Today was so pretty, got hot late afternoon. I enjoyed the porch all day, doing nothing but sitting in the swing watching the world go by in my yard, pondering on things I read or thought about. Found some beautiful tiny teeny wildflowers I‘ve never noticed before on my first morning walk with Penelope and Kat. I saw big bumble bees, wasps, and dragon flies dancing around. My daddy told me when I was young if you saw a dragon fly there was a snake somewhere close by. He called dragon flies “snake doctors.” I hope my big fat king snake Balthazar hasn’t come around to sun bathe. Took me weeks to get used to seeing him last year.

The birds were so in love with this beautiful waking spring day they sang boisterously all day, flitting around the yard and the bird feeders, composing symphonies for the coming spring. A long slender oak tree branch was a perch for six species of birds, so pretty in their colorful plumage contrasting with the dark cerulean blue sky. I imagined the scene as a masterful watercolor painting hanging on a beautiful wallpapered dining room wall. I’m never able to capture these wondrous scenes with my camera. I’m so enthralled I forget to capture the scene before it’s disturbed. Going to try harder.

The sky was such a beautiful dark blue to backdrop all the bloomed out Bradford pear trees. As I looked down the street, the trees with their little round white puffs of blossoms were a lovely picture. Once the blooms start falling I’ll have a snowfall of petals float my way. When I walked Penelope at dusk the moon was so luminously handsome, hanging full and fat, waking early before his star friends came out to twinkle. I introduced myself to Mr. Full Moon looking through the branches of the pale pink blooms of a little crabapple tree next door. I love the world awakening at springtime.

While I sat in the swing today, I was pondering on this sentence — “We all sacrifice for the people we love.” I heard this on Gunsmoke a few days ago. That’s a powerful statement. Can’t help but think about all the sacrifices we all made during Covid. Our families’ lives were turned upside down and we coped with it as best we could. I don’t think we sacrifice for the people we love. We need to change the word sacrifice to “give selflessly.” We all give selflessly for the people we love. “Love is not self-seeking,” 1 Corinthians 13:5.

I think if you love with a true heart you are more concerned with the needs and wishes of those you love than with your own. True love is total acceptance of the ones you love. You don’t try to mold them or change them, you love them for themselves, just the way they are. And sometimes that’s hard and tiring. Romans 15:7 reads, “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.” Every one of us deserves love and respect. Ephesians 4:32 reads, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

We are God’s chosen people and he placed us on this earth to love and be loved, living a joyful life following his commandments, living a life to glorify him, living a life that brings others into his kingdom through our love. Even as he accepts us as we are, God wants us to grow spiritually and become more like him. We are the Lord’s children, “holy and dearly loved,” as the scripture tell us. In Colossians 3:12-14 we read, “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

God truly accepts us, warts and all. He loves us unconditionally. He forgives us of our sins. He is kind and understanding and doesn’t turn away when we doubt our faith or doubt his understanding of our prayer requests. He’s steadfast and unwavering, his strength holds us up when our knees tremble. God is good!

“Only those who have learned the power of sincere and selfless contribution experience life’s deepest joy: true fulfillment.” — Tony Robbins