Category: Life

Lessons from a Plant Killer

Posted on by Paula

 

I am a plant killer. I absolutely love plants, but over the years, I have caused more plants to suffer than I would like to admit. I am able to kill a jasmine, gardenia or begonia rather quickly, but for other unfortunate types such as a hibiscus, palm tree or orchid, their death can be a long, drawn-out process. I have learned that there are certain plants that I can do well with and others that I need to stop bringing home no matter how much I love them.

One of my favorite plants is a bougainvillea, a plant that thrives down in the south.  I had an absolutely gorgeous one for quite a few years; I loved that plant and took good care of it. However, a couple of years ago, I got in a funk, and while trying to keep my head above water, I stopped caring for my plants. When the difficult season ended, and I went out to clean my sunporch, I was sad to see that my beautiful plant had died.

 

The beautiful bougainvillea thrives in the south

 

This summer while vacationing down in the south, I decided it was time to replace my plant. I was doing much better this year and thought I could handle gardening again. However, less than three weeks after I brought my new bougainvillea home, it had lost almost all of its leaves. I had gotten too busy and forgotten to water it. The poor thing was dying of thirst, and I was crushed.

 

My bougainvillea less than 3 weeks after I brought it home

 

I watered the thirsty plant right away and gave it plenty of attention for the next few weeks. Thankfully, less than a month later, the plant that had been on the brink of death has made a wonderful recovery.

 

Water brought my nearly dead bougainvillea back to life

 

All living things need water to survive. Plants wilt, lose their leaves and die without water. Animals become dehydrated and die without water as well. When we ourselves haven’t had enough to drink, we get thirsty. God created us that way to keep us from getting dehydrated and dying.

God created us with another type of thirst as well. While our physical bodies thirst for water, our soul thirsts for something more. God created us to long for him, and nothing else can satisfy that longing. Psalm 42:1-2 says,

 

As the deer pants for streams of water,

so my soul pants for you, my God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

When can I go and meet with God?

 

When we aren’t spending enough time with God, our soul starts to thirst for him. We become restless, unsatisfied and discontented. We long to hear him speak through his word in the Bible. We long to commune with him in prayer. We long for his presence, his joy and his perfect peace. We long for rest in him.

Maybe you are thirsting for God and don’t even realize it. Are you unsettled and dissatisfied? Only God can fulfill our deepest needs and desires. It is He who brings us true healing, joy, purpose and peace.

If you are finding yourself in a dry and weary season of life, stop depriving yourself of his living water. Shift your focus back to Jesus and let him quench your thirst and refresh you.

On the Inside

Posted on by Paula

I have never had a purse that I actually loved until I found this one. The multi-colored sequins was stunning, and the over-sized bow was in the perfect shade of pink. The inside had plenty of pockets and enough room for everything a normal woman wants to take along plus added room for my camera or a book. There was a side pocket for my umbrella. Even the name was perfect, the Betsey Johnson Pink Fairy Bow! Everywhere I went, I received compliments from both friends and strangers about how much they loved my purse. I carried it for 2 or 3 years and was sad when I needed to find a replacement because the edges started showing too much wear and tear.

Yes, that purse was absolutely gorgeous on the outside, but sometimes the inside was a different story. Sometimes I threw so much stuff inside that I couldn’t find the really important things when I’d search for them. Sometimes, I’d try to dig through it very discreetly so that there was no way possible for the people close by to catch a glimpse of the inside. I would have been horrified if anyone could have seen all of gum that spilled on the bottom, the collection of ink pens, the papers, the crumpled up receipts and the many other embarrassing items that got thrown in as I rushed through the day.

I always say that you can tell what my life is like by peeking inside my purse. If my purse is a mess, you can pretty much bet that my car and house are in disarray as well. Dig even deeper into my life, and you may find that I’m not always so well put together on the inside either. Oh the things that we women can accumulate on the inside when life gets too busy. Sometimes we don’t have time to deal with hurt, low self-esteem or feelings of being unloved. Furthermore, if we get overloaded and start feeling like we are carrying more than our fair share of the load, jealousy, anger, bitterness or resentment can start to sneak in. We just keep stuffing it all in there as we deal with task after task. If we let things go too long, we can also start adding guilt, despair, hopelessness, self-pity or self-centeredness.

Yes, when my purse is a mess, you can pretty much guess that my whole life is a mess. Just like I need to periodically dump my purse out and sort through the gunk inside, I also need to give the mess in my life over to God and allow Him to sort through the gunk as well. God can help us get rid of all the garbage that keeps us from living life to the full. He can unclutter our minds, untangle our hearts and fill us with peace.

Let’s allow God to clean our lives up, and let’s encourage each other as well. We never know what someone else is struggling with unless they let us look inside. However, we can ask God to help us see others through his eyes. We can ask Jesus to love the people through us, we can build each other up and we can remind each other of the beauty we see in one another’s lives.

Keeping in Tune When We Are Pressed and Plucked

Posted on by Paula
Christopher taught me to help tune the ukuleles so that the students could focus their time on learning to play.

My son, Christopher accepted a position last fall to teach music for preschool through 5th grade. Christopher, who has always had a passion for music, thought of several fun ways to instill that passion in his students. One of his most exciting ideas was to start a ukulele club.

In December, I was given the opportunity to travel to Florida and volunteer in both his classroom and also in his wife Cassie’s 4th grade classroom. One of the ways that I got to assist was by helping Christopher tune all 20 ukuleles before each after school ukulele club meeting.

New ukulele strings need time to stretch so they will settle down and hold their tune. As the instrument is played, the strings stretch. As the strings stretch, they become out of tune. Very frequent tuning is needed until the strings settle down.

The best way to speed up the process is to play the instrument a lot. The more the instrument is played, the more the strings become accustomed to the way they are pressed on and plucked. At first, the strings may become out of tune after being played just a short while. The more the ukulele is played, the more the strings will settle down and the longer the instrument will stay in tune.

As we were tuning the ukuleles, I thought about my relationship with God and how important it is that I stay in tune with him. Sometimes life throws us a curve and our faith is stretched. Our health may fail, we may become grieved as someone we love starts going in the wrong direction, we may lose our financial security, we may encounter disaster and we may become overwhelmed. Our faith may become stretched and the enemy may try to pull us away from God. During those times, we must remain in the Father’s hand and allow him to tune our hearts and strengthen our faith.

The more we allow God to work in us and through us the more we settle down and are able to keep in tune with him. We will continue our whole lives to be pressed and plucked as we face new challenges, but the more we submit to God’s tuning, the longer we will go before needing a major tune-up.

“Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.” ~Jude 1:24-25

There Was No Other Way

Posted on by Paula

He knew what was coming that Thursday. He fell with his face to the ground and prayed to the Father 3 times asking if it was possible to take away the cup of suffering that he had been asked to drink. And though his soul was overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground, his earnest prayers of anguish ended with, “Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

He was full of love, grace and compassion. He was a man of honor and truth. He healed the sick and gave sight to the blind. He was a friend to sinners, the poor and those who others shunned. There wasn’t a mean or selfish bone in his body. He spent his life serving those around him and doing the will of his Father. He never committed a single sin. He didn’t deserve this cup, but he knew that we were separated from God by our sin. He understood that the only way to get rid of our sin was by shedding the blood of a sinless man. There was no other way. He was willing to take the blame, willing to suffer, willing to die. He accepted the cup.

A large crowd arrived that night with clubs and swords. For thirty pieces of silver, he was betrayed with a kiss, and his closest friends deserted him. He was handed over for questioning, accused of blasphemy, spit on, beaten and ridiculed. He was completely innocent, but he didn’t defend Himself.

Then came Friday. Over and over, the whips beat upon his back until it became a mass of torn, bleeding tissue. He was stripped and dressed in a scarlet robe. A crown of thorns was twisted and placed on his head. They put a staff in his hand, knelt in front of him and mocked him, “Hail, king of the Jews!” They spit on him, took the staff and beat him on the head over and over. Then they put his own clothes back on him and led him away to be crucified.

As he hung on the cross, the people continued to mock him. “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God! He saved others, but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”

After hours of suffering, he cried out in a loud voice, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He cried out again, and then he gave up his spirit.

The kind, compassionate, loving, giving, completely innocent man died. The crowd deserved to die. I deserve to die; you deserve to die, but he is the one who took the punishment.

He was buried in a tomb. A stone was rolled in front of the opening, and guards were posted to ensure that no one took the body. It seemed like hope was gone, but that wasn’t the end of the story….

“After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.’” (Matthew 28:1-6).

Jesus Christ died for our sin and has is risen! Do you believe?

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). Just as Jesus laid down his life for you, won’t you lay down your life for him? Turn away from your sin, turn to him and accept his gift of eternal life.