Sunday morning I managed to get out the door without little girlies of several ages hanging onto my skirts . . . When Mom goes out for a walk, most often they beg to come along and often I let them. But this morning I snuck away as I sometimes do for some alone time in nature where I might be able to hear myself think.
A few mornings ago on an early morning run turned into a walk the last half, there was a vehicle that acted funny by turning into driveways close by and turning around, careening down the road and then turning into another drive . . . and it worried me . . . I had my phone along and called Japheth. He isn't sure I should be walking by the road like that early in the morning by myself, though I assured him that I would be safer doing what God calls me to do here by the road then out of His will in my house.
So as I contemplated where I would walk this morning and my tennis shoe was rubbing a blister I had on the back of my foot\ankle, I took off my shoes and socks and lifted my skirts a bit so that it wouldn't get so wet in the grass. I took off barefoot down the grass\sod path through our property down and around to our sand pit. The summer morning was warm and the dew felt nice, the grass, sod, and sand textures washed and massaged my feet as I strolled along . . . This wasn't really a place to run, and it was Sunday after all so I communed and walked with the Lord . . .
I have hardly walked through the sand pit much at all . . . It really has been kinda a depressing place . . . When we first bought the property and moved onto it, we envisioned possibly having a garden (as this was really the ONLY flat and SUNNY place on the eight and a half acres that we call our own. We had once thought about turning it into a ball diamond . . . but these dreams never materialized in the seven years that we have been here. For one thing, we'd have to buy LOTS and LOTS of black dirt or rent a dump truck to haul in some dirt from a friends cow pasture . . . and then there's the problem of watering . . . It's so far from any well . . .
. . . Barren dry dessert . . . dead dreams . . . feels like wasted land . . . nothing hardly grows at all . . . sand, sand sand gravel . . . We pile firewood down there and also have a huge burn pile that stays and stays and we never seem to find the time to get the permit and get it taken care off . . . Sometimes our neighbor adds to it (with our permission of course) . . . At times I wonder, why we ever bought this land . . .I like to garden (Well . . . sort of as long as it's not too big and overwhelming) . . . And I feel like I have no bit of earth to grow things on . . . Now that feeling is not fact . . . I do indeed have flowerbeds, but these beds have had the sand dug out and good dirt put in . . . I have tried growing veggies in these, but most of them don't get enough sun . . . and my husband likes his trees . . . and I do too, but I probably like my flowers and gardens more . . .
Along the path, this morning I made an exciting discovery of three plants of Baby's Breath . . . It grows wild up here, the soil must be perfect and I can show you plot after dry plot dotted with large white\grey blobs of shrub\plants of Baby's Breath . . . I've been looking for a good place whenever we drive and planning . . . planning to go out this fall and dig one up out of the ditch and bring home like I did a few years ago . . . But now God has given me some right in my spot on earth, in my barren wasteland . . .
As I walked along the sparse clumps of dessert grass and occasional wild flowers, God spoke to me and awakened my dreams again . . .
Number One. . . . of praise . . . the weapon of praise like Otto Koning talks about . . . verbally praising God for the trials and hard things just like God asks us to "in everything give thanks". So I thanked Him for my "dessert" . . . and for poison ivy, even though I can't see ANYTHING good that could come out of that . . . But as I have been learning in God's special training school for Aimee, that GOOD can come out of EVERYTHING even the deepest, darkest trials if I let Him work in my heart . . .I am learning that in "THIS" I can be thankful that "I CAN DRAW CLOSER TO HIM BECAUSE of this trial!!!"
Number Two. I could possibly turn part of my dessert into a watered garden . . . wagon load by wagon load of goat manure, horse manure, my neighbors discarded straw\hay pile that they tried to burn to get rid of it, all the cardboard I saved over the winter and all the cardboard that A Stitch in Time hauls to the dump EACH week and whatever else God might see fit to provide . . . If I would just buy a few more garden hoses and IF we fix the well in the basement of our old house, I might have a source of water.
Number Three. A camping site
Number Four. A wayside bench\shade area to sit and rest in . . alone or with a friend . . . a place of solitude and leisure to reflect, to just be . . .
If none of these dreams go anywhere . . . number one can make me successful, because after all that is what this life should be all about, walking with God, learning the lessons from the "classes" He puts me in and resides as my personal tutor\teacher and Friend . . . I can praise . . . I can learn good things that help me grow and thrive in my spiritual walk . . . I can become more like Him . . .
Part Two coming soon . . . wherein I tell a true story of a friend of mine . . . and her wise advice to her little girl about black sunday shoes . . . (Yes, it does fit in with the above dessert story.) :)
No comments:
Post a Comment