GRATITUDE

 

©CherieElainePhotography2023

It is five minutes to seven. I am on my third cup of coffee. Well, second and a half if you throw out the last half because it got cold and don't own a microwave. 

It was a sleepless night. Someone spray painted the security camera at our apartment building, and it makes for some unnerving. It's also been quite warm and because there is no air conditioning in my apartment, closing the windows up for security led to stuffy conditions. 

So that's my morning today, with the exception of this:  I was overwhelmed by gratitude yesterday. I'm still so grateful today......

I am a journal-er by nature. I've been doing it a long, long time.  Yesterday my words were few, but full of color, and gratitude. Grateful that I can sit by a roaring stream that will be gone by summer's end. Grateful that I can go out with my camera on a daily basis and show you what God has done and let you see Him. 

Words are not enough. Pictures are sometimes. But what is happening in my heart, that's enough. Because its changing. 

I am so proud of the work I have been doing over the past year or so, yet so humbled that He has chosen ME to do it. 

Knowing I CAN and knowing I SHOULD have begun to merge. 

They are stronger than the fear. 

There is this security when you choose to trust God completely and when you know it's time. 

Life on this planet by nature is fear-inducing. Watching my grandson struggle during thunderstorms or my granddaughter be devastated by the mean girls are precursors to what they will one day endure. 

My daughters are under demands of this world that battle with the emotions of "christian" living, because they got scared of what that meant when the world went deaf and dumb a few years ago. And everyone was scared when fights broke out. Steam was coming from the ears of the dragon while he breathed fire on the entire world. And one daughter sat in wait battling for someone to protect. 

Its so important to sit in the midst of what we are going through and ask if we really believe we are going to be okay. 

I've had to do that lately. Just sit in the midst of it. My "job", my declining health, watching 59 inch toward 60, and hold my heart out because it is so broken. It needs Jesus glue. 

Jesus glue = gratitude. Sit in your pain. Be afraid. And then let the healing wash over you. 

Jesus asked one of his followers if he wanted to be well. It goes beyond the sinking feeling and the crying out for help. We have to want to be well. 

I'm praying for well. I'm experiencing grace. And I'm so grateful. 

For you. 

Love you. 

©CherieElainePhotography2023