His Lovingkindness in the Morning

A few days ago Jonathan got this beautiful snap of a sunrise from our back yard,

with the boys' flags flying from their "fort!"

And a verse spoke to me around that same morning,

"Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning, for in You do I trust;

Cause me to know the way in which I should walk,

For I lift up my soul to You." --Psalm 143:8

I prayed that morning for a specific sort of answer to a specific sort of prayer,

and the answer God gave was, "No."

At least for that morning.

But that didn't mean He wasn't lovingkind.

His answer, and His will was kind, even if it was different than what I wanted.

And each morning since, in a fresh way,

I've been watching for His lovingkindness, and listening for it.

You find it if you watch for it and listen for it,

just as the children looked and listened for many things on a scavenger hunt on our home school field trip in Red Rocks Open Space Friday morning.

How eagerly they helped each other find and cross off the things on their lists of items in nature--

the younger ones with a simpler list,

and the older ones with a slew of interesting items to look for.

And I was doing the same thing these mornings lately--watching for items to cross off my list of lovingkindnesses,

though my items were noticed first and then checked off--

"another lovingkindness of the Lord!"

Let's check our list and cross them off:

home school friends--*

warm, sunny day in beautiful scenery,

"no charge" for the morning's doctor visit [what a kindness!]

and so on.  

Yesterday morning the Lord met with the students at Penn View and our daughter sent 

one of the most excited letters she's ever written us, which I posted yesterday with her permission.

It was another "lovingkindness in the morning" that cheered and comforted these parents

whose biggest joy is seeing our children walk in truth

and that they love, welcome, and cherish the presence of the Lord.

And then this morning there was another lovingkindness.

It started with severe weakness--I could not find the strength to begin the day and instead found myself in my chair in my room, reading my Bible.

Almost every verse was jumping out at me in the first part of the chapter in John where I was,

and I copied down verses and notes.

And then my dear husband came in and asked if I'd like to pray together.

Would I!

I shared with him the Scriptures God had spoken to me,

and He said he had some verses, too, from his reading.

Such lovingkindnesses!

And then he told me that he had downloaded seventeen prayers for his sweetheart

from PrayerMate, an app on his phone,

and he pulled up the first one.

We have been loving this prayer app.

Maybe you are really great at coming up with fresh, meaningful, exciting and nurturing prayers,

but Jonathan and I both have trouble coming up with something besides,

"Bless this person and help that one," and yes, we do come up with something specific sometimes, but really, in our weaknesses and wearinesses and humanity, our prayers have needed help lately!

(Maybe we aren't spiritual enough!)

 But God blessed us with finding this PrayerMate app which has been adding a tremendous dimension to our prayer life. 

We pray more deeply, meaningfully and specifically in five or ten minutes than we've prayed in the last two weeks, and 

sorry for being so terribly honest!

This morning I can't remember much of the prayer that Jonathan prayed for his sweetheart.

I do remember that he wrapped his arms around me and one of the first prayers was that his sweetheart would find God to be a refuge for her,

and the rest was praying God's promises from His Word.

His kind, deep, gentle voice coupled with the prayers from God's Word,

and his arms, and God's arms did more than I could ever have done myself. 

I went from so weak I could hardly move

to sensing a strength having flowed into my spirit and being,

under the power of which I worked all morning long. 

And inspiration after inspiration for my blog as I would slip back into the office from time to time to upload photos for future blog posts,

in between doing dishes and washing my hair and sweeping and mopping and planning meals and making apple salad and keeping younger ones busy while Jonathan and the older children installed backsplash on the new kitchen counter,

touched up paint, drained the swamp cooler on the roof, and installed weatherstripping.

"Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness, O Lord, in the morning,

and cause me to know the way in which I should walk,

for I lift up my soul unto You."