Been doing a rain dance all day hoping the rain showers would fall my way. Finally after supper a cooling shower began. I sat in the porch swing and listened to the gentle steady rainfall patting the big squash leaves, pinging the metal porch furniture like a soft cymbal. The songbirds were softly chirping and the yard symphony sounded like a symphony orchestra playing a beautiful lullaby. Bird songs are so clear at night, hauntingly beautiful with their individual notes.

Rain is such a gift from the Lord. We read in Isaiah 55:10, “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish…” It’s amazing to see the growth of vegetables and flowers the day after a good rain. They literally grow during the night and when the day wakes they stand tall in the sun’s warmth. “God’s grace is like rain. It always comes down to cleanse and refresh the world,”www.haventoday.com.

I sat on the porch as twilight walked down the street, escorting the darkness with it. The day’s light is dimming and my yard is full of cardinals. They love the rain. Fatty and three of his squirrel friends are scampering around in the pine straw under the bird feeder poles. A huge blue jay came for a sip of water and stayed perched on the bird bath’s edge watching all the cardinals. When I stood up to walk in the house I saw a fat little eastern phoebe sitting on the cucumber trellis.

Eastern phoebe’s are sometimes called plain birds but I think they are beautiful with their off-white and gray brown plumage. They are round and plump and their little heads look flat on top because they keep their feathers down. When they perch they move their tail feathers up and down like they’re pumping themselves up to fly away. They’re flycatchers and have a short thin bill for catching insects. Hope he ate lots of mosquitoes and feasted on the pesky flies before he left. Never seen a phoebe that wasn’t plump. They have to eat lots of bugs to keep their girlish figures. Had to do a little research about the phoebes and a single phoebe eats 700 to 800 insects each day, one-third of their body weigh in bugs. Bless their little hearts. Wonder if they ever get heartburn.

John Donne wrote, “Yesternight the sun went hence, and yet is here today.” One thing is for certain, the sun will shine on us each day and today she put roses in my cheeks, I got so hot working in my garden. I look forward to the sunset every day and sit on the porch anticipating the beauty. “When your life is moving too fast and you find yourself in chaos, introduce yourself to each color of the sunset,” Christy Ann Martina. The sun set tonight behind a cloud cover of vanilla cream and blue shades of Mother Nature’s watercolors. She brushstroked grays and blues across the rain clouds gathered around to watch the sun set and the sun rolled down the horizon as a bright silver ball.

I enjoy searching for prayers and ran across one today on friendship. Praying for our friends — “Dear God, we ask that you bless our friends and fill them with your love, grace and peace. May they be guided by your wisdom and truth, and may they know your presence in their lives every day. Help them to be strong in times of difficulty, and to find joy and hope in the midst of life’s challenges. We pray that you would bless their relationships, their work and their families, and that you would guide them towards their God-given purpose. Surround them with loving and supportive friends, and bring people into their lives who will encourage and inspire them. We ask these blessings for our friends in the name of Jesus, and we give you thanks for the precious gift of friendship. Amen.” — Collective Blessings

When we pray we are communicating with God, praising him, confessing our sins, thanking him for our blessings, and asking him to take our worries off our shoulders. Daily prayers can bring so much peace to our lives when we open up our hearts to God. Prayers are powerful! I’ve seen them work miracles in my family when illness struck my grandson and my nephew.

When we put our thoughts on God and pray faithfully, God will always hear our prayers and will answer them. Sometimes we pray prayers of thanksgiving. Sometimes we pray for help with life’s dark times. Sometimes the answers are not what we want to hear but with patience and a open heart we’ll get a feeling of peace and calm when we realize God knows the path we need to walk and will steer us in the right direction. God is always just a prayer away.

Iyanna Vanzant writes, “In my deepest, darkest moments, what really got me through was a prayer. Sometimes my prayer was ‘Help me.’ Sometimes a prayer was ‘Thank you.’ What I’ve discovered is that intimate connection and communication with my creator will always get me through because I know my support, my help, is just a prayer away.”

“Prayer projects faith on God, and God on the world. Only God can move mountains, but faith and prayer moves God.” — E.M. Bounds