Taking Time

It has been quite awhile since I last posted. Life has been so busy that time has gotten away. This leads to lesson number two.

Time. We all need it and use it on a daily basis. We also have it taken from us to do with as we would chose by kids, spouses and family, commitments that we could have turned down, but instead chose to say yes to, emergencies that pop up "out of nowhere". With all of these things pulling us in so many different directions, there is one person who doesn't clamor for our attention. He is a gracious friend who waits patiently for us to realize the importance of our time spent with Him; my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and God the Father.

As I diligently went out each day to pull at the weeds and misplaced flowers in our front bed, I was surprised at how much time that it took to get a small section done. I also realized the sense of joy and accomplishment that I felt at the progress that I made. As a couple of days turned into a couple of weeks and my new friends at the Tapestry of Grace Loose Threads group were getting worried about all the weeding that I was doing, I was relishing the quite time spent listening to my God speak with me and to me. You see, I had planted the wildflower mix into this particular bed for the sole reason of not having to weed it all summer to keep it looking nice. We have a couple of other beds with wild flowers in them that I just love. However, this particular bed just didn't look right with the flowers even though they were put there it just wasn't where they were suppose to be(another lesson). The shrubs in it were hidden by the flowers and they weren't really growing because they weren't getting the water and light that they needed to grow.

This was a two by four to the side of the head moment. I can't grow right either in my walk with the Lord if I am not planted in the right conditions. I must have light and water and air and time from and with my Lord if I am to thrive. In order to do this I must weed out the nasty weeds, and beautiful flowers that may just be planted in the wrong place or time frame in my day for me to get the nourishment I need to grow and thrive.

I won't tell you that I have accomplished this consistently yet, that would be lying and I don't do that. I am getting better. I am learning to really look at something to see if it takes away time from my family which would cause me to juggle them to another slot and squish out my time for my Lord. That part is going fairly well.

Now I just need to be as diligent about keeping my time commitment with my Lord as I was with getting out to work in that flower bed this summer. That is a goal for me to do and achieve before the end of this year. How about you? Are you getting watered and weeded(lesson number 3) on a daily or weekly basis, outside of church?

My Lord waits each day to meet with me and yet do I meet with Him or do I stand Him up. How do I expect to grow and bloom and bear fruit if I am not making my date with Him each day? Now it is time to put into practice this first step that I was told this summer. Look how patient my God is. That is such a small comparison to how much I know that He loves me.

He's waiting to meet with you too.

Have a great week everyone.

Alone time

In my other blog Life Lessons from the Barn I talked about other things coming up instead that got in the way of my starting to plan for the school year. These first few posts are going to be some lessons I learned this spring during a weeding project.

We first had a garage sale with my Mother-in-law and Sister-in-law, two actually. The first one was fairly simple and not a lot of work. The second one, however, was a lot longer prep as we were clearing out the old farm house. My Mother-in-law is in her own apartment/suite that is attached to my Sister-in-Laws new house and the farm house is coming down. In the few weeks that took to arrange the sun and rain conspired together to grow a healthy patch of weeds in one of my wild flower patches. I had planned on working in this patch to change it around a little this year, but first I needed to get time to work on it.

I did ask the kids(14 and 11) if they wanted to go out and help pull weeds. It was amazing how no one wanted to pull the weeds and flowers that weren't where they were suppose to be. Even my husband found other projects to do. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I had time alone. No one bothered me with questions or needing things. They never even checked to see if I was still alive out there-this might have been a nice thing. I know they were concerned if I saw them they would have been recruited. I might have the first day, but after that I think I wouldn't have. God was talking to me and I could actually hear without all of the other things pressing me.

How often do we not want to do something like this alone? Sometimes, I feel that, yes, the kids and husband could help-they live here too. Other times though in the business of our lives as Moms and Wives a drive to the grocery store alone, weeding a flower bed, working outside or inside alone at something is a chance for God to use and teach us. I haven't asked for too much help when doing the weeding this year and after letting things get away from me as you will see in the next post leaves a lot of opportunity for musings along the path with my Lord.