Ramblings About People, Projects and Pressing On and a Devotional About Plastic

Winning Pie (no, not mine--don't be silly) at the 

Memorial Day Picnic

I don't usually "ramble" or write about "happenings" too much here, though I frequently do in "real life" (grin). But, this morning I thought I'd tell you about the weekend.

It was a very nice weekend. The weather was beautiful. We got a lot of things done. We enjoyed celebration of my husband's birthday, had a wonderful church service, and attended a fun Memorial Day picnic with friends. (More photos coming.)  My husband took Friday off, and so we had 4 days together. He had a project he was working on outside, which I'll tell you about a little later.

 (Photos from Memorial Day Picnic: Dads vs Sons, and Kelsey in the Tug o' War contest, and

Jeanie, her friend, with her winning soap carving.)

The weekend began with many people stopping by, for one reason or another, on Friday--some planned, and some not so. In the morning, Lynn, Kerry and I got together for prayer, as we've been attempting to do every other week or so. Even though Lynn is getting ready for a graduation Open House, with hundreds anticipated to attend, she said, "If you're too busy to pray, you're too busy." So we got together to pray. I am struck the last few months as we've met, with the fact that three ordinary housewives can sit in a living room and pray and the God of the Universe, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Almighty God, our Creator, not only listens, but this act of coming before Him with our requests causes a reaction--something happens because we pray! Wow! I know He's there, and I see His answers. It's amazing, humbling, and awe-inspiring. Later in the day, our friend from El Salvador, who is so generous, called to see if he could stop by and drop off some mangoes for us! (Make a note: Sams Club had delicious mangoes this past week!) He also brought tamarindos (tamarind) and taught us about how the mangoes and tamarind grow in his country and how they eat them. We are trying to disciple him, and have been sharing the gospel with his two sweet little girls, 8 and 5, who he has care of every other weekend. (The girls called on Sunday and left a message singing their own sweet rendition of "Happy Birthday to Jerry, Happy Birthday to you!" as it was Jerry's 61st birthday that day.) Others came and went Friday, 7 in all, which is a rare happening these days. Sunday, we had sweet worship and fellowship. My goal in future weeks is to share on this blog the words to some of the hymns that we've been singing, because the words have just jumped off the page lately and into my heart as a message from the Lord. Such deep spiritual truths are in a lot of the hymns. The testimonies, too, have been wonderful. Each week in our church the men, young and old, share testimonies of what the Lord's been teaching them. This past Sunday, Jerry got up and shared a testimony of what the Lord had showed him while doing his outdoor project. He worked so hard this past weekend! Just behind our house, between the deck and the garden, is this area where we've had difficulty growing grass. It would come up ok in the spring, but then didn't do well at all. We knew that the people before us had had a sandbox area there. Also, Jerry was concerned that that area was sloping towards the house a little, so he decided to dig it all up and regrade it and try to find out why the grass wasn't growing well. Major project. His best time of the day is in the morning, so, even though that's the east side of the house, and very hot in the morning, he went out and worked like a dog, hours and hours in the hot sun, digging, sweating, tilling, moving dirt, removing what needed to be removed and digging up the approximately 15 to 20-square-foot area. When he got it all dug up, he found the problem.  Under the hard dirt was a layer of plastic.  Interestingly, though, just on top of the plastic he found it was completely covered with a solid, huge mass of roots. In Jerry's testimony Sunday, he shared that the Lord had impressed on his heart that this was a picture of our spiritual lives. Those roots had tried to go down deep, but they couldn't. They couldn't get through the plastic. Growth was impossible. Jerry shared that this represents our spiritual lives, and the roots, our spiritual growth. The plastic represents sin in our lives. He said just like those roots couldn't get through the plastic, and the plastic had to be removed so that growth could occur, so we have to deal with the sin in our lives, which is sometimes buried deeply. We have to dig it up, confess it, and forsake it in order for spiritual growth and life to be possible. It may be hard work, and painful, and take some time. Jerry's toil and sweat and sore muscles were a picture of that. (Though it is God's work to forgive, which He does.) But we have to get the sin out of there, by God's grace, confess it, and rid our lives of it, because just as the plastic blocked the roots, so sin prevents us from putting our roots down deep in the Lord and in faith. When we do the work necessary to get rid of the sin that besets us, and which blocks our being rooted and grounded in God's love, then our roots can go deep and we will be able to thrive and grow. Isn't that a great analogy?

Ephesians 3:16-21:

¹⁶That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
 ¹⁷That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
 ¹⁸May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
 ¹⁹And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
 ²⁰Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
 ²¹Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

Hebrews 12:1-2: 

¹Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

 ²Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.