"The Great Mid-August Reprieve," or "What doesn't kill you, makes you grateful."
This year's weather has been hard count on.
When we were bracing for the long hard summer, we had an extra month of jacket weather (which for us, means below 70F). If any of us were fooled into thinking this late spring meant an easy summer, we were slapped out of our delusions by the high nineties of the July and hundred-plus temperatures of early August. Not to mention the i'can't-believe-it's-not-raining-right-now humidity that blesses the East Texas weather almost all year 'round.
It's the kind of unrelenting heat that makes you sweat from places you didn't know you had sweat glands.
Our champion of an air conditioner has been fighting the temperature in our house down to a remarkably refreshing 82 degrees during the day, and 77 at night. And my hair has been up in a perpetual and absolutely not flattering messy bun for at least a month, in order to allow the five fans that are always set on high in our house, to have the best access to the alarmingly, constantly, soaked, nape of my neck.
Yesterday, i was out doing errands, pretty much all day, in and out of my car, parked in hot parking lots, sweating in my eyes, and working my car's a/c to the max in between. Then, in the early afternoon, i heard the sound of the only think that ever slows down the summer in East Texas: thunder!
In about 30 minutes, the sky became beautifully overcast, and the temperature dropped from a blistering 103, to a chilling 83 glorious breezy degrees.
Now, i'm a little embarrassed to tell you that i can remember a time in my life when i would have complained about the heat of 83 degrees.
Yesterday, i praised God all the way home, and i have realized that if we didn't ever experience the hardness of the heat, we wouldn't understand the blessing of the cool.
This goes for lots of things.
Those who don't experience want, never understand the blessing of plenty.
Those who don't experience sickness, never understand the blessing of health.
I could make a list of statements like that, a mile long.
I think everyone goes through something in their life that gives them a chance to see the glimpse of the blessings that they enjoy every day.
And hopefully, when that happens, you get really thankful about all the things that have not been meaningfully demonstrated to you, by unhappy circumstances. I hope i do too. God uses everything to refine us, if we let Him (sometimes, even if we don't let Him), and i hope that i remember to let Him teach me all those lessons by the easiest route possible, so i don't have to take the same tests over and over again.
When we were bracing for the long hard summer, we had an extra month of jacket weather (which for us, means below 70F). If any of us were fooled into thinking this late spring meant an easy summer, we were slapped out of our delusions by the high nineties of the July and hundred-plus temperatures of early August. Not to mention the i'can't-believe-it's-not-raining-right-now humidity that blesses the East Texas weather almost all year 'round.
It's the kind of unrelenting heat that makes you sweat from places you didn't know you had sweat glands.
Our champion of an air conditioner has been fighting the temperature in our house down to a remarkably refreshing 82 degrees during the day, and 77 at night. And my hair has been up in a perpetual and absolutely not flattering messy bun for at least a month, in order to allow the five fans that are always set on high in our house, to have the best access to the alarmingly, constantly, soaked, nape of my neck.
Yesterday, i was out doing errands, pretty much all day, in and out of my car, parked in hot parking lots, sweating in my eyes, and working my car's a/c to the max in between. Then, in the early afternoon, i heard the sound of the only think that ever slows down the summer in East Texas: thunder!
In about 30 minutes, the sky became beautifully overcast, and the temperature dropped from a blistering 103, to a chilling 83 glorious breezy degrees.
Now, i'm a little embarrassed to tell you that i can remember a time in my life when i would have complained about the heat of 83 degrees.
Yesterday, i praised God all the way home, and i have realized that if we didn't ever experience the hardness of the heat, we wouldn't understand the blessing of the cool.
This goes for lots of things.
Those who don't experience want, never understand the blessing of plenty.
Those who don't experience sickness, never understand the blessing of health.
I could make a list of statements like that, a mile long.
I think everyone goes through something in their life that gives them a chance to see the glimpse of the blessings that they enjoy every day.
And hopefully, when that happens, you get really thankful about all the things that have not been meaningfully demonstrated to you, by unhappy circumstances. I hope i do too. God uses everything to refine us, if we let Him (sometimes, even if we don't let Him), and i hope that i remember to let Him teach me all those lessons by the easiest route possible, so i don't have to take the same tests over and over again.
"Not that i speak from want, for i have learned to be content in whatever circumstances i am. I know how to get along with humble means, and i also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance i have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." ~Paul, Philippians 4:11-13
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