Very early this morning, I was sitting on my porch, enjoying my first cup of coffee, along with the single red rose from my garden, and a little inspiring book that I was given. The book is "Mocha with Max" by Max Lucado. It was quiet except for the birds singing. Without a doubt, it was my favorite time of the day.

Now, you may be saying to yourself, "well, this picture certainly looks staged to me."
It is not. I like drinking my cups of coffee out of different cups in the morning. This is from a set of dishes that I have had for many years. I love to bring flowers into my home, and do it throughout their entire blooming time. And, I like using old and pretty glass containers to display them in. This little old glass pitcher is one that I found years ago at a flea market. You see, I respond best to vignettes I create and hot coffee I drink.

In the quiet, early mornings, I like to read, think, and pray. I want to share something I read from Max's book;

"God isn't going to let you see the distant scene, so you might as well quit looking for it.

He promises a lamp unto our feet,

not a crystal ball into the future.

We do not need to know what

will happen tomorrow.

We only need to know He leads."

Reading this brought into my mind, like a flash out of the past, a picture of one of my dear

grandmas. I worked for her for three summers during my early high school years. I would help her to clean, do laundry, and serve full course breakfasts in her simple, yet beautiful tourist home(or a Bed and Breakfast in today's language).

We spent hours ironing in her front living room. We would starch and iron the sheets, the pillow cases, the tablecloths and all my grandpa's shirts. While we ironed, she would play records on the big RCA console, and it would always be her beloved old hymns. I would add joy to her day, if I would sing along with her. Hence, to this very day, I know most of the words and melodies to each of the old hymns of the church.

You may wonder where I am going with this story, and how I am possibly going to tie it in with Max Lucado's quote that I read this morning?

The last line of the quote states that "we only need to know that He leads".

My grandma's singing the song "Where He Leads, I'll Follow" immediately came to mind. She loved that hymn and it's promising words. "Where He leads, I'll follow, Follow all the way..."

This is my one sweet grandma and me during one of our warm, summer days of cleaning together. The year was 1969. She taught me well. She knew how she wanted things done and she was not afraid to tell me that what I had just done, needed to be redone. One example was the cleaning of all the faucets in her guest bathrooms. The job was not complete until not one water drop remained, and the stainless steel sparkled:) But, she also was a wonderful, gracious, fun lady to work for. At my impressionable age, I learned many valuable lessons.

In today's world, with uncertainities and daily unfolding new's events, I am thankful to be reminded this morning, that I can relax when(and only when) I remember the words from the quote above, and the words to grandma's beloved song.

Maybe today you will want to pick a rose from your garden, use one of your china cups to drink coffee or tea from, and read something that inspires and encourages you...even if you only have 10 free minutes in your day.

~the photo on the top right side of this post was taken by a good friend, and ties in perfectly with this post. My grandma's tourist home was named "Cardinal Hills Tourist Home", because of her love of cardinals.