just had to share. . .

I think I do pretty well when I give the Lord my attention for my daily scripture reading from the Blue Letter Bible (I'm trying to read through the entire Bible and Blue Letter Bible is helping me). I think I do pretty well when I pause a moment and read a devotional from my Calvary Chapel Pastor's Wives devotional. I guess I felt that my obligatory reading for the day was enough.

Then, I went to the ocean and truly felt the presence of God.

I stood on the balcony outside our room and watched the ocean. I watched the waves come roaring in. I watched the spray of the water shoot up from those waves and in that spray, I saw a rainbow. And as I was standing there, the awesomeness of the Lord washed over me. I started to cry. It was then I realized that I hadn't been giving God my full attention. I felt an urgency for a closeness with the Lord that I seemed to have neglected.

I went to my Bible and began looking in the Psalms. I wanted to read the passage that starts "As the deer pants for living water. . ." and thought it was Psalm 40. I looked it up and found these words instead:

". . .he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God."

I paused and looked back out to the ocean. I thanked Him for doing these exact things in my life. I asked forgiveness for forgetting about it.

How could I go about my day and not think about my Savior?

The one who for no other reason than His love for me, took me out of that slimy pit and firmly planted my feet. And because of that, the once for whom I should daily lift a hymn of praise.

I came home with a new sense of awe for my Lord and a determination to include Him in every second of my day, not just the 15 minutes I was giving Him.

What many, beautiful days I have to look forward to.