Sometimes, all we need is a little sunshine beating down on us to be secure in remembering the warmth of God’s Abundant Love is surrounding us, daily. 

”O Come to The Altar,” by: Elevation Worship and feel the warmth of Jesus’ love, even on days the sun isn’t shining! 

Take a moment to remember, honor, and BE great-full, (not grate-ful,) for those who bring a little added “splash of color” to your life, today, and always. 

For me the greatest influence is ”The God I Know, ” whose love permits me the freedom to embrace all of my quirky and crazy... broke my doubt and gives us all unconditional love about which Love and The Outcome sings, quite Beautifully! 

The smallest bush may not be the mightiest; but, it does not refuse to shine and shimmer with all it has within it to BE. 

Mercy Me sings about the ”Best News Ever.” 

For me, it's a message, “we are loved by God unconditionally, no matter the package in which we exist.” We are equally created in the image of God and are all God’s children. 

We all blossom uniquely, as God meant it to BE! 

Seasons come and seasons go.  The leaves and flowers may change; but, the trunks of perennials remain. 

As humans, we were made in God’s image to withstand many seasons of challenge and change. 

Some of us weather few storms, while others endure many. 

Unlike trees and shrubs, we are not dependent on others to know if we are not receiving the nutrients we need and we aren’t necessarily dependent on others to help us relocate. 

When God gives us a nudge, it’s up to us to embrace our fears and move onto the path or location we’re being guided towards in order to not only have enough light; but, in BEing a Light or beneficial for those around us. 

There’s no better time to follow the suggestion of the Newsboys’ song... “Live With Abandon.” 

How will you take this unprecedented opportunity to strengthen and live, more into your faith? 

For me, it’s embracing “a call to serve” through the music God began bringing to me, as a child. I had always been too afraid to share it... until God brought me the support I have needed, in God’s infinitely perfect timing. 

How is calling you to step into your Divine Love and Service towards others?

Is it better to always keep things trimmed nice, tidy, short, and precisely... or is it better, sometimes, to permit a little bit of slacking, loosening or lessening of our need to control the perception of things being so tidy? 

We might find letting a little slack, provides a perfect bit of camouflage for an eyesore or two, while providing the perfect opportunity for other creatures to perhaps find a happy home, nestled in what we initially viewed as “such untidiness, or disarray.” 

Perhaps when we contemplate a song like “Healed,” by Nichole Nordeman... we can remember we have nothing to prove or fix. We have “sinned;” but, Christ died and we are forgiven. It’s time to embrace we are “healed,” whenever we are ready to accept and claim it. And, it is so. 

What can you let go of controlling, so tightly, today, it might help another to breathe a little freer, or into whom can you help breathe “new life?”

Just because a large portion of a bush or tree in nature, no longer serves or flourishes at its primary purpose, doesn’t mean it’s no longer valuable. It can serve to nourish so many other BEautiful life forms... if we continue to nourish the parts that remain strong. 

The same is true as we age or lose functioning, within our human bodies. We can choose to maintain and strengthen the things we can, adjusting to new norms... and embrace the opportunities to thrive in new, exciting ways... and/or return to simpler pleasures we’d since long forgotten we enjoyed, “once upon a time.” 

No matter where our lives go or how our bodies age, may we always remember God asks us to go “All In,” just like the lyrics Matthew West sings about in his inspiring song. 

Do you know someone who is struggling to find self-worth? 

Imagine how that life might change, if you took a few moments some morning, or afternoon, to chat over tea or coffee... in earnest conversation and you helped them rekindle a long forgotten passion that gave them new purpose. 

What if you do more than “imagine it,” and you embrace doing it! 

Who will you inspire, today? 

Sometimes, we are afraid to pull back the curtain and look at our past, perhaps because we’re afraid we’ll get stuck there. 

But, what if we need to go back to our deepest “Cut,” as Plumb so hauntingly sings, to experience or feel through something we stuffed or shoved aside, in order to more completely discern, identify, and more thoroughly process past trauma stored within ourselves, our body cells? For it is only when we begin to truly process everything held within us we can begin to see the lessons taught by those we’ve loved and lost. 

Then, we can let go of what was holding us back; and, “Be the things you loved about those who are gone.” And, it does not exclusively mean those who have passed. It can also refer to those who have qualities that profoundly touched or moved our soul in ways we never imagined... ways we are grateful to have experienced; and will never forget. 

Sometimes events happen within or beyond our control... floods, fires, storms, etc. that lead us to feel like limbs are torn from us, whether figuratively or literally, just as they are torn in nature. 

It’s up to us to let it be a catastrophic death; or, be like the tree stub shown here that had a few sprigs that decided they would persevere and not be afraid to stay to rebuild into a greater version... of what once had existed. Sometimes, things are sent our way to “knock us down,” in order to show us we can “not be afraid,” if we trust in our Divine faith... in God, ourselves, and one another. 

Tenth Avenue North sings about it and God beautifully in “I Have This Hope,” where the true measure of faith is knowing... “in the flood or the fire, you are with me and you won’t let go.” 

Peering inwardly, some would choose to focus on the dying or dead portions, perhaps viewing them as ugliness. 

What if, rather than viewing the dead or dying portions surrounding us or more importantly, within us, as ugliness we should try to just eliminate immediately... we realize how permitting them to decay away in their own space and time; but, with helpful, healthful, support along the way... we focus on the beauty in what will BEcome when the environment reaches full transformation? 

Kutless has a beautiful song, “What Faith Can Do,” sharing such a mindset change in seeing what is possible. Things may die or fall away; but, things and people can also rise again, more BEautifully❣️🙏🏼🙏🏼❣️ 

Even within individual plants, changes occur... some BEautiful, while other parts decay and fall away. In perennials, we have faith the changes occur to restore beauty to the plant for the following season... to bring beauty and nourishment to those around it. 

Plants have faith in the knowledge they will return, bigger and more BEautiful... each season. 

Kari Jobe sings about her faith in the song, “I Am Not Alone.” No matter what our personal or world situations are, we can have faith... we are never alone during our changing or growing seasons. Are we looking to others around us for strength, comfort, help, and peace... or relying on those gifts within us… given to us by God’s Grace, Love, and Faith in us... showing us, perhaps... it’s always been within us... IF we see ourselves... through God’s eyes? 

Perhaps it takes these isolated times for us to discover how much we have “put onto others,” versus reaching inward to use the gifts Creator had given us, long along, at our inception. God’s Wisdom & Vision, not ours. 

How many of us have looked up at a blue sky and watched clouds cascading amidst one another? Some are larger and more dense, while others... small, unassuming, and airy. 

Have you ever watched as larger clouds plow into, over, and through the smaller ones... after hoping they would not destroy the cute, little, BEautiful ones? Have you ever been disappointed; and wished you or Creator Source had intervened, allowing the “little one” to stay intact... just a little while longer? 

What if WE are the tools Creator sends to protect those people who are the human, “little clouds?” Will we stand up in Faith, Hope, and Love... for, behind, and with them in their hour of weakness... or will we let the stronger, more powerful ones overtake and destroy their essence? 

Perhaps WE are the army Lauren Daigle sings so BEautifully of in her song “Rescue,” that God has sent forth to protect the “little ones.” 

Sometimes plants we tend have prolific harvests, sometimes... not, or parts can become diseased or blighted... with only a few fruits or veggies able to be beneficial. 

It doesn’t necessarily matter how much work we pour into nurturing, supporting, and caring for a plant or a person... if they are unable to absorb the nutrients being provided, the nutrients may merely get washed away with the next storm. We can hope, pray, and do our due diligence; but, only the individual and God control the outcome. 

No matter how desperate we are for something or someone to thrive, rather than merely survive and exist... it is the plant or individual who needs to “Breathe” the air and nutrients and draw them inwardly... I know I am lost without them, something Rebecca St. James sings about in her song. 

Our vast life experiences can alter the way we see things. This tree for example, if you came under it while on a nature walk, would it give you the impression it wanted to scare you, or hug you... surrounding you with love? 

We can let things “tear us apart,” inside, or we can let them strengthen our resolve to not let them shatter us beyond repair; but, give us the fortitude to stand firmly in our Truth, Faith, and Love... as Martina McBride sings in “Concrete Angel.”