photo credit- Karla Dornacher- Karla’s Corner

[Tweet “The #beauty of the #Lord fills our #heart with great #gladness.”]

I’m taking a break from ugly and upsetting today.

Today I fight for beauty full.

I’m going to selectively determine what my eyes see, my ears will hear, my heart will feel.

I will not miss the fullness of beauty is all around me.

The Creator awakens me with a symphony of chirrups and song.

In the morning shadows, I reach out and caress my husband’s hand.  Thirty-five years of beauty full kiss my heart.

I get up, ignoring my aches and pains.   Instead, I feast my eyes sunrise paints colors of pink, magenta, and purples across the sky.

I savor the simple pleasures of Black Silk coffee in the peaceful stillness of morning.

I sit on our sun porch, exulting there are flower on my apple tree, the grass and trees are greener and fuller than the day before, a bunny and squirrels scamper in our back yard.

I open God’s Word and seek His treasure and abundance for my day.

My day is getting beauty full!

I get dressed and look in the mirror. Just for today I ignore my weight, my wrinkles, my gray roots and the dark circles under my eyes.

I say, “Cindy, God is crazy in love with you! He made you His daughter!”  I smile.

I ditch the treadmill and put on my shoes.  As I walk outside, creation colors my world.

Worry starts to niggle at my brain.

I squash it.  No ugly today.  No fear.  No tyranny of the urgent.

I  lift my hands with every imaginable problem and worry I can think of- and throw it up in the air.

“Here, Lord.  Can you handle all these things today?  I’m making a beauty full day and these things don’t belong in my mind and heart!”

[Tweet “Take a day off from upsetting and ugly- fight for #beauty #full  #GodsLove”]

I take a deep breath and begin again. I bask in being His child.  I have a Father who will never let me go!

I’m tempted to figure out things: Instead,  I pray- not just “God bless so and so” but for each and every one in my family, by name.   Peace comes that He has heard.

I’m tempted to fill my emptiness with activity, with doing.  But I quiet myself and I listen for His voice, tune into His presence, and rest in green pastures.

My day is getting beauty fuller.

I don’t run or hurry- but dance through my day as a child; singing, laughing, seeing, sharing God’s bounty with all I meet.

I don’t make to do lists, watch the news or read the headlines today.

Just for today, I’m not on a crusade against the evils of this world.

I let myself be swept away by the romance of God’s unfailing love- for insignificant me!

I realize my life is beauty full.

I rest in the knowledge that God is in control and worrying and obsessing about everything will only mar the gift of beauty He’s gifting me today.

The sun begins to set- I breathe deeply and contemplate the wonders of a beauty full day.

Photo credit- Moriah Barclay Miller

I know tomorrow may be ugly full or worry full, or stress full, but today was beauty full.

The end of the world may come tomorrow, but when the Lord of Heaven is our Rock and delight- our help in times of trouble?  how can life be anything but Beauty Full?

I’m going to practice making more days like this one.

Surprising Treasure:  This is the day the Lord has made- I will rejoice and be glad in it!

[Tweet “This is the #day the #Lord has made- I will #rejoice and be glad in Him.”]