I love my flowers

I love summertime so I can see all the pretty flowers around. I love planting flowers and watching them grow and become beautiful. I especially love my roses. I hate working with them though because I end up with really scratched hands because of the thorns. But they are so beautiful I have to keep them in my flowerbeds. I have three rose bushes and each one is so different and the thorns on each plant are different. Some thorns are big nasty thorns and some are just small but they hurt really bad.  When I was little my Mom would take me to Pocatello to visit my Great Grandma Swisher and she grew the most beautiful flowers ever, I loved going there to see her flower gardens. I found this wonderful saying one time that I think describes my thorny roses perfect.

"My God, I have never thanked You for my thorns. I have thanked You a thousand times for my roses, but never once for my thorns. Teach me the glory of the cross I bear; teach me the value of my thorns. Show me that I have climbed closer to You along the path of pain. Show me that, through my tears, the colors of Your rainbow look much more brilliant." Praise Him for the roses; thank Him for the thorns.

I had to give a talk in church a couple weeks ago on Faith and Gratitude, when they called to ask me to give it they asked for personal experiences. I worried about it but It ended up being an easy talk to give because Faith and Gratitude are something I love. I can honestly say I have been grateful for the thorns in my life, for who they made me become. I have now been asked to give this talk three more times and I am so grateful and feel so blessed.