March 8, 2010 - Psalms 92:1-4 "Morning"

"It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;
to declare Your steadfast love in the morning,
and Your faithfulness by night,
to the music of the lute and the harp,
to the melody of the lyre.
For You, O Lord, have me glad by your work,
at the works of Your hands I sing for joy."

I love mornings. I didn't use to be a morning person; I would far rather have slept in than get up. But now, mornings are special. It's a new day, without too many mistakes in it yet. It's quiet and peaceful. Even on days where I know I'm going to be busy, I have a few minutes to sit and drink my coffee and open my Bible and see what God has to say to me today.

When the weather gets nicer (still too cold for me!), I like to sit out on the front porch and listen to the birds waking up. There are ducks and geese on the pond and when they fly over in formation their wings make a sound like the whirring of angel wings. Across the field the farmer has not yet cut down the weeds, but the weeds are waist-high and green and, if you ignore the fact that they're weeds, actually kind of pretty with their yellow flowers smiling at the sun.

I cherish these few moments of quiet, of peace. It's the one time of day when I don't have to think about pleasing anyone but God. God knows every single challenge in my life, and in the mornings it seems I can just leave those challenges at His feet. Later in the day, for some reason, my head gets to working overtime and I take those challenges back and sling them across my shoulder and try to carry them myself. They're heavy. But every morning, God is right there again, in the silence, in the quiet, in the peace, and He says to me, "Here, child, let Me carry those for you, ok?" Thank You, Lord, for mornings.