Lord, I give thanks for Your greatness, your goodness, and your love, and I now draw near to enjoy your presence.
I know that You alone, whose name is the Lord, Are the Most High over all the earth. Psalm 83:18
Take a moment to consider God’s awesome majesty and thank Him that He loves you and wants an intimate relationship with you.
The word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. Hebrews 4:12-13
O Lord, You are our Father. We are the clay; You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand. Isaiah 64:6, 8
The one who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. 1 John 2:10-11
Lord, I thank You for the living power of Your word and for the abundance of Your grace. I thank You for creating and loving me, and I ask that I would grow in love for others.
O Lord, I am deeply grateful for Your wonderful acts, for Your abundant promises, and for the gift of my relationship with You through the birth, life, death and resurrection of Christ.
We give thanks to You, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign. Revelation 11:17
Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever, For wisdom and power belong to You. You change the times and the seasons; You raise up kings and depose them. You give wisdom to the wise And knowledge to those who have understanding. You reveal deep and hidden things; You know what is in the darkness, And light dwells with You. Daniel 2:20-22
Take a moment to express your gratitude for the many blessings that you have received from the Lord.
You are the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. You live in a high and holy place but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. Isaiah 57:15
Blessed be the Lord; day by day He bears our burdens, the God of our salvation. Our God is the God of salvation, and to God the Lord belongs escape from death. Psalm 68:19-20
Lord, I thank You for reviving the spirit of the lowly and for raising Your Son from the dead. I thank You for bearing my burdens, and I ask that I would seek to serve Christ by loving others.
God, I want Your Word to be deeply implanted in me so that I not only know the truth, but also express it in the way I live.
The Lord is my portion and my inheritance. Numbers 18:20
The steps of a man are ordered by the Lord, And He will delight in his way; Though he stumbles, he will not be cast down, For the Lord upholds him with His hand. Psalm 37:23-24
Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the furthest part of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me; Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will cover me,” even the night will be light around me. The darkness is not dark to You, and the night shines as the day; darkness and light are alike to You. Psalm 139:7-12
God lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. Psalm 40:2-3
My love must be sincere. I will hate what is evil and cling to what is good. Romans 12:9
Take a moment to affirm the truth of these words from Scripture and ask God to make them a growing reality in your life.
Lord, I thank You that You are always with me and that You sent Your Son to give me the gift of eternal life. I thank You for putting a new song in my mouth, and I ask that I would cast off the works of darkness and cling to what is good.
God will keep me strong to the end, so that I will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, through whom I was called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 Corinthians 1:8-9
I should let my gentleness be evident to all men; the Lord is near. Philippians 4:5
Let my love be sincere. May I hate what is evil and cling to what is good. Romans 12:9
Take a moment to share your personal needs with God, including your physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual concerns.
Prayer:
Lord, I thank You for the certainty of Your promises and for the wisdom of Your ways. I thank You for keeping me strong to the end, and I ask that I would be a gentle and loving soul.
“May I meditate on Your precepts And consider Your ways. May I delight in Your statutes, And not forget Your word. Deal bountifully with Your servant, That I may live and keep Your word. Open my eyes that I may see Wonderful things from Your law.” Psalm 119:15-18
Prayer:
Lord, I thank You for Your power and for Your patience and compassion. I thank You that I have been loved by You, and I ask that I would walk in the way of love for You and for others.
Take a moment to offer this day to the Lord and ask Him for the grace to grow in your knowledge and love for Him.
“Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders You have done, and Your thoughts toward us no one can recount to You; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare.” Psalm 40:5
“Direct my footsteps according to Your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me.”Psalm 119:133
Lord, I thank You for Your beloved Son and for Your unfailing love. I thank You for Your wonderful thoughts, and I ask that I would follow Your word and walk in purity of heart.
Take a moment today to focus your mind and heart on Jesus. Give thanks for His selfless love today and for the days to come in 2024.
Love this story! I pray that you are as inspired as I was by her no quit spirit!
FLORET
“Sometimes I am trying to get to sleep, and I begin to think about the war, about the explosions, about this possibility that any time my dearest persons can be killed. I say to myself, do not think about that. Think about flowers,” says Alla Olkhovska.
Alla is a gardener, an expert in finicky clematis, a photographer, a writer, and a caretaker. She lives in Kharkiv, Ukraine, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the eastern border. On the morning that the war started, she could hear the explosions and gunfire. Munitions and debris have landed just yards away from her grandmother’s home. Air alerts scream day and night and it’s common to lose electricity and gas.
Yet, every day Alla boards a public bus that drops her near her family’s garden, which her great-grandfather planted as a small apple orchard after World War II to help her struggling ancestors survive. There are still a few apple trees left, but now the garden is home to a collection of rare and stunning flowers.
And, it remains a means of survival.
While the garden is a refuge for Alla, a sanctuary she maintains despite the war, it’s also a critical lifeline for her family. She is there to collect as many seeds as she can. By selling them, Alla cares for her elderly grandmother, her mother-in-law, and her husband, who nearly lost his life to Covid-19 and has not fully regained his health.
Even as the harsh winter creeps ever closer, Alla is undeterred. With relentless optimism and a belief in the power of beauty and goodness, Alla fights for the survival of her family one seed at a time.
In addition to this short documentary film, you can read a full written interview with Alla here.
If you’d like to support Alla and her family, here’s how:
Order seeds
Alla sells seeds for clematis, peonies, phlox, and rare plants and ships worldwide. To place an order, visit her online catalogs. Please note: These are not traditional online shops.
To order seeds for clematis and other rare plants, click here.
Ordering instructions: To place an order, click on each item you’re interested in to add it to your cart, where you can adjust the quantity if needed. The minimum order amount is €33 EUR, (approximately $36 USD), plus shipping. You will not be able to check out until you’ve reached the order minimum.
When you’re ready to check out, click on the shopping bag icon to enter your name, email address, and phone number in the cart pop-up. Once your contact information has been entered, click on the black button “Оформить заказ” to submit your order. Please be patient while Alla checks your wish list/order against her seed inventory. She will send you an order confirmation and an invoice that you can pay via PayPal.
Purchase a copy of Alla’s book
If you want to learn all about clematis, Alla wrote a wonderful e-book all about them. This 124-page book includes her beautiful photography, growing advice based on her personal experience, plus her favorite varieties (organized by bloom time), and instructions on how to propagate clematis through cuttings and layering, and from seed.
The cost of the book is €24 EUR, equivalent to about $25 USD. If you would like a hard copy, you can send the book file to your local office supply store to have it printed and bound.
To purchase Alla’s e-book, Clematis, click here. After selecting the number of e-books that you would like to order, you will be prompted to enter your contact information in the box below. Once you’ve entered your contact information, click the black button to submit your order. You will receive an email from Alla with instructions to complete your order and how to pay via PayPal.
Make a donation
If you’re not interested in seeds or a book and would like another way to help, you can simply send money. The exchange rate is very much in Alla’s favor, and what might seem like a small amount will go a long way for her and her family.
Funds can be sent via PayPal to standwithkharkiv@gmail.com. All donations go directly to Alla, and if you enter HUMANITARIAN AID into the “What’s this payment for” field, fees and taxes will be waived.
Subscribe to Patreon
Alla just started a Patreon account with three monthly subscription levels: snowdrop ($5 USD/month) clematis ($10 USD/month), and peony ($25 USD/month). These subscriptions will allow Alla to continue her seed-saving efforts and will support her family during the upcoming winter months. For more information, click here.
Follow Alla on social media
Alla has a wonderful Instagram account where she shares beautiful pictures from the garden, interesting videos of her work, and updates from Ukraine. She also has a Facebook page that you can follow and a YouTube channel that you can subscribe to. Be sure to leave her a comment and some encouraging words.
Gratitude can renew your mind (Roman’s 12:2) and transform the way you see your circumstances.
Gratitude…. Expressing it and surrounding yourself with it, is truly life changing. God’s Word and His promises are full of His many blessings, giving us countless reasons to voice our gratitude and thankfulness. But sometimes gratitude can feel tough to find in a world full of busyness, neglect, distractions and doubt.
My heart this Thanksgiving season is to encourage us all to grow a gratitude so that a heart of thankfulness will flourish in each of our lives. That the seeds of truth from God’s Word that are planted in our hearts, nurtured and cultivated will EXPAND our hearts. Deep roots will awaken anew the wonder of God’s blessings, the steadfastness of His love and the assurance of His faithfulness.
I hope you will join me in the coming days and weeks. Yes, I know, I should have gotten started a few days ago but here we are. Every day, Lord willing, I will post a challenge, thought, question, something to ponder and sprinkle a whole lot of Jesus and the Word of God here as we look toward Thanksgiving.
Grab a notebook, journal or a stack of paper from your printer, dry erase board, make a note in your phone💡 😂 Simply put find somewhere to write things down. Write out a prayer. Document moments of gratitude. Take note of ALL things you have to be grateful for and all the ways you see God blessing your life. Every moment. Every truth. All of this will be seeds planted that will steadily grow a more grateful heart, a faith that strengthens AND deepens AND inspires.
Ready for a new view through the window we all call real life? Not to worry, just a short share daily on my end. Want to know the truth….. If am being honest, my soul is in desperate need of refreshing and I’d love to have you alongside of me for this journey!
Finally- that beautiful view of your world through the window…. Go ahead and look. It is the same old circumstances and the same old struggles. But even in the middle of life real and hard, it is beautiful. It is YOUR story. A story of redeeming love and goodness. Something hopeful. Something praiseworthy. Something to be thankful for.
In the Bible, Paul understood suffering, hardship and difficulty. There were many times he was grasping for gratitude.
“Always give thanks in EVERYTHING.” Ephesians 5:20
Romans 12:2 speaks to the renewing of our mind can transform the way we see our circumstances. No matter the view.
Hope and a heart of gratitude….. in spite of our circumstances.
Pause this moment- Take a deep breath and refocus your attention on God. Tell Him who He is in your life, what He has done for you, what you love about Him and why you are grateful.
Gratitude transforms us. Hope you’ll join me!!
“Fix your eyes on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out.” Romans 12:2
Have been worshipping LOUD over here on Hardin Rd today. Check out this amazing song called Gratitude!! 👇
Just in case you wondered why the Family Dollar drop-in visit yesterday……
Well of course all the running around was for a couple future DIY Christmas projects!! A little create and connect going on over here.
My mother-in-law Bobbie Caldwell is and has always been so creative. The work of her hands continues to bless others and our family. She has always enjoyed making her home a warm and inviting place. I so love that about her.
I also LOVE making beautiful spaces in our home for every season. Since she is living with us now, I wanted to add some fun, thoughtful and creative ways that we can engage with each other, the grandkids in order to make her Thanksgiving and Christmas super memorable this year.
So I bought a new, smaller Christmas Tree which has totally made me rethink how I normally decorate. Well- according to Monty Self our “new” forever Christmas tree has arrived so that we can get rid of the “old” big tree he struggles with and grumbles about getting up the stairs every year. 🤔🙄
For My Fall/Thanksgiving table scape I could not find any small pumpkins that I loved. So I purchased cream napkins from Target and made small pumpkins by repurposing old round nakpkin rings. Add a stick and you have a “custom” pumpkin to match the vision. Pictures to follow. Wish I’d made a video while making them. 🤦♀️
Secondly, Bobbie loves the front porch and back porch outdoor spaces at our home. {So do we} She has already spent many hours sitting and rocking the days away. So I wanted to make each space warm and thoughtful. Like home for her. So I grabbed a new rug, changed up the plants, added throw blankets for the cooler days and festive pillows. I still have one empty wall that has inspired me to add a special word of welcome and a message.
So back to the story at hand-
The Dollar Tree now owns Family Dollar and has really amped up the game for DIYer’s. So my day yesterday was centered around my doc appointment with a stop into Big Lots, Marshall’s, Walmart and Family Dollar. Gathering the needed items has been a mission of late and truly a labor of love.
I just wanted to share with you how passionate I feel we should be about following our hearts as it relates to the things that will bring meaning, fullness and joy to the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. The Lord has already started preparing my heart for the busy days ahead. Most all of the “gathering of goods” is done. Now to enjoy the process and live present in each moment that the Lord allows us.
Our homes are sacred! It is where most of life really happens. Our values, commitments to one another and the passing on of faith and faithfulness dwell there. So at peace in this season of our lives. Just had to share a glimpse of our “perfectly imperfect”world.
Thanksgiving- gratitude
Christmas- the coming of our Lord
Share the joy…..
Preparing Him room today in my soul…..
Maybe we’ll share a Facebook Live when we get down to crafting.
Simple Life Heartenings 
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