{"id":1489,"date":"2012-07-14T11:15:53","date_gmt":"2012-07-14T15:15:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/sweetshore\/?p=1489"},"modified":"2012-07-14T11:15:53","modified_gmt":"2012-07-14T15:15:53","slug":"bird-songs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sweetshore\/2012\/07\/bird-songs.html","title":{"rendered":"Bird Songs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/sweetshore\/files\/2012\/07\/images21.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1498 alignleft\" title=\"images2\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/sweetshore\/files\/2012\/07\/images21.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"220\" height=\"146\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/sweetshore\/files\/2012\/07\/images41.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-1500\" title=\"images4\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/sweetshore\/files\/2012\/07\/images41.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"220\" height=\"146\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/260\/2012\/07\/images52.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1501 aligncenter\" title=\"images5\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/260\/2012\/07\/images52.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"186\" height=\"140\" \/> <\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Out on my customary walk with Lucy (my dog) this morning, and listening to the sounds the birds make at 5:45 a.m..<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/sweetshore\/files\/2012\/07\/images11.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-1497\" title=\"images1\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/260\/2012\/07\/images11-300x152.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"210\" height=\"106\" \/><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Birds sing their hearts out to greet the morning.\u00a0 The only exception seems to be if it&#8217;s raining (or snowing, I suppose, although I have no personal experience of that).<\/p>\n<p>Such joyous music!\u00a0 And I thought:\u00a0 Why doesn&#8217;t my heart automatically make such joyous sounds of praise to my God when I get up in the morning?\u00a0 Am I not a higher creature than the birds?\u00a0 Hasn&#8217;t my heavenly Father done infinitely more for me that for tiny birds?\u00a0 Should not my praise explode from my heart spontaneously as theirs does?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/260\/2012\/07\/images7.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1503 aligncenter\" title=\"images7\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/260\/2012\/07\/images7.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"198\" height=\"131\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Then I thought about how I allow the cares of this world to dampen my spirit.\u00a0 I&#8217;m convinced that if I wasn&#8217;t so consumed with thinking about all the things I have to do and where I&#8217;m going to go and how I&#8217;m going to pay all of the bills I&#8217;ve managed to rack up for myself, my spirit would well up with a song to my Father that I wouldn&#8217;t be able to contain any more than the birds can contain theirs.<a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/260\/2012\/07\/images3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1496 alignleft\" title=\"images\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/260\/2012\/07\/images3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"121\" height=\"161\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>God reminded me of Jesus&#8217; words:\u00a0 &#8220;Look at the birds of the air:\u00a0 they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them&#8230;Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these&#8230;seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As I continue along my new journey(more about that later), seeking simple gifts and drawing my daily living down to a place that free of distractions, I&#8217;m convinced that I will be opened up to see more of God&#8217;s work in the world, hear more clearly what He speaks through His word, and respond with praise and the clarity to do what He wants me to do.<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/sweetshore\/files\/2012\/07\/images31.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"images3\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/sweetshore\/files\/2012\/07\/images31.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"263\" height=\"192\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/260\/2012\/07\/images8.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-1504\" title=\"images8\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/260\/2012\/07\/images8.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"220\" height=\"146\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Next time you&#8217;re out early in the morning&#8230;listen to the birds.\u00a0 The songs God has given them are glorious, and yet they pale in comparison to the praises that are and will be lifted up as we walk in His presence.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And now, just because I&#8217;m me&#8211;I wanted to share this wonderful bird video from PIXAR.\u00a0 Enjoy!<\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=dJ4Nnr0MXKY&#038;_detailpage<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Out on my customary walk with Lucy (my dog) this morning, and listening to the sounds the birds make at 5:45 a.m&#8230; Birds sing their hearts out to greet the morning.\u00a0 The only exception seems to be if it&#8217;s raining (or snowing, I suppose, although I have no personal experience of that). Such joyous music!\u00a0&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":424,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,102,75,5],"tags":[476,478,477],"class_list":["post-1489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian","category-faith-2","category-life-and-death","category-personal-observations","tag-bird-songs","tag-praise","tag-simple-gifts"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Bird Songs - Sweet Shore<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sweetshore\/2012\/07\/bird-songs.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bird Songs - Sweet Shore\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Out on my customary walk with Lucy (my dog) this morning, and listening to the sounds the birds make at 5:45 a.m... Birds sing their hearts out to greet the morning.\u00a0 The only exception seems to be if it&#8217;s raining (or snowing, I suppose, although I have no personal experience of that). Such joyous music!\u00a0&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sweetshore\/2012\/07\/bird-songs.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sweet Shore\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-07-14T15:15:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/sweetshore\/files\/2012\/07\/images21.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nora Puls\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Bird Songs - Sweet Shore","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/sweetshore\/2012\/07\/bird-songs.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Bird Songs - Sweet Shore","og_description":"Out on my customary walk with Lucy (my dog) this morning, and listening to the sounds the birds make at 5:45 a.m... 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