Janna’s Reviews > Wisdom from the Wild: Illustrated Reflections of Hope & Strength for Nature Lovers (A Christian Self-Help Book of Outdoor Meditations – Updated Edition ... Soul > Status Update

We develop good morals and strong character that are obvious in a crisis by many individual little courageous acts.

The fading of the flowers is as much God’s doing as is their blooming. Each has a place in his scheme of things. The mood of faith is not a slouch into despondency but standing on tiptoe to see what new good thing God has in store for us just over the horizon of another day.

^^this was convicting! If I thank God for the blooming flowers, should I not also thank Him for the fading ones?

Wisdom is the patience to allow today’s seed to ripen into tomorrow’s fruit without digging it up every few hours to see how it is coming along.

“One of the most valuable clues nature offers us concerning the successful handling of life is this: if you want the good things in your life to prosper, establish the conditions upon which they thrive... Faith flourishes when immersed in things that cannot easily be shaken. It falters and dies when ground in perishables”

while the barest necessities are here, added to them are rich flourishes of loveliness as if the Designer had said, as he fashioned the universe and provided all the essentials, “Now, these are for creation’s sake.” Then, adding beauty, he said, “And this is for love’s sake.”

God has given us a strangely mixed world with hard, sharp facts amidst our joys like thorns amidst roses and with depressing drizzles falling between days of glorious radiance... We find our peace and poise in accepting thorns while rejoicing in flowers, and in accepting rain while delighting in sunshine.