Late Summer Abundance

The word "abundant" comes to my mind during many times of the year. Abundant rain in the springtime and color in the fall. Abundant cold in the winter and heat in late summer. Abundant food and blessings at Thanksgiving. Abundant decorations and gifts at Christmas. Abundant energy when our 16 grandkids and 2 great grandkids come to visit. You get the picture.

This summer, the rain at just the right time, the prodigious amount of sunlight, and the labor of my Silver Fox have produced an abundance of colorful flowers growing in our yard. Every day I can step out my door and cut dozens and dozens of stems to arrange into vases and place around the house or share with friends.

I praise God for the abundance He has blessed me with during my life, while I also remember a very lean time. Steve and I well recall when we had a total of $25 -- in our pockets, in our bank account, or in the couch cushions. It was 1973, just two years and a few months into our marriage. If you added it all together, it still amounted to a mere TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS. Yep. We had opened the doors to a new business, borrowed the down payment for a house, had student loan debts to repay, and found out I was pregnant with our first child. If people didn't walk through the door of Pearson Animal Hospital with their pets or if parents didn't call asking me to teach piano lessons to their children, we were going to need to find other income avenues SOON.

Praise the Lord for Mrs. Reed who walked in with her little black dog!! A few others trickled in that first week, and the phone rang a time or two inquiring about lessons. Slowly, very slowly, we made enough to cover our monthly bills and put food on the table. I would use the words "enough" or "sufficient" to describe our income for the first few years we lived in Hartselle. We both worked hard, very hard, and God blessed us.

So today, when I think of the word abundance, I don't take it lightly or for granted. Abundance is a gift from God.

I want to share these verses as reminders to myself and to you. God is the source of abundance in our lives. Just as He is generous in His blessings to us, so we should be generous to others.

John 10:10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I (Jesus) have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

Philippians 4:19 And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Luke 6:38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Proverbs 3:9-10 Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.

Ephesians 3:20-21 Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Look in your pantry and fridge and give thanks.

Look in your closet and give thanks.

Look at your friends and family members and give thanks.

Look at your church and give thanks.

Take a deep breath, fill your lungs with air, feel your heart beating, and give thanks.

Matthew 6:28-30 -- Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

#autobiography #abundance #summerflowers #blessingsofGod