Forty-Five Verses:Love for Letters

Call me old fashioned but I have loved "letters" all my life..writing and receiving them. It seems to be a dying art but there's is just something so special about a hand-written note or letter that speaks to my soul. I have basically been a pen pal since I was six years old. I was in the backseat of  my Mom's crimson and white Chrysler  Cordova (which we had for years!) waving goodbye to my best friend, Shannon as we made the move from Douglasville, Georgia to Birmingham, Alabama. It was a hard goodbye. With the help of our parents we managed to write letters (they mailed them) and see each other several times a year (we would pick her up on the way to my grandparents house) all the while.. cultivating a friendship that is now forty years strong! The connection and power of letters!

My grandmother was also an avid letter writer and hers were laced with every detail imaginable. I was recently given a stack of my letters written to her over the years in high school, college and a few in my working years. Oh how fun it was to reminicsce over each season and to think of my Memaw reading it like one of her juicy romance novels. She was always interested in my life. I get my story telling from her. And if you think my stories are long...well let's just say "short story" does not run in the family! And she underlined every line in a card...just like I am tempted to with every one I send.

For twenty years now I have loved reading the "letters" in the Bible written directly to me (and you!). I think it is why I fell head over heels in love with Jesus. I was brought up in church and sunday school, I prayed, I read verses here and there but I had never truly known Jesus as my Lord. Once I rededicated my life to Him... as a newly-wed, twenty-five year old...the word became life to me. Like a letter from a best friend. It spoke to me. I hungered for it and I sought it out. It gave me answers. It gave me hope. It wrecked me and comforted me at the same time.  There it was in my pink devotional Bible my parents had given me...in black, white and red. I returned to it day after day, wondering why I had waited so long, searched so long, made so many bad choices, when the life giving word of God had been there all along. So I continue to go there, all throughout the day...to the letters that changed my heart, opened my eyes and paved a path that has been something "to write home about!" "All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness." 2 Timothy 3:16

Cards,notes,letters..don't forget about those, when is the last time you wrote and mailed a letter?

Better yet, when is the last time you have opened up your Bible and read from God's word, His letters to us? I hope this encourages you to do both! Lately, I have enjoyed being "undocumented" online and "documented" either by phone, text, letters or cards to those who are dear and really focusing on living life to the fullest.  My life is God. He is not just a part of my life, He is my life. He is my first love, my beginning and end. To Him my life I give. "But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." Matthew 6:33 

I hope this letter has met you with a smile, a little joy and some hope that with God all things are possible. Whether you are in my neighborhood or across the world, know that you are loved and prayed for today. And Happy first day of summer, the season of sunshine!

Day 122 Today's Verse...

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." Matthew 5:6

Blessings,

Suzanne