He is WITH US until the morning comes. He is with us to see us to the JOY! And the JOY WILL COME! With the joy there will even be a time of dancing! Where the music is turned up, we are spinning in circles, arms spread wide, just thinking, thanking and praising God, "Does it get any better than this? Could I be more blissful?" Our faces to the sun, eyes closed, heads faced up to the heavens, "Does it get any better than this?"
Morning will come. Joy will come. But tears are ok. Cry if you need to but look forward to YOUR MORNING. Your morning where there will be no more mourning. It will come. Keep you lamp on. Cry and be comforted. You are not alone. Your morning will come. :)
2 comments:
Thank you Amy. I really appreciate this blog. Death is always the hardest for those of us left here on earth and we have to remember that it IS ok to cry. No matter where you are, or how long it has been, crying is a part of healing too. We love you so much and Thank you again! Impeccable timing you and God have! :)
thx Joey...this is JUST what I needed. I haven't done a very good job of keeping my LAMP on these passed few weeks. My life has felt like a huge snowball with one bad thing after another. Grandma wouldn't want that...she would want us to all be strong & keep our LAMP on. That's what she would have done. I know that it's all stemmed from her passing & I have had the opportunity to unleash a few times. However, recognizing that this is it...the memories...it's just been really hard for me. Thx for being such a good example to us! <3 u!
Post a Comment