Friday thoughts

I delight greatly in the Lord;
my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
- Isaiah 61:10

I can be in complete agreement with the words of the prophet as I sit here at our house on 609 Fernwood at 6:33 a.m. and consider:

As I've been told my wife Jill suffers from Epstein-Barr and a low grade form of measles along with mono on top of her Fibro Myagia, I can rejoice that last night we all enjoyed her darting about the house putting up Christmas decorations and laughing the whole time;
As I remember the horifying night of trauma, seeing little Nicholas almost die from a suffocating seizure when he was one year old, I rejoice in the fact that he is at collge now, involved in Bible studies and sending home word of yet another A on his test. He's well and good;
As I look and see the patch up jobs we've had to do in our old antiquated tile shower, I rejoice int he fact that we DO have a shower - in fact, two of them, and the hot water flows faithfully every morning;
As I recall a pretty brutal week at school, especially with an irate parent who was overly bitter and cruel, I can honestly rejoice in the fact that the Lord has given me five classes chock full of 12th grade students whom I love, and that I can play a small part in their Biblical training;
As I fuss over a slow computer and call the help line to get it up and running, I can rejoice that through this little computer I've been able to write and publish six novels and a devotional, reaching people with the written word and telling them about Christ through the message of story-telling and devotionals;
As I sit here and shake off the chill of the morning, I rejoice that Jesus has given me Peter, my 14 year old whom I will take across town to breakfast as is our regular Friday custom since school started, and I can hear Peter crack up about some weird news item or odd program while we watch the overhead TV;
As I go under the house and try to clean out the remining smell from a cat who got under our house and tried to "mark his territory" (you get the idea); I can glance up and see the insulation underneath the florring and be glad for a warm house that takes care of keeping my family safe;
When I sit in my classroom and wrestle with the grades or a whining student who just can't understand that you really must study if you wish to pass the class, I get gladdened when I have a grad pop in to say hi or for a student make me promise that we'll get together for a meal during the holidays;
When I sit here in the silence of the morning, I truly rejoice in the Lord that Jesus is watching over a struggling person like myself and has prepared a place for me when I leave this life. I cannot even begin to imagine how fantastic that will be.