Corona Devo 3296



I've been stopping to smell the roses lately...and this is the gift of God.

I haven't actually been stooping to smell real flowers, but instead I have been stopping long enough to enjoy and embrace the living-blooms within my life: family and friends.

...a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing...  ~Ecclesiastes 3:5

Let's embrace with our amigos today.

~~~

I spent more than six hours on a recent Saturday cutting, coring, cooking, and canning tomatoes with my mother-in-law, and we both had the best time, because as we poured over the tomatoes, we were actually pouring into each other. 

That each of them may... find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.  ~Ecclesiastes 3:13

~~~

It is birthday season on both sides of our family, and as invitations populate to celebrate those that we love, I accept.  Not in obligatory response, but in awareness of the gift that family and friends (and time with them) truly is.  
(It is.)

One gathering was homemade: from the outstanding meatballs and heirloom sauce to eggplant parmigiana.  
And another party was hosted at a restaurant with exquisite food that tasted even better because none of us had to make it that night, and we were just enjoying each other!  

It doesn't matter if a gathering is catered or made-from-scratch...it's not the food that qualifies...it is the joy and contentment and blessing of sharing in the food together.  

Stop and smell the roses today, and let's be intentional about enjoying the blooms in our lives.

I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. (13) That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.  ~Ecclesiastes 3:12-13

~~~ 

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens (Ecclesiastes 3:1), and there are/ and have-been/ and will-be times of hardship and sorrow and strain.

But what if today we stopped to smell the roses anyway?

What if today we acknowledged the roses that the good Lord has planted and harvested in our lives?  This could (and should) lead to praising God for the blooms in our bio's, and it could lead to gratitude in spending God-given time with some of the roses in our lives (while they still bloom!).

Stopping to smell the roses doesn't mean the deadline won't come, but stopping to smell the roses today means that we are going to whistle while we work on the way to what's due.

This world holds woes...and we have each experienced that on an intimate level at one time or another.  But this God we serve holds contentment and joy for those who embrace both.  

We have a choice every day: will we bluster-by the roses, or stop-to-smell them?

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
(2) a time to be born and a time to die, 
a time to plant and a time to uproot, 
(3) a time to kill and a time to heal, 
a time to tear down and a time to build, 
(4) a time to weep and a time to laugh, 
a time to mourn and a time to dance, 
(5) a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, 
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, 
(6) a time to search and a time to give up, 
a time to keep and a time to throw away, 
(7) a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,  
(8) a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.  ~Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

~~~

There are a million busy/painful/depressing/diagnosis/fearful/well-intentioned excuses for us to let another day slip by without sucking-the-marrow from it.  But let's not do that...again.

Let's stop and smell the roses today.  There is nothing better...

What do workers gain from their toil?
10) I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 
(11) He has made everything beautiful in its time. 
He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 
(12) I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 
(13) That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.  ~Ecclesiastes 3:1-13
                                     
                                                    

Blessings,

sarah 

https://sarahsundy04.blogspot.com

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