our list of 82 ways...

"The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives." Psalm 37:23

My trip to PEI was a time that I will forever be able to look back upon and be in awe of God's goodness. When I surrendered my ideas of what I wanted for a birthday trip and waited on God, He blew me away by His planning of a perfect birthday trip. He knew better than even I did the desires of my heart. The trip combined all the things that I loved- Anne of Green Gables, beautiful outdoors, a good friend to travel with, and most importantly sweet time with the Lord.  His hand was in the midst of EVERY detail of the trip. After a couple days, Rebekah and I started to write down all the ways we saw His hand at work in the small or big moments of the trip. By the end of the week we had quite a long list. I thought we may end up to close to a 100 but God was even in the details of that list. We ended with 82 ways... which just *happened* to be is year I was born in (1982). 

One example on our list was the rain forecast. It was suppose to rain 2  of the 4 days of our time at PEI. Yet it only rained briefly while we were driving. One time it only rained for about 5 minutes... yet when it started to rain it caused us to change our plans for the evening. So at the time, God's goodness was not apparent. Yet when we looked back we saw how the change of plans were for the best. We had to laugh at the picture of God turning on the rain for a few minutes so we would change our plans and then stopping it for us once we caught onto His plan. We also saw God's sense of humor in how He gave us an "Aunt Josephine" moment with the hotel mix-up but that is a story for another time.

At the end of our trip we decided that our theme song was  "10,000 reasons (Bless the Lord)" by Matt Redman. We ended up listened to this song over and over again as we drove around PEI. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jYLTn4fKYQ



The sun comes up, it's a new day dawning
It's time to sing Your song again
Whatever may pass, and whatever lies before me
Let me be singing when the evening comes

[Chorus]
Bless the Lord, O my soul
O my soul
Worship His holy name
Sing like never before
O my soul
I'll worship Your holy name

You're rich in love, and You're slow to anger
Your name is great, and Your heart is kind
For all Your goodness I will keep on singing
Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find

[Chorus]

And on that day when my strength is failing
The end draws near and my time has come
Still my soul will sing Your praise unending
Ten thousand years and then forevermore

On Sunday the message at church was on Romans 12:2. Having a renewed mind...being satisfied and content in the Lord...living a transformed life. It all tied perfectly into the theme of our trip. One of the reasons it was such an amazing trip was God's hand was in all the details. Yet, it was also because we were choosing to look and see God's hand at work. 

 May this be something that I practice each and every day. To see and celebrate God's hand at work and to bless Him. To bless Him simply because He is God and worthy of all praise.