Thankfulness

One of my homesteading goals, which hasn't been the highest priority and yet still manages to happen every now and again is to rise and set (to start and end) my day with work and reading the word.  It's an act of thankfulness.

The work that I do (or rather, have a goal to do since I'm slacking a bit these days) is to wake myself up each morning with something that encourages thankfulness and appreciation.  This is my version of alone time.  Kneeding bread by hand, pouring steaming hot water into a wash basin to hand wash one small load of laundry and then following it up with my morning reading plan.

This morning it was making bread by hand, and Ps 103 and Mark 2.

It is now hours later, as I was up before the sun and these are the things I have left over:

I keep coming back to these verses of Psalm 103:

 ¹ Bless the LORD, O my soul,
And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
² Bless the LORD, O my soul,
And forget none of His benefits;
³ Who pardons all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases; 


¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
So great is His lovingkindness toward those who ^[c]fear Him.
¹² As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
¹³ Just as a father has compassion on his children,
So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.
¹⁴ For He Himself knows our frame;
He is mindful that we are but dust.


And the house is filled with the aroma of a home made whole grain bread.

Now the morning has begun, the children are up and fed and we are approaching snack time.  My morning devotions have left me thankful, in deed, both for the aroma in my home and the meditation in my heart.  I'm not entirely sure what it means to bless the Lord in my soul, but I imagine it to look a little like being so thankful for the Lords provisions and His love toward us that your heart is feels like it could burst, and that's about where I'm at.

Blessings, 

Heather