New Bowl...

The bowl is a gift from one of my daughters, last week, and then she created the cute arrangement of flowers and vegetables and herbs from our garden.

To me, sunflowers will always speak to me of my girls. In the language of flowers, the sunflower means "I am so proud of you..." . The sunflowers we plant each year always bloom right around their birthday, which is the end of July.

(Sunflowers remind me of my boys, too, but don't tell them that. They would not appreciate it just yet. Too feminine.)

When I get still enough to listen, I hear the Lord singing over my children. My boys, particularly, are a spectacular spectacle of a "work in progress". A work in progress will deeply challenge your patience and optimism, every time. So? So, how in the world can I be patient and optimistic....and even proud of this startlingly, decidedly unfinished construction site? I don't depend on my own resources of patience and faith, wisdom or strength, that's how. When I run out of every bit of all of it, Someone else takes over, who has unlimited supply. Suddenly, when I am weak, He gets to reveal how strong He is.

God will complete the good work He began, even if that means He uses time consuming methods, even if that means He must first wound, and then heal.

A happy father whistles while he works. A supremely mighty, completely confident, and utterly joyful father sings while he works. Since God sings over my children, so do I. All I am doing is joining with Him in what He is already singing...I didn't start the song, He did. Joining Him in what He is doing is the right thing to do. Sing and work. Work and sing. Keep working. Keep singing.

Whether girls, boys, oldest to youngest, in the good times and the bad, promising seasons, and dark days, I hope you find me tightly grasping my sunflowers, seeing the obvious reasons to be proud, and finding a few reasons to be proud when reasons are hard to find...

...and singing. Because we all need to be delighted in.