I’m preparing to lead a five-week study on the subject of contentment, so I am wandering through my notes from Watson and Burroughs’ books. I came across this quote ( I think from Burroughs), and I felt I should share it. It’s a wing dinger. I love the way those old Puritans did not mince words.
“Some people are so weak that they cannot restrain the unrest of their spirits, but in words and behavior they reveal what woeful disturbances there are within. Their spirits are like the raging sea, casting forth nothing but mire and dirt, and are troublesome not only to themselves but also to all with whom they live.”
One of the things my children teach their children is to “blow it out” when they get hurt. They always allow for a justifiable time for sorrow and comforting, but then they ask (or tell) them to blow it out. In other words, it is time to be done with this and press on. There is a lesson in this for adults as well. Some people need to blow it out when it comes to things that happened ten, twenty, thirty, or forty years ago. Rather than still troubling their own souls with how they were wronged, they should learn to blow it out. It’s time to be done. Actually, it is way past time. It would be better to blow it out immediately. If we practice with the little things (like not losing it when we stub our toe), then we will be better at the bigger things, like breaking our leg. And if we practice with the bigger things, then we’ll be better for the serious afflictions and troubles that are bound to come some day. It is like being in school. The more proficient we get at a subject, the harder the tests.
It is like the best of guacamole plus the best of homemade salsa – and both of those are pretty rockin’ good! I got the recipe from a friend (thanks Jennie) a long time ago, but only recently remembered how much I love it when I busted it out to pair with chicken tacos. Â Try this at home, it is sooo nice and fresh.
- Â 2 large shallots
- Â 3 garlic cloves
- Â 2 T. chopped fresh cilantro
- Â 1/2# of tomatillos
- Â 2 medium avocados
- Â 1 T. lime juice
Chop shallots and garlic, and add to bowl with cilantro. Discard husks of tomatillos and rinse off the sticky junk in warm water. Chop those and add to bowl. Chop avocados and add. Drizzle lime juice and stir. Eat half the bowl trying to decide if you need salt or pepper. End up just sprinkling a little kosher salt. Yum.
Given that our country is experiencing financial difficulties on a large scale, I thought I would write something about the subject of money. Some of you, no doubt, have lost investments or jobs or your husband has taken a pay cut or been laid off.
This is a tremendous opportunity to exercise our Christian principles, an opportunity we don’t want to squander or miss. In other words, hard financial times can reveal much about us, especially how taken up with money our hearts have become. It’s a bit like lifting up a big rock in the garden: when the light shines on the exposed area, all kinds of bugs suddenly become visible. Even things you did not really want to see. So if you have suddenly realized that you have become more attached to your finances than you knew, count it a blessing to find out now. Deal with the heart attitude first, and then you can ask God to deal with the bank account.
I’ve heard many times that God doesn’t mind His people having money; He minds money having His people. If financial hardship takes away your joy, then you know where your joy was grounded all along: in your checkbook. If, on the other hand, you can thank God for the financial straits your find yourself in, then you know that you are trusting all you have to God. He gives and He takes away. It all belongs to Him and He has made us Continue reading ‘Money Troubles’
In less than six weeks, our Merkles will be home from England, and they’ll be living with us as they have the past two summers. So when summer rolls around, I come to think of my house as the Lake House, minus the lake. All the other kids and cousins come over so they can play together, and it’s just like being at the lake with no beach, no water, and no boat. A bit of a drawback, I agree, but it helps if I adopt a laid-back attitude, just as though we were at the lake. In other words, it’s summertime and the livin’ is easy. Sort of like summer camp with s’mores and hot dogs on a stick.
Back when our kids were school-aged, summer meant that IÂ needed to come up with some kind of structure and schedule, not as rigorous as a school schedule, but something flexible enough to keep everyone busy, happy, and productive but not over-worked or over-committed. I banned word bored, but if anyone ever said it, that meant an automatic extra job. It always took a week or two for everyone to settle into the summer groove, but if I had prepared myself with a plan, the transition always went smoother.
A lot of our summer activities revolved around reading. One of my friends started a reading group for some of the neighborhood kids, and one morning a week she showed up with treats, gathered the kids on a blanket in the yard, Continue reading ‘The Lake House’
One of the advantages of living up here in the North, besides the long winters, is that mid-May always brings lilacs. Though I am not a romantic, I can recognize one when I see one, and I have to tell you that lilacs are romantic through and through. Look at this picture: they are swooning over their own sweetness!
Well the big news here at Lower Farm House is that the cows have moved back into the pastures for the Spring. They are entirely picturesque and unbelievably loud. The pasture, I should mention, is directly outside the wall of our house and front garden – so the mooing is not the far away mooing of distant cows. There is a pasture on either side of our house, and when the cows in one side catch sight of the cows in the other then they both break into a complete fit and moo back and forth over the walls at one another like the woman wailing for her demon lover. It’s quite startling when you’re not expecting it. Especially when they all get into the spirit of the thing and the whole herd pitches in. In fact, just a few minutes ago I was sitting here in the living room, sipping my morning coffee, pyjama clad children eating their breakfast in the kitchen – when I was suddenly jolted out of my calm complacency by a deep, reverberating moo that seemed to be coming from the sofa about 5 feet behind me. I wheeled around, and there in the window above the sofa was an enormous cow head looking in at me.
Perhaps I haven’t been clear enough about the very imminent nature of the pasture. It’s a large pasture, and is surrounded by various things – a creek, a hedge, a wall, a fence . . . and our house. The wall of our house is built straight into a rock wall that extends out both directions from the house. This means that my living room window is essentially a window in the wall looking into the pasture. Am I making myself clear? There are no intermediate steps between the pasture and my living room. Oh hang on. I found a picture of my house, taken from the pasture. Here you go.
Do you see that one lone window in the side there? That empties into my living room. My couch sits directly beneath that. And thus, when it sounded like the mooing was coming from the couch, it essentially was. I grabbed my camera and snapped a quick picture – of this.
Yes I know the glass is a mess. But look what gets rubbed all over it.
After this particular cow moved slightly so that I could open the window without bashing it on the nose, I managed to open it up and get a picture of more of the group.
It’s quite an idyllic early morning view isn’t it? (This picture, not the previous one. It’s only idyllic from certain limited angles.)
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