Morning Attitudes...

I’ve always been kind of a morning person and have never been one to wake up in a grumpy mood.  I was told by Piper’s roommate at Chico State that she could be a little grumpy in the morning and have always been thankful to her bubbly-from-the-moment-she-opened-her-eyes roommate (as Piper described her) for changing Piper’s morning outlook on life!  

I had only seen Piper first thing in the morning a few times at church group retreats before we got married.  In those kinds of exaggerated settings where a whole bunch of us youth or college-career young adults were in sleeping bags, packed together in the living room of somebody’s cabin… everyone had to wake up with a smile or face dire consequences like a glass of icy water poured on you!  Anyone else ever attend weekend retreats like that!

I did come to learn how to gently and slowly engage my wife when waking up though!  Whereas I could quickly become attentive… she, not as much… until we had kids and then the slightest sound coming from their room had her instantly at their side!  Piper was cool though.  She had that “teacher” instinct and knew that I wanted to be a blessing to her… so she, at times, would talk to me about the things that blessed her in the mornings… as well as the things that didn’t!  So, we learned to work together in order to enjoy the most harmonious outcome of our different morning attitudes! 

Plus… I knew how to get to her and could almost always make her laugh… and she likewise… knew exactly how to melt through my toughest resistance!

I have noticed though… since Piper’s passing, that although I still tend to wake up in a good mood, I many times arise with the different pressures and subsequent questions of my new life without her, laying very heavily on my mind.  But I have also noticed how much Fiver’s and my early morning walks in the quiet and stillness of the hour, help to refocus and set the motivation for my day!  I couldn’t help but stop and pause in enjoyment and awe, for a moment when we reached the edge of the golf course yesterday and enjoy the rather brisk… read that C-O-L-D… wind that hit my face like the aforementioned glass of icy water splashing on me at youth camp!

It was rather awakening and refreshing and quickly focused my thoughts on the love of God and His uncanny (and well proven) ability to turn any situation around in one’s favor!  I couldn’t help but to think on that again during our morning walk today as Fiver and I stopped to visit at the backyard wire fence of the home of his newest friend “Wallace.”  Wallace is a young Golden Retriever puppy that I have slowly been introducing to Fiver. 

I don’t always know how Fiver will respond to other dogs, so I’ve been cautious in letting them get close enough to sniff at each other.  But over the last week, I’ve given Fiver enough slack to go nose to nose and he and Wallace seem to have become good buddies!  Wallace is about half of Fiver’s size with almost identically sized paws as Fiver… so, he’ll also be a big boy!  Today we also got to talk with Wallace’s little girl and boy and his human mom!  We’ve talked before, but this time enjoyed the antics of the two dogs as they barked and bounced around.

Activities like these are always a great way for me to draw myself out of my worries and I can’t help but to think on scriptures like 2 Corinthians 5:14 where the God’s Word © translation states that,

“Clearly, Christ's love guides us…”

Or the way the Passion Translation expounds the same verse in describing Christ’s love-motivated actions on our behalf, explaining,

“For it is Christ’s love that fuels our passion and motivates us, because we are absolutely convinced that He has given His life for all of us.”

Piper always enjoyed and talked a lot about scriptures that describe the love of God for us.  And now, after everything that she and I went through with the attack of Alzheimer’s upon her life, I have also come to the place of personally and intimately knowing the power of His love for me.  It’s the love that carried us through our past… and now that I am older, I’m thoroughly dependent upon it for the successful accomplishment of my future... and you can be too!

Now that’s the attitude that I like to start my mornings with… wouldn’t you agree!

Have a terrific week.  We have a warm day today, thunderstorms coming in tonight and another warm day forecasted for tomorrow… only to be followed by another winter storm complete with sleet and snow at the end of the week… Is this gonna be the new norm?

Oh well… throughout it all, you and I… well, we’ll just have to keep EXPECTING God’s loving best for our lives!