#MasterGardner

Gardenias and Begonias and Geraniums and African Violets were just a part of the array of flowers that my grandmother kept growing around my home. She had been a farmer's wife and had a 'green thumb', if anyone did. I watched her give tender loving care to her little garden on our screened-in side porch over the years and developed a love for gardening from her.

When my husband and I bought our home, the front yard had been sodded, but the back yard was just dirt - no bushes, no trees, no grass and definitely no flowers. First thing we did was to plant grass seed and as that began to be a lawn, it was much better than mud, but it was boring. I, so wanted a colorful, attractive back yard and considered my options. I knew it would take money, which we didn't have a whole of to spend unnecessarily, and it would take time, which I had more of than money and it would take work, which I am not opposed to do. The little knowledge I had taken in from my grandmother was totally inadequate for my back yard. I could not brag about my 'green thumb'.

After several years of not knowing the difference between a weed and a flower or what grew best in sun or shade or which fertilizer to use, I decided to attend the Master Gardner's class offered at the local Rotary Gardens. It was a three months class, one night a week and I did learn much, especially where to go to find information, but I could not call myself a Master Gardner. Head knowledge does not make one a Master Gardner. Head knowledge plus experience can make one a Master Gardner.

The same it true in regards to a Christian. Head knowledge of the Bible does not make one a Christian. One can recite verses from memory and explain the difference between predestination and free-will and know exactly where to find most any verse in the Bible, and, if a Christian, still be a baby Christian. Experience is a requirement and experience is gained by believing what the Bible says and putting it into action in one's own life. You can grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ by studying His Word, believing His word and living by His Word.It is the combination of all three activities that work, not just one or even two.

#Stupidity

A question was posed on Face Book recently that caught my attention. If a book was published with your face on the cover, what would the title be? My comment was, "What Does Stupid Look Like?"
A bit later a comment was made to mine with a question - what does that mean? A little thought gave me the answer - After finally taking the 'rose-colored' glasses off, I made the decision to change things and the actual name of my book is "The Treasure Is The Trip"

If the lack of good sense or judgement is the definition of stupidity, then it wouldn't appear that I was stupid as a young person. In high school, I loved English and Math and made good grades, was an editor for our high school paper, was on the girl's rifle team and involved in many other outside activities. Church was a big part of my life in encouraging me to memorize scripture and study the Bible. Looking back and trying to be objective, it was religious activity and rather superficial to me.

It wasn't until I was in my mid twenties and the mother of four little ones that I had a real encounter with God. He who knows us so well and loves us so much would not let me go on with my 'rose colored-glasses' on. My conversation with Him and the results in the changes in my life and different happenings in the years that followed are written in my book.

The Bible states that "we are not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought" and somehow humanity has the tendency to do just that. We all put 'those' glasses' on when we take time to look at ourselves and we either see ourselves as really good and capable or we see ourselves really bad and a looser and both of these ways of seeing ourselves are not accurate. Pride will distort the truth. Yes, you can be proud of being really bad.

We, each one of us, needs to see ourselves as God sees us and His Word tells us how He sees us. First, we can gather from His Word that we are His by creation. We belong to Him because He created us and, second, we can gather from His Word that something broke the relationship. The Bible calls it 'sin' and not only was the relationship broken, something inside of us was also broken. But, God loved each of us so much that He made the way to restore that relationship and make it even better by empowering us to be more that His creation, but become His child and have His eternal life living within us. Third, He promises to continue working in our lives to conform us into the image of His only begotten Son, Jesus and work, He will. He will get your attention, somehow, so you don't have to go on behaving stupidly.

#Compliments

The day was seriously grey. There was a light fog which had nestled itself in our area with grey clouds above, leftovers from yesterday's snow, hiding the sun as I left for work. The morning was a bit slow as drivers had to shovel themselves out to get their day going. It was about one o'clock when a customer was walking the skin-care aisle looking for something specific and in comes an attractive young woman heading straight for her. I noticed that the customer was being instructed about different products by this bubbly lady, her hands displaying the motions of washing her face and applying creams.

They both moved forward towards me. The customer had a few products in her hands and the bubbly lady stayed with her as they waited for me to finish with another customer Then, the products were given to me to scan. I handed the receipt over and pointed out her savings because of promotions we were offering and also her rewards. After she left, the bubbly lady asked me if our manager was here that she wanted to talk with her. I paged the manager and the bubbly lady went to see her. A few minutes later she came by me and stopped to mention that she had told the manager what a good job I was doing. I was taken aback, but thanked her and she turned toward the door and waved good-bye. My eyes followed her and then I noticed how bright my space was. I turned my head as the thought came to me, 'Wow, am I so starved for a compliment that just one will brighten my day by so much that I noticed it?'

I tuned my head back to the door and then discovered that there were blue skies and no fog and the sun was shinning! OK, so God was giving brightness to our world and not just to me. That is a good thing, a very good thing in February! The bubbly lady did brighten my day considerably, but not to that extent. I was impressed that a compliment can brighten someone's day, especially when it is grey. If we were conscious of others we are involved with and made it a little project to say at least one something nice or positive to them, we would actually be spreading sunshine, not the physical kind, but the emotional kind, and brighten every day.

Have a good and blessed day!

#Preferences

Of all the colors in the spectrum, I prefer green, but then, it depends upon the substance. Green walls or carpet, in my opinion, are good and even green sweaters and purses. That doesn't make any other color 'bad'. My preference is just that, my preference. I surely do not look down on anyone who prefers violet and am impressed by the ones who have the courage to color their hair pink or purple or green.

There are many species of animals and some prefer a cat for a pet rather than an alligator. It doesn't make someone bad if the prefer a pig rather than a bird. It is just their preference and there is nothing immoral about having a pig for a pet. Preferences over colors and styles and jobs and music are all free to choose and God bless you!

But there are some things that have been considered a preference that should not be in that category. If a young woman decides to remain a virgin till she is married, that is choosing to be moral. This choice should not be put in the category of preferences. This choice is a moral choice. A preference is based on subjective opinions, whereas morals are based on objective criteria. The same should be said about abortion. It is immoral to murder someone, no matter how young. Abortion is not a preference to be childless, it is murder.

The standards for morality were set by God. It is His prerogative to say what is right and wrong. This is His universe. He set the rules. We are here by His good pleasure and it is up to us to find out what the rules are and to live by them. It isn't hard. He made sure the rules were recorded for us and no matter all the efforts to rid the world of His Word over the thousands of years they have been around, they still remain. The problem today, His Word, for all intents and purposes, is ignored. A recent survey conducted on young people found that the average time spent on their phone or i-pad is nine hours a day. The time for adults was about the same. Would anyone in their right mind suggest that young people spent nine hours a day reading God's word? Or adults? Nine hours a week is not even an average for the average person.

The efforts to make our society 'comfortable' for all faiths has, in essence, thrown God's Word in the trash. Now murder is considered a preference and having sex outside of marriage is fine and dandy as long as you protect yourself from diseases. What other laws will become a preference?

#Reminders

When I was a teenager my grandmother was constantly reminding me to sit up straight. She would watch me walking and say, "hold your head up" or "put your shoulders back" or "stop slouching". I must have developed really bad posture and she was not going to have me continue that way.

Bad posture is not only unattractive, it is not good your your internal organs and I find that as you age your center of gravity changes and it becomes easier to hunch over. Now, I am constantly reminding myself to stand up straight, to relax my neck muscles and to hold my tummy in.

We all need reminders because we get bombarded with unwanted, un-requested stuff  all the time and can easily loose sight of the normal. For instance, our relationship with the important people in our life can get sidetracked as we deal with the trash. It takes time to clean out those e-mails that invade our location. It takes time to just keep the kitchen clean. It takes time to go through all the snail-mail to decide what to pitch and what to save and where to keep all the saved stuff.

As our days click off the minutes and we busy ourselves with the small and big problems, we can forget about God's presence. We need reminders to tap our shoulder and cause us to bring God back into the moment. He has indicated that He is seriously involved in the minute details of our lives and has declared that we are to talk to Him about everything. It's not that we don't care, we just get involved and forget and in doing so, we loose out on the wonderful  possibilities of sharing with the one that loves us the most.

I have decided that each time I chasten myself about my posture is a good time to think about God. This practice will be a pretty regular reminder to me as I can 'kill two birds with one stone'. If you catch me walking and smiling at the same time, you will know that I just tapped myself on the shoulder to remind me to walk with my head held high and my shoulders back and my tummy in and am talking with God at the moment.

#Fascination

The two year old was leading the way with his parents following through the aisles. Evidently, they had told him that he could pick one thing to take home. He was only about two feet high, so his focus was on the lower shelves where all sorts of goodies were placed where those only two feet tall would see. On the shelves above were big red hearts filled with chocolates and packages loaded with candy, but, he was fascinated with what was on his level. His parents watched from a little distance ready to help redirect him if they thought he would select something not good for him.

The tube of candy with a plastic person sitting at the top with four blades on his head caught this young fellows eye and he grabbed it and started walking towards his parents. They approved and headed towards the cash register, all three. He found the button on the side and pushed it and stopped in his tracks as the four blades started spinning and, in his fascination, a giggle poured out of his mouth. He let go of the button and the blades stopped spinning and he started walking again and then he pushed the button again and started giggling again as the blades began spinning. He was fascinated.

I mentioned to his parents that I had a son, who, at the age of two had been fascinated with airplanes and would just watch as jets flew high in the sky. His mom said that their son did the same thing and then I mentioned that my son had son had gone on to become a helicopter pilot and perhaps here was one in the making.

Fascinations! What are we fascinated with? What catches our attention? Is there something within us that is turned on when we see it? Is our 'garden of delights' full of weeds? Does the stink week capture our attention? Does the dandelion fascinate us? Is it time to look up to see the stuff on the higher shelves. Is it time to be more discriminating in what captures our attention? Can you relate to some verses in Psalm 119 which show how the law of the Lord fascinated the writer when he says "Your word I have treasured in my heart" or "open my eyes, that I may see wonderful things from Your law" and "O how I love Your word! It is my meditation all day long"

Can you find a giggle in God's word? Do you take it personally and let it judge the intents of your heart? Do you treasure it and go to it often to let it feed your faith? Are the 'weeds' of this world more fascinating than the 'Word' of God?

Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own desires. James 1:14 

#UniversalHealthCare

The first thought that entered my mind after hearing so many presidential hopefuls tout how important it is for the United States to provide health care to every person in our country was, "Do they not understand human nature?" It really boggles my mind to see these well (?) educated people offer this idea. Don't they know that there is a large percentage of folks who don't or can't think about things, but, whose first instinct is to rush off to the Emergency Room or make an appointment with the doctor? Can't they see that there would develop a subconscious thinking, because people would know that even if they didn't eat right or do right by their bodies, all would be OK since they would have health care professionals to freely care for them?

All of this 'free' stuff appeals to younger people who really don't know 'nothing' except what is printed in books. They have not had enough time on their own to learn some wisdom and those in teaching positions probably have never done any thing on their own but to study from books written by people who have never done any thing on their own. They may have good hearts and are seriously concerned about people and without thinking things through, decide that 'free' is the way to go to help people.

It is the same thing as Socialism which rewards bad behavior. Socialism can't exist without taxation and it is the people who have worked that get taxed. The 'smart' ones who have chosen not to work are rewarded for their behavior by being given the money taken from the workers. Human nature would soon begin to take over and all humans would see that work is not rewarding, so why work. Then, Socialism has a big problem. No workers, no taxes. No taxes, no nothing for the country to run on. That is why Socialism is a failure - human nature.

Humans need to be free. Humans need the challenge of competition. Humans need to work and be creative and productive. Humans need to be rewarded for good behavior. Humans need to learn wisdom from doing stuff on their own and learning the different consequences of good behavior and bad behavior. Humans need to take a look at history before presenting an idea, because something repeated time and time again in the past will repeat itself again in the future and Socialism has been tried time and time again and has failed, miserably.

#Negotiations

The negotiation room is quiet for now, but there is a humungous uproar outside. The line in the sand has been moved, again. This line started out far right of where it lies now and time and time again, it has been moved. It always seems to move to the left, tho, there was a period when a few stood up and inched it back to the right.  At times the replacement has gone unnoticed. At other times, all sides agreed to it's new location and if there were a few dissenters, their voices could not be heard for the sound of approval raised by the masses.

The gavel hits the table to bring both sides back to the table, but those who are for the placement as it is now do not come to the table. They are absolutely sure they are right and are not willing to waste any of their breath, talking. The roar of the crowd on the outside proves they are right. In fact, there are many who do not want any line to worry about. They have indicated that it should be 'a no holds barred' thing, an 'anything goes' sort of thing and those who have come to talk, talk for the crowd.  They know of many who have crossed the line and have been hurt and have needs that can't be supplied if the line is considered. They believe that it is the people who are important and making them happy, no guilt, just free to do their own thing and forget about that blasted line.

Those who want the line to be moved back want to talk. They want to explain the consequences of changing the location of the line, to no avail. The crowd is too loud. Some on the right are wavering. It could be that the line is too demanding, is their thought. Perhaps we should reconsider and let it be and maybe the crowd will calm down and we will have peace. After all, peace is really important.

The negotiations are over. The crowd has won.