Nothing's Sweeter Than These Summer Nights

The sky was a beautiful hazy blue, with puffs of white scattered in the distance. The chirping of crickets and birds, harmonizing in praise to the God above. Fireflies flickering throughout the yard, lighting the path for toads in the grass blades. Nothing was sweeter than this. I leaned over and grabbed the ball at my feet. It was a slobbery mess now, but I didn't care.

Trying my best to throw the ball like I was an MLB player, I managed to get it as far as the tree line. I watched as Charlie ran and leaped, catching the ball in mid-air. As he "pranced" around the yard with his prize, I chuckled, finding an odd sense of peace in the evening. The warm sun that was setting behind the trees gave the night a feeling of bliss and as I buried my toes in the grass, I couldn't help but smile.

“If you’re not barefoot, then you’re overdressed.” —Unknown

A few months ago, before summer had yet come, I was dreading the hot months. Misery was the first word that popped in my mind when summer was mentioned. Perhaps you are the same, or perhaps you just look forward to the summer months all year round, like my brother does. As a used-to-be Florida girl, I can handle the heat, but I would never choose it.

So... if I don't like summer and the heat, then why did I pick the blog theme for July and August to be, "Nothing's Sweeter Than These Summer Nights"? Good question, dear "Lilies". Summer does have its bright spots, and I would have to say that summer nights/evenings are the sweetest. After a long day of activities that only summer can give you, it can be nice to relax on the patio and rewind. It gives you time to reflect on your life, focus on the little moments, and dwell on God's amazing blessings. Instead of focusing on how miserable summer is (which is what I am prone to do) focus on everything that you have been given and the blessings of summer. Which, one of them could be the fact that summer months give you more light to read by at night, which I would have to say is perhaps the second sweetest thing of these months.

Genesis 8:22 says, "While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, And cold and heat, And summer and winter, And day and night Shall not cease.” We will never be living in a world without summer, so we might as well enjoy the little things that make the hot months sweet. The unique sunsets that are different each night, the chirping crickets, the afternoon rain that cools you off even as the sun stills shines its face upon you, the ice cream dripping down your hands on a summer pool day. Before summer gets away from you, and we enter the beautiful fall months, where the leaves will change, announcing the slow arrival of winter, enjoy the last few sweet summer nights. Take out your favorite novel, a glass of iced tea, and your sandals, and soak up the fading sun before it's too late and the cold finds your bones.

Until next time, dear "Lilies"!

-Jaycee ♡

“The crickets felt it was their duty to warn everybody that summertime cannot last forever. Even on the most beautiful days in the whole year—the days when summer is changing into autumn—the crickets spread the rumor of sadness and change.” —E.B. White