It is good to give praise to God! Often we forget to share the wonderful things that God is doing. Today, I want to share with you what God has been doing. This year started out with a broken laptop Lappie, as I call him. I ended up needing to replace him. I am sorry Lappie. Praise God for giving me Zippy in his place and for the ability to set it up myself. I have had to do this a lot now that my nerdy children are out of the house. On the heels of my laptop breaking, I broke out with hives. This was an allergic reaction to shampoo, near as I can figure. My eyes swelled shut and itched like crazy. I looked like a chipmunk. Only by a trip to the doctor and a very strong allergy medicine corrected the problem. Anyone who knows me knows that I only go to the doctor when I absolutely have to go; which is a rare occasion. I go to God first, then to a doctor. I am praising God that he gives doctors wisdom of the human body so they can help us. Just as I was getting better from the allergic reaction, our hot water heater broke. Normally, this would irritate me but, in truth, the water heater was approximately 20 years old. We got our money out of it. The only thing I was not pleased about was the thought of buying another hot water heater. That did not excite me at all. Yet even in this God was with us and our plumber discovered that gas was backing up which could have been ad if we had managed to get it lit. He also helped us find a hot water heater that we could afford. It was not tank-less, that is what I wanted but it does the job. Thank you God, that you gave us hot water. There was a time when a purchase this size would have been devastating but Thanks to God, it was not as bad as it could have been. We got that fixed the day before my daughter and son-in-law was to come for a visit. This brings me to the next thing for which I can praise God. This year has been awful for snow and cold. I asked God for a sunny 45-degree day for my trip to the airport. I wanted to ask for 65 but I thought that might be pushing it. I knew it might be a stretch but I figured I could ask God anyway. Unbelievably, God answered that prayer with a yes. It was lovely driving weather. The drive back to the airport a week later was snowy and 18 degrees. No, God did not give me sunny and 45 for the return trip, what he did give me were guidance and courage in my fear. I hate winter driving. Yea, I live in the Snow Belt, so I spend half of the year on my knees crying out to God about the weather. As I was driving, there were many accidents; yet, I was protected from all of them. God reminded me that though "A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you." He was with me the whole way to the airport and back. Praise God for his reminder that he shelters me from the storm. Around the same time, our sink in the bathroom developed a leak. I decided to try to fix it myself rather than pay for a plumber. Praise God even though I had no clue what I was doing God gave me wisdom and the faucet was replaced quite easily. This was yet another reason to praise God! While my daughter was home, we discovered a crack in the windshield. Did I forget to mention that we also needed to have the car inspected this month? I made a call to the insurance company and found that because we had full coverage it would cost considerably less than what it would cost if we had to pay it all our-self. Again, God provided the money that we needed so that rather than sending us into a downward spiral we were able to weather it and come out on the other side without too much difficulty. Finally, we got our car inspected at the last minute and it needed nothing. Yes, I said nothing. For us, that never happens. Praise God! What I have learned from all this, is that God is with me and He is caring for me even in the midst of the trials.
Praise the Lord for all the good
mingled and intertwined with the bad.
Praise the Lord for your presence
even in the storm
Praise the Lord for
going before me and fighting for me.
Praise the Lord with my whole heart.
