Good-bye Spring, Hello Summer

"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."

As one season comes to an end, a new one begins.  Spring is over and summer is almost here. Every spring I work at a living history camp (Rock-N-Water). At this camp I pretend I'm from 1854 and teach kids about the Gold Rush.  This year was my fourth year working at this amazing place.  To me Rock-N-Water is a ministry because each day I am able to teach others about God and serve God in such a fun and unique way.

Even though I'm sad the camp is over, I'm choosing to be happy for all the fun I had and all the lessons I learned.   Memories are an amazing thing and I choose to treasure them. There's a huge smile on my face because I know that God is so good to me and He has blessed me so much through this camp.

Now as the green grass slowly fades to brown, and the temperatures begin to rise, I'm reminded that summer is here again.  To be honest with you all, summer isn't my favorite season, mainly because of the heat.  Who enjoys the heat?  I'd rather have cold weather.  But there is nothing I can do, summer has arrived once again.  

Do I have any summer plans?  I wish I could give you a list of things I am planning to accomplish this summer, but I don't. And, you know what, that's okay.  Each day comes and I'm learning to trust God in the uncertainty of the future.  I'm learning to live my life day by day, step by step.  The truth is that it's okay to not have a long list of summer plans and accomplishments.  I know God has great plans for me and I can't wait to see what He will teach me this summer!

Do you have any fun plans for summer?  

A Beautiful Hymn

"Come thou fount of every blessing, 

Tune my heart to sing thy Grace..."

Such beautiful words found in such a beautiful hymn. Tune my heart to sing thy grace. But a few days ago as my family was singing this hymn I asked myself, what does that mean, to have our hearts tuned?

I remember years ago when we had a piano tuner come to our house to tune our piano. He had to open up our piano and pull all of the strings until the piano sounded like it was supposed to. It took a few hours but once he was finished our piano sounded better than before. The music was pleasing to the ear because all the notes were tuned perfectly.

Just like the piano, our hearts need to be tuned. And who tunes our heart? God is the great heart tuner. Sometimes it's a long process, and sometimes the pulling of our heart strings may cause pain. But we cannot make music pleasing to God on our own accord. Our life song is just noise until we allow God to come inside and change us. 

Once we allow God to enter in and give him the okay to have his way in our life then He will get to work on tuning our hearts. In His perfect timing He makes our lives into a beautiful arrangement of his Grace.

Lord Jesus, make my life into a song that is pleasing to you. Lord, I want to live a life that brings glory and honor to your name.