36 More Days!

Whew! What a couple of busy days here!

It’s snowing again today. The key word here is AGAIN. But friends, there’s hope…

36 more days until spring!

Oh, the thought of that is almost heavenly to me. To be able to step outside without having the bone-chilling air hit me square in the face. To see a tiny hint of color peeking through the ground in my flower beds. To experience our back yard covered in green again with NO white. To hear the sweet sound of birds singing each morning. To watch the trees and shrubs come alive after a long, hard winter. And maybe the best of all… to sit in the stands and cheer as I watch my son play his heart out on the soccer field.

Oh, I can hardly wait!

This winter seems endless to most of us, and as I heard and saw in our Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) class this morning, many women are feeling discouraged, frustrated, and just plain tired of the snow and the cold. We had record lows yesterday morning of -21 degrees. Yes, friends…that’s 21 degrees below zero. The actual temperature. That’s not normal for Iowa. Winter is cold in Iowa. But not that cold.

A couple of years ago I really struggled with feeling winter was never going to end, and I became almost downcast and miserable because of it. Even though this winter seems worse than most, I’m intentionally looking at the good and not at the bad. I’m intentional in looking for God in each day. Even in the snow, the wind, the cold. Maybe because of enduring such a trying autumn personally, it seems for me a little easier to journey through this winter. I don’t know. But keeping my focus on the hope I have has made it much more pleasant.

Hope. I’ve heard many definitions of the word, and the one that makes the most sense to me is: Hope is “confident expectation.” I confidently expect spring will arrive. I confidently expect that winter will end. I confidently expect that my husband will arrive safely home after a long work shift. I confidently expect to open my eyes each morning. (And I confidently expect that my coffee brewer will work when I wake, and how good that first cup will taste! Smile.) Seriously though, I confidently expect when I close my eyes to life on earth, I’ll see Jesus in my heavenly home when I open them. That right there is a glorious hope!

What do you confidently expect? Go ahead and list a few things. It’s rejuvenating to think about them for a time.

Hope is a beautiful thing.
Hope is a necessary thing.
Hope is a powerful thing.
Keep focusing on the hope you have.
Winter will pass, and spring is on it’s way. Hang in there, my friends.

There is hope!