Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.–Psalm 103:2
When the moment came to finally pick up the boxes with my CD’s, I couldn’t wait! I was about to see the fruit of years of work. With a trembling hand, I opened the first box. There it was! My shiny, new CD! It seemed like I was experiencing a miracle from God right before my eyes. I couldn’t get over it! Was it actually here? Was I really holding it? It just didn’t seem real as I fought back tears of joy and gratitude. God was so unbelievably good to me!
It took me a few days to get over that exhilarating moment! But I knew that I had to get back to earth as soon as possible–and return to my usual practice routine. I had less than three weeks til the CD release date and there was so much to do.
April 25th finally dawned and I remember spending most of the day warming up. As I tuned the last string, I remember thinking, “This is the day I’ve been praying for for so long. I just can’t believe it’s finally arrived! Thank you, Lord, for answering my prayers!” Once again, I felt overwhelmed at God’s kindness and love. There was no way I could fight back the tears.
I’ve made it a practice to be intentional about remembering moments and days in my walk with God. When I pause to remember, I can clearly see a gracious Father that ordered my every step. He had a perfect plan in place. He was not taken by surprise about anything.
All the blessings of this life come from His hand. His grace is undeserved. His mercy unending. His love like no other.
But life somehow gets in the way. Things get busy again. My schedule gets overcrowded and little by little, those precious moments and mountain-top days become but a faint memory.
I need to remind myself to make every effort to repeat again and again how unbelievably good the Good Shepherd has been to me. I need to take time to praise Him again for His past blessings. I need to lift up my voice again in thanksgiving for His steadfast love. And I need to once again share with others how graciously the Lord saved me.
I need to remember every single day how unbelievably good the Lord has been to me time and time again. Remembering His goodness leads to gratitude and praise.
And usually tears. Lots of them. They just start to spill over without control. It’s like my tear ducts get flash floods from my filled-to-capacity heart. And it’s this kind of crying that changes the soul.
