Thursday January 14 2016  THINGS YOU CAN THANK GOD FOR

There are so many things to thank God for that I don’t think I shall ever run out of new things of which to give thanks.  My thank you journal has been an active place these past few days when I resurrected it from my ever-growing pile of books that surround my special chair in my downstairs library.  I differentiate the downstairs library from the “upstairs” library.  Actually we don’t have an upstairs library, per say, but as I sit here and look at my rickety little table desk, I spy way too many books that don’t have a home.  Piles here, piles there,…uh oh!  I feel a poem coming.

 

PILES HERE, PILES THERE

By Kathleen Martens

January 14 2016

 

Piles here, piles there,

Piles stacked everywhere.

On the floor are even more,

Everywhere, books galore.

 

On dressers, on living room shelves,

So I can go help myself.

In baskets and on the chairs.

Every place EXCEPT the stairs.

 

Books in closets, cupboards too,

And my desk has a few.

Neatly piled in a stack,

Books of God I do not lack.

 

Even on my chase lounge,

For books I do not scrounge.

Under my elbow there is one

Started, but not yet done.

 

By my bed behind closed doors,

Open them up, and there are more

End tables hold their share,

Wherever you look, books are there.

 

In the hall’s decorative case

More books have a place

And there are places left untold

Of little niches that can hold

 

More books dear to my heart

All of which I cannot part.

I dare not tell you all the places

Where my books take up spaces.

 

Many are read, most are not.

But there is always one more spot.

I must live to be quite old

Before these books can be sold.

 

To read every one is my desire

That my soul will be inspired.

I hope to read every word

Before my call to heaven is heard.

 

(Well, there you go, that is how a poem is born.  Thankfully, there is very little labor involved.  I feel it coming and I just give it one push and out it comes!)  And each one is given their own name!

And I even forgot to mention all the books in my library.  That is why we are creating a library where my studio was.  But first I must finish getting everything sorted and out of their storage places in the prop room.  Everything is just waiting to be labeled and priced.  Hopefully we will have the sale this spring or summer and the rooms will be empty. 

Well, this wasn’t what I planned to write about today, but it came out of me, so that must be where my thoughts were.  I actually thought about writing about our highway system in the United States.  But now I will save that for another day.  There are a couple of facts I would still like to search out. 

As I began the first paragraph above I was talking about my Thank You Journal.  Let me get back to that for just one moment.  When I sat down to do my quiet time today with God I happened to turn to the back of the book of Psalm.  Some of my favorite chapters in Psalm are the last dozen or so chapters of the book.  There are so many words of praise to God in them.  As I read Psalm 145, what jumped out at me, were all the THANK YOU’S I could give to God.  So, I again retrieved my journal and started writing line after line of thanks for all that was in the scriptures.  Let me show you an example:

Psalm 145:1 reads “I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise Your name for ever and ever.”

This is how I would write it in my journal, “Thank You God that I can exalt you.”  “Thank you, O King, that I can praise Your name for ever and ever.”

So that is what I did.  I just read each scripture and then wrote it in my journal in the form of a Thank You.  It is awesome when you later re-read your journal and come across all the beautiful scriptures turned into Thank You Notes to the Lord.

About now you may think I don’t have anything better to do with my time than to sit down and “play” with scriptures and a journal of thanks.  Well, actually I have too much to do, but I think it is more important to me, to just enjoy the Lord’s presence every day because I know that God desires my undivided attention.  I’m sure He would delight in your undivided attention as well.  Try it, you might like it!  Even though it is God who enjoys intimacy with each of us, it is we who really benefit.  It is the time when my faith is strengthened, when I hear what God is impressing upon on my heart, and the time I receive power and strength from His presence.  And for me, it is being obedient to what I believe He is asking me to do. 

Short blog, but I am sending it with lots of love.

Have a great evening.  It isn’t dark yet. 

Signing off at 4:32 p.m.  The days are lengthening!