Ladies, Ladies…All the Ladies!!

Good morning… or good day, or good evening… whichever time of day you are reading this….It’s morning time right now for me.  J  I am sitting in Starbucks with my new favorite drink…a soy latte…(it’s the PERFECT sweet)  Anyway… before I begin my entry I MUST express to you all what an encouragement you have been who have left comments either via email or on my blog.  I began this blogging thing from a strong conviction of the Lord.  I didn’t want to do it.  I just felt like I wasn’t the kind of person who could really bestow any biblical wisdom…but one day the Lord was like…”seriously.. don’t look at it like that…just tell people what I’m teaching you…that’s all I’m asking…just be obedient to that.”  It has ALWAYS been my prayer that God would use my words (they’re really His words.. I just do the typing) to encourage others.  That really is all I have asked..”Lord, I just want to be used as an encouragement…”  So by you sharing your comments and sharing with me what God is teaching YOU…I am seeing my prayer answered.  Truly a blessing!

“One…two…three……..twelve, thirteen…fourteen!!!  Fourteen mommy!!  There are fourteen bulbs!!”

Will is jumping up and down in our front yard.  He was been kneeling down around our skinny little oak tree counting all of the daffodil sprouts popping up.  He was in the yard when I was planting them a few months ago and it has been such a delight to him watching these things grow.  I have been forcing some hyacinths in the house as well.  All of us take turns watering them and slowly but surely they are beginning to grow.  Every morning Will and Josh will comment on their growth…”Look they’re getting taller…”  I just can’t wait for spring to get here… when all of our colds will hopefully be gone and we will be able to smell their AMAZING aroma.

Usually in the afternoons when Josh and Emma Faye are napping, Will and I do our rounds in the yard searching for all the “new growth”.  I planted some tulips in pots outside our back patio.  I had these visions of overflowing Tulips protruding from my big pots as if on the cover of Southern Living… but yesterday.. I was saddened.  One pot is not doing so well.  It was the pot that I forgot didn’t have a drain hole… AND on top of that.. I had run out of fresh potting soil when I was planting them and used some old soil and dirt from my yard to finish filling it in.  (I tend to patch things like that instead of just waiting to get more soil… I’m sort of an instant gratification person.)  Anyway……those bulbs seemed all mushy and rotten.  They were sitting in REALLY WET soil… I think it was causing them to rot… I also noticed some bugs in there…. “Oh, Will… these aren’t going to do well……”  “Hey, mommy, but these are good…”  I turned to my other pot… the one with the good soil…. And little green stems were extending upward from the dirt.  Gee, I think to myself… it’s been raining SO MUCH.. why didn’t I just bring these pots under the porch so the water wouldn’t destroy them….. but then, another thought occurred to me…. Here were two pots… in the same place… receiving same light, same amount of water… the only difference was the dirt.  Hmmmmm….another life lesson for me.  I suddenly asked myself… what’s in my pot?  Am I filled with fertile soil?  What is my foundation?  Am I planted in the soil filled of the word of God?  Or am I soaking in muddy water…. Am I being eaten by bugs?  Like my little tulips, I really had no choice in where I was planted…the Lord placed me in the family that he did (which are WONDERFUL parents…but so many of you may not have been blessed with a strong family unit.)..the Lord has had me experience some painful situations in my life and has brought me down some extremely difficult paths… but UNLIKE my sweet little tulips… I DO have a choice in my soil.  I can choose to fill myself daily of the word of God….spend time in prayer… choose the company of people who will encourage me on in Christ.  You know, I was reading on the back of a potting soil bag….phrases like…holds moisture, fertilizer time release included, drains well…….were all written to let me know that what I was buying was going to insure the best blooms… the best fruit…  and it just hit me.  Here I was so angry that I forgot to bring my pots out of the weather… wanting to shield them from the damaging elements.  But people…the “elements” weren’t what ruined my pot of rotten tulips… it was the soil. 

It’s going to rain… it’s going to storm in our lives… we are going to have our share of thunderstorms…but in fertile soil…we are equipped to handle them.  After all, rain is good isn’t it?  I mean don’t the flowers need water?  We need water to… one of my favorite passages is brought to my mind…

”but we exult  in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance, and perseverance, proven character, and proven character hope; and hope does not disappoint us because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given us..” Romans 5:3-5. 

Along with the thunder and the lightening and the heavy rains that the Devil pounds on our delicate petals… we are also being showered with the Holy Spirit….This enables our soil, or souls, to receive what we are to gain from these trials and filter out the excess ‘water’… it feeds us with its ‘timeless’ release fertilizer….and retains enough moisture for us to get through a few days under the scorching sun.  We can’t control the weather… but we can prepare ourselves….the bible says that the enemy is prowling “like a roaring lion..” (1 Peter 5:8)….. we must accept that we WILL BE ATTACKED..whether that will be frustrations with our children…husbands…sickness…fatigue…(these are ALL things the Devil uses to wear me down—He’s subtle like that..)….and we MUST stay in the word, in prayer, and in accountability with other believers.  As I pray for myself…I pray this for you all… Let’s make it a priority to equip ourselves.  My bible study leader gave me some excellent words of advice… “During these years… you moms with young children… just graze… We all know you don’t have a lot of time… but just sit your bible out on the kitchen counter and graze throughout your day.”  The Lord’s word will never return empty..that’s a promise…not just something I’m saying… any time you make for Christ… He will bless it… So I’m going to stop now… I need a little filling up to do myself…..Everyone, spring is coming… as you are filling your pots with all the bounty of flowers spring has to offer…..fill yourselves with His words….. let’s blossom together this season.  As my hyacinths will soon flood my living room with it’s sweet perfume…may we, too, bloom and exude the aroma of Christ (2 Corinthians 2:15) in our homes and our communities.