“There are flowers for those who want to see them,” Henri Matisse. I love looking for flowers and I usually find one, even in the dead of winter. We all have so many flowers in our lives but we don’t have or take the time to see them. God has given us all special gifts, talents that bloom when we acknowledge them. Flowers are also reminders of God’s presence in our lives. Being grateful and thankful helps us find these flowers in our lives. This wondrous day the Lord has made is blooming like a flower as it comes awake.

The morning is beautiful in its subduedness. Father Sky has sketched a light blue sky and decorated the sky canvas with soft clouds muted in pale tinted shades of gray and purple. It’s 78 degrees and the lightest of rain sprinkles is polka dotting the brick red tile of the porch. The birds are quietly visiting the feeders and singing softly. The earth is in sync with God and praying for peace on this quiet morning.

I worked this afternoon on putting screen in a large frame for the glass door leading to my deck off the kitchen. The frame has leaned against the house for years. Chief and I would put screen in it and just let it lean on the open door. We never could get it back on the track. Can’t let it lean now with Balthazar, my resident king snake, and all my possum and raccoon friends visiting so I was determined to fix it correctly this time.

I brought the frame in the living room and rolled the screen in with sweat blurring my vision. Must have been 100 degrees in the living room. Got the screen in and called my son to help me carry it to the deck but as usual we could not get it back on the track. We gave up and I came in and watched a Utube video that made it look so easy to install the door. That screen door had wheels, mine doesn’t so you think that would be easier.

Well, tried by myself and could not get it to work so I gave up and propped the screen door back again the house. Now I can’t get the heavy glass door to shut. And I’m flustered, angry, and I’ve sweated out my clothes and…I’m locked on the deck now! Finally got in and when I struggled to close the heavy glass door the screen door fell over, hit a chair, and the screen popped out! Now I’m crying and heading to perch on the porch swing. I gave up when I should have asked for help.

We need to give our troubles to God when we need help. God is always willing to help us whether we have a cloudy day in our lives or a thunderstorm of crisis. He wants us to ask for his help. He promises to give us his assistance but we have to listen and respond to the answer he gives us. Sometimes God is silent and our prayerful requests might be denied. We have to pray for the grace to accept God’s answer. God has a plan for our lives and with patience we’ll see his faithfulness working in our lives.

“Prayer should be the key of the day and the lock of the night.” — George Herbert

John 16:24 reads, “You have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy will be the fullest possible joy.” Some of us struggle to ask for help. I know I do. We shouldn’t wait till we’re desperate to ask for help. The longer we wait the darker the storm clouds gather. We should ask for God’s guidance when making decisions. When we pray sincerely with faith in our hearts God listens and take our burdens away and grants our requests. He never grows weary of listening to our prayers. In Matthew, chapter seven, we read “ask and it will be given, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened.”

Prayer helps us put our trust in God. Biblical scripture says God will always hear our prayers and will answer them if we’re praying with faithfulness and a thankful heart. God speaks to me through my prayers, my dreams, through my thoughts and feelings, and specially through nature. We become closer to God when we communicate with him through our prayers. We know he hears us when we’re comforted with a feeling of peace and calm.

Praying isn’t hard, it’s just a conversation with God.

“God shapes the world by prayer. The more praying there is in the world the better the world will be, the mightier the forces against evil.” — E.M. Bounds