Regina 
We are all in this together, right? In the swirl of all that is back to school, the return of lunchboxes, eyes straining to stay awake over the last of the homework, and autumn tempts us with the knowledge that cooler weather lies just around the bend. I don’t know why, but I always loved the process of gathering all the things to begin the happy task of learning with more focus yet again. Something about bright new crayons, sharpened pencils, fresh notebooks waiting for the first drop of ink makes me ever so slightly giddy. If you know me, that’s just my perpetual optimism at play. God made me this way, and I’ve just learned to go with it, you know? It’s working for me most of the time (laughing smile).
When we paint our world with words of thanksgiving and reject the heavy dark hues of complaining about our days, we just might find there’s a whole lot more of joy in these hands of ours than there is of anything else. The difficulties of life are inescapable and some are inestimably difficult, but the act of giving thanks in the midst of the most mundane is one of the most obvious graces to guard our hearts and minds from their natural bents of complaining, growing weary, and the like. Behind the welcome of a new season there is often the temptation to grow weary soon after the newness of it wears off. No sooner than the back to school excitement comes, soon it fades. Where we were eager to learn, we are now weary of it. Mornings come too quickly, evenings fade too fast, darkness comes too early, and soon follows winter’s blast. Where our tongues were once happily chattering about all we love waiting just up ahead, we will soon grow tired of it. This is a small tragedy. It dashes every possibility of hope, joy, and true thanks.
Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life…. Philippians 2:14-16
We need to be inundated with the Word of Christ if we have a hope for the light of Jesus to shine through us. There’s something about thanksgiving readily on our lips that sets us apart from the rest. It is so easy to fall into the same sinful places as everyone around us. It is human to grumble when everyone else around us is joining in the same unhappy song. It is normal to fall into the same pattern as the crowd. It is possible to resist such lures. It is possible to live in a way that is set apart and altogether Spirit filled. This is what the Lord in his kindness calls us to. We have need of discernment to understand how we are to conduct ourselves in light of our present highs & lows.
What if in A L L things we showed what T R E A S U R E truly abides in the life of a believer tethered to the Gospel at every point?
If the Lord allows the time this week I would like to explore we may more carefully live in order that we might beautifully reflect our King and His Kingdom.
