The Sun's Still Up There, Regardless Of The Clouds

Every cloud has a silver lining.
It's always darkest before dawn.
Keep your face to the sun and you'll never see the shadows.
No matter where you go, bring your own sunshine.
When you can't see the sunshine, be your own sunshine.

Have you seen these phrases and quotes framed and hung on the wall? Or maybe crocheted on a pillow? The sun gets all the glory while the clouds are made out to be the villain in the story. If it wasn't for those stupid clouds, we'd have a pretty perfect life and sunshiny days, right?

But that's definitely not the case. I would wager that most people know the sun doesn't hide and the clouds don't purposely wander across the sky to darken our days. I'm not a meteorologist, nor do I play one on tv, but I'm pretty sure the clouds don't destroy the sun or make our course around the sun change. The sun's still up there, regardless of the clouds.

There has only been one time in recorded history when the sun has ever been affected, and it wasn't by a cloud.

Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day. And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel. Joshua 10:12-14

The miraculous stopping of the sun was for two express purposes - to further establish Joshua's position as God's mouthpiece and to show how mighty our God truly is. There could be no other explanation for the stillness of the sun that an act of God, and the entire nation of Israel saw it and understood God's message loud and clear.

Is there something happening in your life right now that feels like a bank of clouds blotting out the sun? It doesn't take much for our hearts to get dark and dreary when the clouds get in the way of our natural sunshine. Can you say Vitamin D deficiency on physical, emotional and mental levels?

It takes great faith in God to remember that the sun is always there and it's always shining, even when we can't see it. The size and number of clouds moving across our days doesn't matter when we have crazy faith in the God who created those clouds Himself. All it takes is a little change in perspective.

What outlook are you going to adopt today? Will you cling to empty catchphrases or will you remember the truth of God's promises? The clouds don't hang around forever, and God can't wait to show you the sunshine again!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Holland Creme - That Amazing White Stuff In Donuts

Image
I remember going to the grocery store every Saturday morning when I was growing up, and my favorite place in the entire store was the donut case. All the glazed, powdered and filled baked goods drew me like a magnet. My favorites, far and away, were the ones filled with that beautiful white, fluffy creme. At the time I didn't know it was called Holland Creme - I just knew it was the most amazing concoction ever. Ever. Here is my version of this sweet treat. You can make your own fried donuts and fill them, or like I did here, you can cut a crevice into store-bought donuts with a knife and fill them with creme in a piping bag. Either way, you're going to love it. Ingredients: 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup water 1 cup vegetable oil 1 cup shortening 1 cup butter 1 Tbsp vanilla 7 cups powdered sugar 1. Make a simple syrup by combining sugar and water in a sauce pan over medium heat until boiling, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool complet...
Read more

Recovering An Old Card Table And Making It Usable Again

Image
This card table recover project has been on my to-do list for months. I've been using it as my workspace in the craft room for quite some time, and it sees a lot of abuse. Here it is now, with a neutral cover on it so I can take better pictures for my tutorials. There were dents and dings in the old blue covering from metal tools. And yes, I've used my embossing heat tool on it several times, leaving pretty good scars. The padding underneath the blue cover also made it difficult to keep paper crafts flat when adhering them together, so it was time for something new. That's where a simple vinyl tablecloth comes in handy. The process to recover the table is pretty simple, but I learned a couple of lessons the hard way. I share them with you now. First, don't do this on any surface but a carpet. I tried it on the deck int he sunshine to get better pictures, but all it did was tear up the cover. Second, get a second pair of hands to help you kee...
Read more

Crafts For Teen Girls To Make

Image
In our teen girls Bible study, we're studying our way through the Proverbs 31 woman and it's been such a blessing to me, as I hope it's been to them. Every month we spend an afternoon or an evening together studying Scripture, making something amazing in the kitchen and creating something that corresponds to the verse we're in. Choosing the crafts each time can be a challenge for several reasons. It needs to be something they can completely finish (or do most of) because once they leave they're probably not going to work on it themselves - that's just the nature of teenagers. Remember? It also needs to be a project that keeps they're attention, is age-appropriate and is cool enough that they'll want to keep it or give it to someone special. But hey, no pressure on the Bible study leader, right? Here are just a few of the projects we've done together in the year we've been meeting. * This month's craft will be the adorable cross stit...
Read more