Fresh

I am thankful:

~for fresh, crisp fall weather. It’s my favorite favorite just slip outside in the quiet of the morning and enjoy a steaming cup of coffee and Jesus. And I’m loving temps cool enough for long sleeves!

~for a trip to the plant farm, with the very best helper.

~ for a great lunch with a good friend, and the best queso in town.

~for the perfect crunch of a crisp and juicy orchard-fresh pink lady apple. The taste of fall.

~for a tasty and beautiful charcuterie board. As fun to make as it is to eat! And for a wonderful Gold Network ETX board meeting full of fresh ideas for the upcoming year!

~for a festive fall front porch. Complete with GOLD PUMPKINS!

~for informal neighborhood art class. I love that all my kids love creating in their own way.

~for buttery maple-glazed roasted carrots.

~for the most magnificent sky.

I noticed as I was collecting my thoughts this week that the same word kept cropping up over and over. Fresh. Fresh laundry. Fresh paint. Fresh produce. Fresh coffee. Fresh ideas. Fresh perspective.

We love things to be fresh. But the whole point and the very definition of freshness is that it doesn’t stay that way. After minutes or hours or days, it isn’t fresh anymore.

What about me? Am I fresh? Am I full of new life and new vision? Am I so intimately connected to my Savior that He is making me new every day? Am I allowing myself to be RE-freshed? Am I being filled that I may fill others? In our women’s Bible study book, we were encouraged in our reading this week to “stir up one another to good works.” What are you stirring up fresh in your heart and in the lives of others?

I don’t always tap into it. I certainly don’t always feel this way. I get still, lazy. Tired, dull. But I’m thankful for moments like this when I am so acutely aware of God‘s mercies that are truly new every morning. Aware that He really is always with me, ready for me to take the next step with Him. Ready for me to breathe Him in deeply and be changed. Fresh eyes to see His goodness and His miracles literally everywhere. Fresh ears to hear Him speaking.

Thank You Father, for Your faithful refining and refreshing. May I resist the temptation to stop moving in Your direction, or stop growing. Give me faith like a child that allows me to see Your beauty and goodness, and to be continually filled to overflowing with JOY! Thank You Jesus, that in You, there’s always MORE!

And thank you friends, for giving thanks with me.

“ …whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.” (Proverbs 11:25)

“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:19)

“And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”” (Revelation 21:5)

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:24-25)