June Lessons and Five Blessings

We ended a season of birthdays and celebrations in June in our family. May 8 begins with my son-in-law's birthday and then we have Elissa, Malia and the twins' birthdays with Mother's Day and Father's Day thrown in by the time June ends.

When birthdays roll around, I always think about the blessing it is to have that person in our family. Once we were a family of two; now, we are so much more. A birthday is affirmation of the family we are becoming.

Once, Jim and I attended his uncle's funeral who had lived to be a fair age. During the eulogy it was remarked that because his uncle lived, 91 DESCENDANTS EXISTED. 91!!! He had seven children, who had children, who had children and so on. I believe he already had some great-great grandchildren when he passed.

Obviously, we are nowhere as fruitful a bunch, but because Jim and I chose to live life together, there are now 5 people living who did not exist before. What an awesome and sobering thought!

Birthdays bring home the idea of legacy. I'm not doing well in the area of financial legacy; but can I leave a rich spiritual legacy?

Is it just me, or when you become 60, do you ponder these things more? What if we all started life determined to leave a wonderful legacy behind when we leave this world?

Speaking of pondering, here are some wonderful thoughts shared by awesome writers this month:

Shelly Miller on self-injuring … and why we drown ourselves in busyness

What do you really want? Susan Shipe gets to the heart of the matter.

Kat Bouska, over at Writer's Workshop, shared this awesome quote:

"You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can't edit a blank page" Jodi Picoult

Joanne Viola talked about early morning prayer and included this great thought-provoking quote:

“Prayer is not a check request asking for things from God. It is a deposit slip – a way of depositing God’s character into our bankrupt souls.”– Dutch Sheets

Was it coincidence during June I saw writers encouraging me to hang in there and fight?

Carlie Lake shared some encouraging quotes and scriptures on spiritual warfare. Quotes like this:

Life is war. And the main battles are fought at the level of desires, not deeds. (John Piper)

Sharon Sharing God reminded me soldiers don't retire:

A soldier who is battle-ready never lays down his weapons. And after a battle is won, he remains on alert.

But what if you feel weak? Joanne Viola also reminded me of this lovely translation of 2 Corinthians 12:9:

“Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9, NLT)

So press on, don't give up, trusting in His grace! 


What lessons did you learn in June?

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I also make it a regular practice to share on Fridays 5 blessings I've experienced in the last week and then I link up with the wonderful community at Friday's Fave Five hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story.

Since this post is already so wordy, let me sum them up briefly:

1. The blessing of church family - we had a little celebration for our Pastor's wife's birthday Sunday night. Can I just say how much I am enjoying my new friends - as well as my old friends - at church?

2. It's a long story, but I was nervous about leading worship Sunday night, however, it went beautifully. God is so gracious!

3. A short week at work preparing for my stay-cation went smoothly and I felt good about leaving for a week.

4. Fresh Bing cherries!

5. I have today, and all of next week off! And there is a break in the extremely hot weather we've been having. So thankful!

What good things happened for you this week?

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I'm also linking this post with my friends at the Grace and Truth community at Arabah Joy.