Prayer Journal #15

 The prayer from yesterday's devotions hit home for me.

"Father, You are good beyond anything I can describe, and I am grateful for your blessings. I am excited to see what You will do in my future.  In Jesus' name, Amen."

God's goodness abounds everywhere.  Yesterday I walked outside to the deck to sit for a while after Jeopardy was over.   That sounds like an old person, doesn't it?  Actually it was the first time we had watched Jeopardy in a few weeks because of the fair, then the trip to Branson, then the kids being here off and on this week.  Anyway, Gary was outside doing something with the truck and when I stepped off the steps, the first thing I saw was a beautiful rainbow.  It wasn't raining, but the sky was dark and a rainbow seemed to be hanging over Blaine and Hilary's house to the slight southeast.

I took a picture of the rainbow and posted it on FB with a comment that it wasn't raining at our house, but it was obviously raining somewhere.  I sat on the deck for probably five minutes before I felt the drops on my legs, then spotting the screen of my cell phone.  Soon the rain was steadily coming down and dripping off the roof in front of the door.  It was blowing just enough to dampen the chairs where I was sitting and force me into the house again.  Gary, in the meantime, was fiddling around with the truck by the party barn.  I watched him finally head to the house through the raindrops, one of the yellow barn cats leading the way.

Rain.  A rainbow.  Green grass.  Beautiful flowers.  Weeds.  Well, not the weeds, but the rest of it is part of God's beauty.  

I was thinking the other day about the passage of time.  I think of that often, who am I kidding?  But in particular, on Thursday, Megan started her 19th year of teaching.  I remember her first year being the same year that Hilary and Blaine were married.  How fast have those years gone?  Then I thought about Cooper starting 3rd grade, and on Friday Landon began 7th and Tessa 4th with Owen in K again and Lynnlee starting pre-K on the 15th.  The babies are all in school.  But I also thought about this...I taught at West Central for 33 years, then at Ivy Tech for 10.  I retired from WC in 2006---this is the 17th "first day" I have missed there.  I retired from Ivy Tech in 2016, and even though I worked during non-instructional week and chaired the fall Adjunct Orientation, I didn't teach any classes that semester.  This is my 7th 'first week of classes' to miss.  How time flies! The juniors I would be teaching this year at WC hadn't even been born when I left there.   The seniors in my dual credit class at Rochester in 2015-2016 are probably graduated from college, married, and have children of their own now.

How does this relate to the prayer from yesterday?  God is good.  He has been very good to me.   My career.  My husband.  Our daughters.   Our grandchildren.  Our beautiful home.  Friends and family.  How blessed are we?  While we are never sure what the future holds for us, I am looking forward to more days with Gary, traveling this fall, reading a few good books, spending time in the sewing room to make some beautiful quilts, and just enjoying our lives.  God is good.  His goodness endures forever!  Amen!