blessing

“They say life is a highway and we all travel our own roads, some good, some bad, yet each is a blessing of its own.”
― Jess “Chief” Brynjulson

Photo by Diane Domigan

choose

We cannot stop the winter or the summer from coming. We cannot stop the spring or the fall or make them other than they are. They are gifts from the universe that we cannot refuse. But we can choose what we will contribute to life when each arrives.

Gary Zukhav

Photo by Marge McCoy

In the Advent Light

In the Advent Light, O Savior

In the advent light, O Savior,
I am living day by day;
Waiting, working, watching ever,
Knowing Thou art on Thy way.

Separated unto Jesus,
Loosed from all the world beside;
Blinded by the advent glory,
Hour by hour would I abide.

So from glory unto glory,
Gladdened by the advent ray;
All the path is growing brighter,
Shining unto perfect day.

In the advent light to witness
To a dark and dying world;
This the holy ordination;
May His banner be unfurled.

In the advent light rejoicing;
Songs of praise along the road
Seem to make the journey shorter,
Mounting upward to our God.

He is coming! He is coming!
Pass the heavenly watchword on:
Go ye forth to meet the Bridegroom,
Hail! to God’s anointed Son.

See the advent glory breaking;
Faith will soon be lost in sight;
Face to face I shall behold Him,
Bathed in His eternal light.

Lyrics: Emily May Grimes (1868-1927)
Music: Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Photo: Marge McCoy

gratitude

Gratitude helps us to see what is there instead of what isn’t.

~Annette Bridges

Photo: Marge McCoy

the highest appreciation

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”—John F. Kennedy

Photo by Mark Wood

Thanksgiving prayer

O Heavenly Father: we thank Thee for food and remember the hungry. We thank Thee for health and remember the sick. We thank Thee for friends and remember the friendless. We thank Thee for freedom and remember the enslaved. May these remembrances stir us to service. That Thy gifts to us may be used for others. Amen. – “Dear Abby” Columnist

Photo by Diane Domigan

reflect

“Reflect upon your present blessings.”

—Charles Dickens

Photo by Jean Pike

to live gratitude

“To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven.”

Johannes A. Gaertner

Photo by Diane Domigan

turned around

“When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.”—Willie Nelson

Photo by Elizabeth Melton Parsons

Gather

We Gather Together

We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;
He chastens and hastens his will to make known;
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing.
Sing praises to his name; he forgets not his own.

Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
Ordaining, maintaining his kingdom divine;
So from the beginning the fight we were winning;
Thou, Lord, wast at our side; all glory be thine!

We all do extol thee, thou leader triumphant,
And pray that thou still our defender wilt be.
Let thy congregation escape tribulation;
Thy name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!

Netherlands Folk Song; Adrianus Valerius’ Nederlandtsch Gedenckclanck, 1626
Translator: Theodore Baker; Author: Anonymous (1625)
Tune: KREMSER
Photo: Marge McCoy
Photo shows Portsmouth, OH area churches painted on one section of their flood wall mural