The Beginning (Volume II)

Don't you just love fall? I love the cool mornings and the crunchy, frosty, grass (first frost last night!). I love the way the sun is so much lower - and hardly hits the back yard. I love the colors of fall (I should decorate my house in these colors). I love pumpkins. I love pumpkin bread, pumpkin bars, soup and hot chocolate. I love now when I take Boone for a walk n the mornings that I have to put on a sweatshirt and Mark's polar fleece (his is just so much better than mine). I love that it is actually cool enough at night that my husband will snuggle with me. Wasn't it in "You've Got Mail" where they talk about fall and bouquets of newly sharpened pencils. I love fall.

The picture of the tree is one that is on my way to work. I always take a back street just so I can see this tree. It started to turn colors at the very tip, and each day I can see the color come further down the tree. In Colorado we get great color on trees, but hardly ever this beautiful organge-red. I decided I would try to take a picture of this tree as I go to work in the morning. I am a little worried that the people in the house will think I am a stalker...but I just can't help myself. Don't you think that it is strange that the trees become ever more beautiful as the leaves die? I was thinking about this and think this is so much like my savior. He had to die to be beautiful to me. I think I so take them both (my savior and the beauty around me) for granted. I pray for a thankful heart.

This was part of the bible study. That the key to not being greedy, covetness, envious, is to be thankful and content. Whew...it hit me like a ton of bricks. I am not always so good at this. You know that I want to move to the country so badly...and I covet the two of you (it's true). I just so long for the peace of a little town, a little hillside. But in an effort to be content I have decided to find a bit of country everywhere I look. I pray for a new heart that is content in our house in town (where we may be for a very long time). I pray to be content with all of my failings (who has time to clean, anyhow)? I pray to let go of my perfectionistisms that prevent me from my dissertation writing. I pray for contentment....and woudn't you know that on my walk with Boone this morning I found this house. I have walked by this house nestled between town homes and condos a million times. And there is was. A little piece of the country two blocks from my home on a frosty morning in Colorado. Praise be! I love the windmill just visible between the trees and the sun coming up behind it. Could it be that I can be content right here, right now?

Agur, the author of Proverbs 30 wrote:

Give me neither poverty or riches. Give me my daily bread. Otherwise I may have too much and disown you and say "Who is Lord?" Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of the Lord.

So tonight, with a heart of contentment and thanksgiving, I pray for my daily bread. That's it. Just my daily bread.