Rainy Days and Mondays...and songs in my heart...

Rainy days and Mondays don't really get me down, in spite of what the song by The Carpenters said so long ago...(didn't you love their music? Such a great loss when Karen Carpenter died so young).

Actually,  I kind of like a rainy Monday (or any day, for that matter) now and then.  It cools things down a bit and keeps Still Waters Pond healthy and happy

This evening I took a little walk around the yard while it was still just a little bit drizzly out, but it was so pleasant I really enjoyed feeling the cool rain drops that kept falling on my head...(I must be in a musical mood! LOL Another oldie but goodie).

I would have loved to have sat in the swing for a while, but it was kind of wet and the mosquitoes were starting to bite, so I decided to head back inside before they had me for supper...

One last look at Still Waters Pond as the sun was filtering through the clouds, casting everything in a golden glow.

I came back inside to my little "Room with a View" just in time...it is pouring down rain again as we speak...

Some of my newer readers may have never seen that sign below before, "Let Heaven and Nature Sing"...

My son Benton created that sign for me back at our previous house, and it always hung above the kitchen windows. 

For many years it was the banner photo for this blog, "Closed Doors, Open Windows".

(Kitchen windows in our previous home)

These days as I sit here at my computer in "My Room with a View", I am often blessed with varied and interesting views of the world going on outside this window and overlooking Still Waters Pond.

Right now not only is it pouring down rain, but it is starting to get dark. However, this is the current view:

What you see there is the wind chime that a dear friend created for us when our son Matthew passed away in 2014. It has a dove of peace at the top, a moose, (because he lived in Maine and had actually been on a Moose hunt with his son during the time that he was battling cancer. I've shared that story before, but HERE it is again for those who may have missed it.)  Then there is a fish, because Matthew loved to fish, and then the wind chimes and a beautiful sunburst at the bottom. I love to hear it when it chimes...it always makes me feel like Matthew is very near.  

But anyway, that's not what I wanted to talk about, even though it is a very special place in my heart...

Recently we've had lots of hummingbirds coming and going to the feeder that is hanging further over on this porch.  But very often one of the hummingbirds will stop and perch right here on the "tail feathers" of the dove, while she waits her turn to get a drink at the feeder.  I love how they do that while I am sitting here inside watching. It's almost as if they do it on purpose as a way of blessing me...or perhaps to say thank you for feeding me!

Just one of God's sweet little blessings and another way to "let heaven and nature sing."

Speaking of special music...

Last night as I lay down to go to sleep, just after saying my prayers, I could hear in my mind's ears and heart the beautiful strains of the beloved song "The Lord's Prayer".  There is a special story here...

The summer after I graduated high school I spent the summer volunteering as a counselor at what was then known as "The Methodist Youth Camp."  It was a beloved place to me, because I had been going there to camp every summer since my junior high days, as well as attending fall retreats there.

HERE is a previous post written about that place if you'd like to know more. I have many special memories from there as it was the place where I truly turned my life over to the Lord.

But one of the most meaningful memories from there for me was what took place every single night at bedtime. 

All campers were divided up into cabins.  The boys camp was on one side of the property and the girls were on the other. There were usually 12 campers to each cabin. These were very rustic cabins, with old metal bunk beds that squeaked every time you moved, no air conditioning (summer in Florida!), and we had to go to a bath house for showers, etc.  The rules were very strict, and all campers had to be in the cabin and in their bunks by a certain time. We had devotions and prayers together, and then when we could hear the hymns starting to play on the loud speakers throughout the camp, we knew it was time for "lights out". No more talking or moving about. It was time to settle down and go to sleep.  But the best part of all to me was after several hymns played, the very last song we would hear was "The Lord's Prayer".  What a beautiful way to drift off to sleep, "singing" the Lord's Prayer in my heart.

And so last night when I "heard" that song in my mind before I fell asleep, it gave me such a sense of peace and comfort and a feeling of the Lord's Presence very near.

I woke up this morning still singing that song and had to look it up and listen to it again.

Here is one version that I found on the internet that I think you may enjoy. May this be a blessing to you as it was to me...

Matthew 6:9-13 King James Version

9 After this manner therefore pray ye:

 

"Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

10 Thy kingdom come, 

Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:

 

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. 

Amen."

Good Night, and May God be with you.