Things that make me smile

I needed to remind myself of these simple things that make me smile today. You get to observe. ☺

1. A bunch of daisies
2. Traveling
3. Babies laughing
4. Puppies
5. Seeing my friends happy
6. Feeling the sun warm my skin
7. Being still in the woods and just listening
8. Watching college football
9. Kittens playing
10. Riding the motorcycle
11. Spending time with friends and family
12. Feeling sand between my toes
13. Walking in crystal clear, spring fed creek water

Stop and smell the roses

Do you ever wonder how many people around you have never taken the time to 'stop and smell the roses'?  I do not mean literally be going along and see some roses (or daisies in my case) and just stop; although I have been guilty of doing so when I'm at the store; but I mean figuratively stopping to notice what is around us. There is good around us still if we will simply take the time to notice it. My most recent experience with this is watching everyone who volunteered to help complete strangers during the flooding, never asking anything in return. I wish the media would have spent half as much time showing these people as they did telling us about how people were looting and trying to take advantage of the people who have lost everything. C'est la vie'- this is the world we find ourselves in.
Where did all this come from? Simple: this past week was Annual Family Camp for our church denomination at our campgrounds about an hour outside of Nashville, nestled in a little valley with a crystal clear creek, and so much nature around you that it becomes a part of you. I had the privilege of hearing a good speaker deliver God-inspired messages that stirred my relationship to go even deeper with Christ. I also had the luxury of clear skies at night where you can see more stars than you thought existed, and then the best fireworks show ever with the lightning bugs flickering all over the open fields. It's one of those places where you can sit and soak in the beauty around you and marvel once again at how awesome God is to have created all of these things, and then to have placed us where we can experience them, it's almost like God speaks in the breeze that blows there.
It reminded me that our media of late has been airing commercials that talk about Random Acts of Kindness, and Paying it Forward, these are not new things at all, but if you have a true relationship with Christ, you are already doing these things. It's about showing the world around us that there is still good around and that they too can have it for themselves and it will become infectious and spread to everyone they come into contact with. Let's see how many of us can infect someone with good today.