Celebrating Life

The other night I stepped

out on my front porch

and took a moment

to thank God

for this beautiful sunset

 

 

I don't know about you,

but I rarely seem to slow down these days

 

Again this past Saturday

I made myself find time to attend a

memorial service for a man

at my church that I barely knew

 

I had smiled at him and said hello

many times over the past year,

but never really took the time to

get to know him

 

During this wonderful celebration of life

I found myself rejoicing

with his family as they boldly

gave testimony through word and song

of a great Godly man

who loved his Lord and served

Him so beautifully

 

How I wish I'd slowed down long enough

to know him before the sunset on his life

 

 

 

Every Little Birdie says -

 

Slow me down, Lord!
Ease the pounding of my heart
By the quieting of my mind.
Steady my harried pace
With a vision of the eternal reach of time.
Give me, admidst the confusions of my day,
The calmness of the everlasting hills.

Break the tensions of my nerves
With the soothing music of the sighing streams
That live in my memory.
Help me to know
The magical restoring power of sleep.

Teach me the art
Of taking minute vacations of slowing down to look at a flower;
To chat with an old friend or to make a new one;
To pat a stray dog,
To watch a spider build a web;
To smile at a child;
Or to read a few lines from a good book.

Remind me each day
That the race is not always to the swift;
That there is more to life than increasing its speed.
Let me look upward
Into the branches of the towering oak
And know that it grew slowly and well.

Slow me down, Lord,
And inspire me to send my roots deep
Into the soil of life’s enduring values
That I may grow toward the stars
Of my great destiny.

Wilferd A. Peterson