My aunt Phyllis has been battling cancer for years. She has suffered through countless drugs and treatments and side effects and yet continues to have a bright spirit and right perspective on life. She emailed me the other day and relayed she is on a new medication to fight active cancer cells again. Hope prevails as she declared to me. " I start my day singing, 'This is the Day,' and end my day singing, 'To God be the Glory.'"
I have been reflecting on her words and I find myself encouraged and challenged to do the same.
God gives me each day as a gift; He made it. He knows all that is in it. Nothing happens to me that he already doesn't know about - He is never surprised. "This is the Day," calls me to rejoice in the hours and minutes that God has given me. I can do that by trusting all things to the Father who created me and all that is around me. I can do that by seeking out the sparkles He places in my day; Gladness will surely follow as I focus on the goodness of our Lord.
When the day comes to a close, it is a good reminder to look back over the day and give God the glory. Hind sight is 20/20 they always say, and if I purpose myself to look and see I can always see the great things he has done in a day for me. Grace is the first thing I often think of -- how my Lord lavishes me with His grace (!), covering me with His love and forgiveness and patience and generosity. No matter what befalls me in a day I am always comforted in remembering that God gave me His Son. He made a way for me to enter into His presence in prayer and promised the way to enter heaven; Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). With Jesus in my heart, I am able to follow the way, know the truth, and have life - life everlasting. I have access to the Father for my every need.
A good day, or a bad day, does not thwart God's promises to me. In this, I can praise the Lord and again rejoice. I can be happy in the the things God has given to me as my lot that day with a quiet understanding that it is covered in pardon and given to me in love.
My aunt Phyllis is a very wise woman and I am so blessed by her in my life. She is so right-on to bookend the day with God. I challenge you to join me in doing likewise: enter the day with gladness & rejoicing and end the day being thankful, giving God the glory and praising His Holy Name!
