Good morning, DearHeart.

I was grateful, thankful, and blessed to have Dale and my boys rebuild my front porch this past weekend.

It’s never all lollipops and rainbows – as they are all strong-willed personalities and sparks fly often (real often … like constantly!), but my heart floods with joy to see Dale and my sons work together. Really, to see any family work together. Growing up, one of my favorite times of year was wheat harvest. Pop and Dad and my uncle and brothers set out early to service the equipment and get to the fields as soon as they were dry enough to cut. They worked together as farming called them to, shoulder to shoulder. My grandmother, ‘Mom Coon’, Mom, and my aunt fixed lunch including tea in big mason jars to take to the field, encouraging the men to stay fed and hydrated for their strength to be sustained. Shoulder to shoulder.

And isn’t this how we all should work?

“Then I will purify the lips of the people, that all of them may call on the name of the Lord and serve Him shoulder to shoulder.” (Zephaniah 3:9, NIV)

Shoulder to shoulder.

We work in one accord, in unity, as we stand firm with our arms around the shoulders of those beside us. We draw strength from each other to keep on going, encouraged with our souls made firmer as we know we are not working alone.

Keep reading down a little further in the chapter to verse 17:

“The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in His love He will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” (NIV)

We don’t tend to imagine God singing but He does – our unity, standing shoulder to shoulder, causes God such great delight that He breaks into song. He sings as He rejoices over His people when they come together for His purposes, for His people, and for the glory of His Name. God. Singing.

Shoulder to shoulder continues to teach me how I am to serve God and others. To see co-laboring in action reminds me to be faithful. shoulder to shoulder, in unity with those He places in my life.

Wake up.

Join forces.

Go.