Yesterday, in Sunday School,

mmm, I mean LIFE GROUP [I'm old and set in my ways - lol...] our lesson was from Ecclesiastes --- and we talked about how everyone has the same fate - 

We're all going to die. 

Kinda fatalistic, right?

[Pun intended.]

But it *is* the truth... no one gets out of this world alive.

But - as believers - we have the GIFT of living eternally with our Lord.

And I'm so very thankful for that...

But side note: also so very thankful that He walks beside me through this life... giving me strength in my struggles, peace in times of anxiety, and incredible love and acceptance despite my failures [sin.] 

I did this Bible Journal page sometime during the last couple of years [not dated..] and I'm sure it's based on a meme I saw somewhere... but here's my thought process - If we are truly going to die....and we are... 

then why don't we slow down a bit 

and look for the beauty of this world...  

and look for God's goodness in every situation...

and look for ways to share His Light with our hurting world...

Let's enjoy the ride...

A friend shared one of my favorite poems today... and as we walk into the last days of summer, I wanted to share it with you... The last four lines reminded me of Solomon's words ... but really the last two lines are the best...

Let's BE INTENTIONAL about how we live our lives...

Poem 133: The Summer Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

—Mary Oliver

 Praying God blesses you today -