Rainy Day Ramblings

How beautiful is the rain! After the dust and heat,
In the broad and fiery street,
In the narrow lane,
How beautiful is the rain!

How it clatters along the roofs,
Like the tramp of hoofs
How it gushes and struggles out
From the throat of the overflowing spout!

Across the window-pane
It pours and pours;
And swift and wide,
With a muddy tide,
Like a river down the gutter roars
The rain, the welcome rain!

-H W Longfellow

Fall is almost here. That excites me. I love fall. I love crunchy leaves and cold misty mornings. I love brisk air that tastes like bonfires and leather and apple cider. I love cozy sweaters and hats and soft gloves. I love the cold cheeks and fingers when you pick up a baby that's been playing their carefree little hearts out in the deliciously pure world. I love the sound of geese and the cold wind that takes your breath away. I love the rich colors that the trees put on, the gourds and pumpkins and dried corn that people decorate the entire world with, the hay bales that smell like a carefully preserved memory of summer. I love the way that families pack together for dinners and parties and friends stand in tightly packed groups to catch each others' warmth. I love sweet potatoes and caramel popcorn and peanut brittle and apple pie.

What I DON'T love is the garish orange and black that's invading the grocery stores, the playfulness that people put into death and demonism, the ugly, aching, empty cultures that they exalt and fill their children's hearts and minds with, glorifying and justifying a world where there is no light, no joy, no Jesus... and we wonder why child suicide rates are so high, why 11 and 12 year old girls are seeking their fulfillment in relationships that leave them broken and confused with either the guilt of an abortion forever weighing on their hearts or a child that they've given away because people convince them that they aren't mature enough to love... It's because "the human spirit fails except where the Holy Spirit fills," as Corrie ten Boom once said. When we sap the light and freedom of Christ out of their lives and replace Him with the "thrills" of darkness, then how can we expect anything else? We hand them things that we consider gifts, like friends, social experience, education, "stability", when what we're actually giving to them is a whole world of burden and knowledge that God did not create their tender hearts to carry.

*steps down from soap box*

So there. I've had my rant for the day. Now I can get back to work. There's plenty to do today, but the rain has been lullabying my sense of duty into silence and my sense of veg is in control.

Final note(s), an AWESOME Andrew Murray quote defining "humility."

“Humility is to expect nothing, to wonder at nothing done to us, to feel nothing against us. It is to be at rest when nobody praises us and when we are blamed and despised. It is to have a blessed home in the Lord where we can go in and shut the door and kneel to our Father in secret, and be at peace when all around is trouble.” - Andrew Murray

AND, A picture from my wedding that I've photoshopped with the idea of blowing it up and framing it in brown and gold and hanging it over our bed:

Thanks so much for reading! God bless you, my dear readers.

-Joanna Renae

Like a river flows surely to the sea
Darling so it goes
Some things are meant to be
Take my hand, take my whole life too
For I cant help falling in love with you