Tuesday, June 21, 2011

The First Day Of Summer

At last!  It’s finally here!  The first day of summer!  At least it’s here ‘officially’.  Unofficially, I always consider summer to arrive with the weekend of Memorial Day.  The reality is that summer doesn’t really start here in the Flathead Valley until sometime after the 4th of July.  This is when the weather finally begins to get nice.  And sunny.  And warm!

Unfortunately, the beginning of summer also brings with it a little sadness as well.  After today, the amount of daylight will begin to diminish a little each day.  At first it will be almost imperceptible - a minute here and a minute there.  Gradually it will get to the point where we will lose 3 to 4 minutes of daylight each day.  So, we will go from having 16+ hours of daylight to barely 8 by the time Christmas arrives.  Is that depressing or what?

This is life.  Good and bad often come packaged together.  The glass is both half-full and half-empty at the same time.  It all boils down to perspective.  We can be thankful for what we have or complain about what we don’t have.  The choice is up to us.  Obviously God wants us to be thankful, grateful people.  This is why we are told in Psalm 118:24, “This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”  While not denying the reality of the negative, we need to locate and celebrate the positive.  As Christians, we really ought to be the most positive, upbeat, happy people on the face of the planet.

So, I am going to enjoy summer.  And fall.  And winter.  I am going to enjoy it when it’s light out until 10:30 PM or 5 PM.  God is good and He’s good ALL the time!

Lord, thank you for life, for ups and downs, for twists and turns.  Thank you that no matter how bad things might be around me or in my life, there is always a lot of good as well.  Help me to focus on the positive, to celebrate & embrace it.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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