Daily grace

The freshness of the morning air was deliciously mixed with the smell of pine trees and the salty air of the ocean. Another day of wonder and expectation in Cambria, California is here and my first thought is negative. I bet you expected the positive word. I wish, but I usually wake up, even in Cambria, America’s most beautiful place, in a negative mood. Why negative, I don’t know. After all that God has done. For me it is a puzzle, when my brain goes from dream to reality, I struggle with negative thoughts.

My mornings are always the same. Rolling back and forth in our new California king-size bed, I finally decided to get up and start the day. After my morning trip to the bathroom, my mind begins to focus and I immediately feel a desperate need to reestablish my contact with my heavenly Father. If I allow my mind to focus on past failures or other negative thoughts, I will certainly have a miserable day. I need to walk with God daily.

The next thing I do is go to the kitchen and to the cafe. I guess caffeine addiction is something I’ll have to live with. Death before decaf my wife always says. Anyway, I have my first cup of coffee and begin the reprogramming process. The daily walk in the Grace of God once again. The Bible tells us that His mercy and grace are new every morning and believe me I need it every morning and throughout the day.

Once I have my coffee, I head over to my chair, my comfortable recliner, my comfortable recliner that I love. Honestly, I am very grateful to have a chair to call my own. After losing everything in Katrina and the tree, it’s so cool to have a recliner. Ok, let’s get back to the moment. I start by opening the Bible. I read the psalms and find some promises. After focusing my mind on God and his promises, life on planet earth seems a little better. I ask God to bless my family and others. I ask God for his blessings and his favor for this day.

After my prayers and reading, all of a sudden, I start to come out of the negative and have a positive faith in God. Wow, it’s nice to trust God every day. During this morning meditation I try to stay away from the future and the past. Sometimes it doesn’t work, but I try to focus only on the moment. I remind myself that I only have this moment in time.

After turning my attention to the spiritual, life becomes tolerable again. I usually proclaim that this will be the best day of my life. Today I will not be defeated. Most days, I will shout it out for my wife to hear, “This is going to be the greatest day of our life.” This daily meditation practice started in my life several years ago. Don’t get me wrong, I have my bad days, when life goes crazy, but for the most part, life is great. However, I have to stay in the moment. If I go into the past I go a little crazy. If I go into the future, I get carried away by worry. However, when I stay in the moment, I usually have a great day.

In addition to making a positive statement about my day, I try to count my blessings. God has blessed my wife and me so richly. Everything we lost has been restored. Our house in California is rebuilt. We live in the most beautiful city in the United States. Cambria, California has perfect weather, well wait for the day the tree hits the house, but for the most part the weather is ideal. We have deer, turkeys and other wild animals in the house. In fact, there are few mountain lions roaming the city. They haven’t hurt anyone and I hope they haven’t, but we really do have cougars in the area. I have returned to sing in the church. I did not think I would sing in church again, but today I sing. I have a song in my heart. God has blessed us with a special church and a special pastor who has restored my faith in the church. Every day I try to remind myself of the blessing.

Let me tell you one thing, if I don’t go through this process on a daily basis or I miss a few days and the results are not good. I get as intractable as an old mule. If I don’t live life moment by moment and stick to my morning meditations, life becomes extremely difficult. Don’t get me wrong, I make plans, but I try to let God come out. The Bible tells us that man plans his way but God orders his steps.

Today life is good and I want it to continue like this. I want to keep declaring every day; I will no longer be defeated.