Learning to Embrace the Glory that is Each Day

Spring is sprung. Change is in the air.

Buds develop and open; blasts of color dot the landscape. Days turn, soon fragrant petals drift to the ground on wisps of a breeze and dandelion seeds scatter in the wind.

Birds and other critters pair up, find homes, and begin families. Little mouths gape hungrily, and jittery mothers guide their children on journeys of survival.

The season unfolds, and I grapple with holding on to each precious moment. They slip through my fingers faster than I can close on them.

One boy mows the lawn for the first time and is ready to stay home alone (really?), another will soon be considered an upperclassman , and a third enjoys his last prom. My girl is becoming a lady overnight.

I, too, am on a journey to survive. Time whirls before my eyes, faster and faster it seems. Somewhere along the way, I must have blinked, and days, months, seasons, and whole years somehow disappeared.

Three boys and a girl sprout like flower stalks and flex their wings in eager anticipation of flying in the not-so-distant future. Is the time really that close?

Babies stay dependent for a hair breadth of time. Toddlers run through the years to preschool and are soon much too old to need Mom and Dad to tie their shoes. Children become teens, teens become young men and women, and young men and women quickly begin searching out their own script.

I remind myself not to get too caught up in this season or worry about the next because it all changes so quickly. One morphs into the next before I fully realize its presence. Boy becomes man in an instant.

I get lost in the sameness of the parenting drudgery or the uncertainties of guiding a young life. Dousing the fires that smolder in households sporting six sets of desires, six selfish hearts, six demanding mouths can be all consuming.

I tend to worry about what is happening and what is to come; desiring something more and different, yet dreading the inevitable life changes.

It is easy to miss the joy.

I need just look around, breathe deeply, and listen intently to learn to revel in each moment.

Each year as winter breaks and snowflakes turn into raindrops, the birds resume their joyous chorus. A few short months and the hardships will again be upon them: scarce food, harsh cold, hazardous flights, and ravenous predators.

Yet the birds, they sing! For the glory that is today they sing.

We don't know what tomorrow holds, but for the glory that is today, sing! Click To Tweet

As boy turns to man, girl to woman; as family meals occur more frequently with chairs glaring empty; as the cheerful din of a houseful of children transitions to a peaceful drone of quiet conversation, I will think of the little wren and I will sing.

I will choose to embrace the moments, etching them into my memory. For soon that’s all they will be.

Embrace the moments, etching them into my memory. For soon that’s all they will be. Click To Tweet

And then, too, for the glory of that day, I will sing!

He causes the springs to gush into the valleys;
they flow between the mountains.
¹¹ They supply water for every wild beast;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
¹² The birds of the sky live beside the springs;
they sing among the foliage.
¹³ He waters the mountains from His palace;
the earth is satisfied by the fruit of Your labor.

¹⁴ He causes grass to grow for the livestock
and provides crops for man to cultivate,
producing food from the earth,
¹⁵ wine that makes man’s heart glad—
making his face shine with oil—
and bread that sustains man’s heart.

¹⁶ The trees of the Lord flourish,^[c]
the cedars of Lebanon that He planted.
¹⁷ There the birds make their nests;
the stork makes its home in the pine trees.
¹⁸ The high mountains are for the wild goats;
the cliffs are a refuge for hyraxes.

¹⁹ He made the moon to mark the^[d] festivals;^[e]
the sun knows when to set.
²⁰ You bring darkness, and it becomes night,
when all the forest animals stir.
²¹ The young lions roar for their prey
and seek their food from God.
²² The sun rises; they go back
and lie down in their dens.
²³ Man goes out to his work
and to his labor until evening.

²⁴ How countless are Your works, Lord!

                                    —Psalm 104:10–24, HCSB

Reflections: What season of life are you in? No matter which season it is, are you choosing to sing, simply for the glory that is each day?

If you missed last Friday’s post on blessings from pain, check it out here for a chance (or three) to win a copy of Katie Ganshert’s debut novel, Wildflowers from Winter.

Linking with Ann today to share in

So grateful for God’s infinite blessings #589–610 (view my entire 1000 gifts list by clicking here):

• Sun finally burning thru clouds; awesome-looking graduation announcements; permission to walk in grass! (w/ brace)
• new friends; perspective time brings on situations; songs of worship played/sung by high schoolers in public school
• nesting wren; first official braceless walk since January injury; chicken & potato salad–official foods of summer
• New opportunities; tree frog on the window; Working from home
• Dandelions spreading their seeds in the breeze; mowing in the sun; visiting with new friends & old acquaintances
• relaxing on a carpet of grass; a friend who loves my daughter unconditionally; graduation invitations done!
• peaceful darkness; Mom’s prom fun; a glorious glowing moon–take a peek