How are YOU doing?

As I sit in the lodge that was gifted to us for our trip to Gatlinburg, I overlook the woods. We are going to have a miraculous sunset in our backyard tonight. I can't wait.

I am so thrilled for this weekend to take a little time to rest, relax, and recharge.

I was talking with a friend of mine earlier this week. She had been rushing around and visiting sick children at the hospital. Life was running us and everyone around us ragged. It was then that another wonderful woman walked in and looked straight at her in the eyes and instead of asking how the sick children were doing or how things were going in the office or any other questions about THINGS - she asked how SHE was doing.

It amazes me how little time we actually take to care about the people around us. Life has thrown me a lot of curve balls lately that have made me very weary. And it's been quite some time since someone looked me straight in the eye and asked me how I was doing or holding up - and actually meaning it. I'm thankful for the wonderful few who have stepped into my life to help me carry the load and to laugh with me along the way.

I am taking a much needed break this weekend with my wonderful husband to celebrate one wonderful year of marriage. (I think I'm going to call it my second honeymoon. That was something my great grandmother did that I always thought was so endearing. )

But I digress... My hope and prayer this weekend is that in this time of recharge and renewal that I find strength and breath and life and HOPE in the coming months and years ahead.

¹⁹ O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. ²⁰ Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. ²¹ Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it." ²² Then you will defile your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, "Away with you!"

²³ He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows. ²⁴ The oxen and donkeys that work the soil will eat fodder and mash, spread out with fork and shovel. ²⁵ In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill. ²⁶ The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the LORD binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted.

Isaiah 30:19-26