My Mind Instructs me in the Night

I've been working on a project that has become something of an obsession. The general idea is to create an online store. But I don't know how to make a website (yet) and I don't want to rely on one of those ready-made ones that you can get for really an amazing low price. I have a feeling that eventually the price would rise and kill my idea...or that their limitations would hamper what I'm doing. Maybe not. But first I wanted to learn everything I could about websites. 


In the process I have learned an incredible amount about the amazing resources available online, and realize just how easy this whole thing will be. I've checked out some books. I didn't know that you can build a webpage on Microsoft Word! Wow. And I have, last I checked, 17 pages of links that have to do with starting a business, building a website, or finding work online. I think I could blog forever about this! But not today. 


The fantastic thing about this is that even though in this obsession, I've felt that I haven't been as deep into God's Word as I want to be, as I usually am (though I haven't neglected it, it just hasn't been as much at the forefront), I woke up this morning with some terrific ideas about this business idea. I know they're from God. I know that I can use them in setting up my business to His glory. 


One thing is that I can put a percentage of what it makes toward a cause my Katie woke me up to, the sex slave trade. Her church did a seminar about it, and she went to Nepal lately on a missions trip to see how her church could make a hole in it there. They worked through the organization, She is Safe. Katie learned a lot before and during her trip and inspired me, but I was thinking, "What can one (pretty broke) person do?" I felt helpless to do much for her cause, though I cared about it. But without my even thinking I was building this business idea for that purpose, God connected the dots for me. 


Then He also showed me, also in my sleep, the other ways this could glorify Him. I could have a blog connected with the business that could help others see the way to build their own online shop; therefore once I get my feet more or less on the ground with this, I could help others out of financial hopelessness. That's so exciting to me!


The icing on the cake? I even have a name for my business now, and I didn't strain my brain to find it; it was in my head when I woke up. I'm not telling what it is until the business is unveiled. But I'm excited. I tried finding a website with it online. There wasn't one; chances are it's available. Is God not amazing? Yes, we knew that!

Psalm 16:7 I will bless the LORD who has counseled me; Indeed, my mind instructs me in the night.

He Who Supplies Seed for the Sower

Last night I was pondering one of the most encouraging passages, to my thinking, in the Bible. I realized that God has set up something of a pattern in the verses where He tells us why we should do His work. But since I didn't know the reference to the one that started it all, and was too tired to get up off the couch and go to the computer or the concordance, I went through much of the New Testament trying to find it--which was good for me! In the process I found a number of other verses that I was looking for and a few more I'd forgotten--the result being that this post is chock full of Bible verses. And I don't apologize for that--it's the best part.
The favorite that got it all started was this:

Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness; you will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing through many thanksgivings to God. Because of the proof given by this ministry, they will glorify God for your obedience to your confession of the gospel of Christ and for the liberality of your contribution to them and to all, while they also, by prayer on your behalf, yearn for you because of the surpassing grace of God in you. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! --2 Corinthians 9:10-15

It makes me realize that we have the privilege of clearly being a channel of God's provision, that what we can provide for others and do for His Kingdom is really vast, in spite of the fact that our lives on earth are finite--sort of like how the electricity going through a wire can continue as long as the switch is on. Our service doesn't depend on the size of our bank account, or how much food is in our fridge, or how much gas is in our car; the source is God, not ourselves. Which brings me to the perfect biblical example of this picture:

Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Him, "There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?" Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." John 6:8

I could go on typing, but I think you know the story, and how it illustrates the verse above. If one boy's little loaves of bread and little bit of fish can feed the five thousand (plus their wives and kids), God is just waiting for the opportunity to show Himself off through us. Not only that, He tells us many times that He wants us to be out and about, doing His will, His work.

Whoever serves is to do so a one who serves in the strength that God supplies... 1 Peter 4:11

We are capable of providing to others beyond our own capability:

Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord, begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints, and this, not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God. 2 Corinthians 8:1-5

Our abundance, even if we have earned it, is a gift from God, not for our own good but for the good of those around us.

Our abundance a supply for their need 2 Corinthians 8:14

But just as you abound in everything, in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all earnestness and in the love we inspired in you, see that you abound in this gracious work also. I am not speaking this as a command, but as proving through the earnestness of others the sincerity of your love also.
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.
I give my opinion in this matter, for this is to your advantage, who were the first to begin a year ago not only to do this, but also to desire to do it. But now finish doing it also, so that just as there was the readiness to desire it, so there may be also the completion of it by your ability. For if the readiness is present, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. For this is not for the ease of others and for your affliction, but by way of equality--at this present time your abundance being a supply for their need, so that their abundance also may become a supply for your need, that there may be equality; as it is written, "He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little had no lack." 2 Corinthians 8:7-15

The pattern I was realizing as I thought about this first verse was that in many cases, God asks us to give because of what we have already received at His hand.

What do you have that you did not receive? 1 Corinthians 4:7b

...bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. ... Colossians 3:13

We love because He first loved us. 1 John 4:19

Sometimes He isn't stressing what we have already received, but even better, what we have been promised that we will someday receive--maybe even in the here and now as well:

"Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, 'How have we robbed You?' In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you! "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this," says the LORD of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes," says the LORD of hosts. "All the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land," says the LORD of hosts. Malachi 3:8-12

But I have received everything in full and have an abundance; I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.
And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:18-19

Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. Colossians 3:23-24

"Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions." Mark 11:25

Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:6-7

Sometimes it states both reasons--because of what we have received and because of what will be given--which really apply in all cases anyway:

"But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
"Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned. Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure--pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return." Luke 6:35-38

When we don't do what God intends, it brings others to have to fill the gap:

Receive him then in the Lord with all joy, and hold men like him in high regard; because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was deficient in your service to me. Philippians 2:29-30

And the utmost reason to be active in His service,

"The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.' Matthew 25:40

A Gradual Transformation and a Self-Examination

If you've read much of my other writings about our little church, you may have gathered that it is in a pretty dilapidated state. I haven't fully blogged regarding what its problem is. About 50 years ago, I gather, it burned. The church had no insurance and rebuilt with what they had. Because it wasn't a wealthy church, they built it poorly with cinderblock, unreinforced with any rebar. Over the years the walls have become troubled with moisture leakage, and therefore within the walls, within the cinderblocks, we have mold and mildew. (This doesn't show visibly very much on the walls, but there are places where the odor of it gets kind of strong sometimes, and affects some members of the congregation more strongly than others.)
The congregation has been planning to build, but with some frustration over gaining road access to the beautiful property that one couple kindly gave the church. With plans to build, and a small congregation, there hasn't been much interest, energy or money to maintain the building we have, especially since the structure itself will probably be of no value when we sell; only the property. Still, with no particular building timeline in view, I've been praying for vision and clarification, and working on painting the inside, with help from three others, and we're getting a work party together to fix up some of the outside grout so that the outside also can be pressure-washed and painted.
It seems to me that God's hand has been very strongly favorable toward getting these things done. I've had unusual time, energy, and free paint, even in the right neutral, clean and cheery colors--the neighboring city has a program that recycles paint to avoid having it in the dump. Also, we lived in a 1907 fixer-upper house for 17 years where I learned how to research and repair things; I know and understand some of what old buildings are about and what it is to paint. It has occurred to me, to my delight, that God is using that 17 year experience for His Kingdom now. So I've been there a lot painting. Still, I end up getting a little extreme. I work and get a little overexuberant, a little strident maybe, lately, in my desire to see it as fixed up as we can do--not bossing anyone around, just poking around more than anyone is used to, and trying to find any place where a mold problem can be easily fixed (since reducing its odor was one of my main motivations).
I think our pastor looks a little askance at all this activity and change, though I was hoping it would encourage him. (And I think it has, except when he sees me a little overly absorbed in it.) He preached on Mary and Martha last Sunday. It just occurred to me now, was that a hint? (Surely not...) Still, I don't think anyone in the world has heard me breathe one complaint, one "Why don't you make Mary get up and help me?" No, I haven't. I love every brushstroke, every roller stroke; if "Mary" wants to help, it's great, but I'm having fun on my own. It's so gratifying to see so much change in so little time!
Still, when Pastor came down to help me by getting a dehumidifier out to dry up some moisture I'd left by cleaning a wall, I walked through with him and discussed various issues along the way. I realized I was making him somewhat nervous. He never makes me nervous (probably never makes anyone nervous, at least unless they should have reason to be) and I was sorry to think I'd troubled him. He pointed out later that I should make sure I'm getting my work orders at the feet of Jesus. Another link between Mary, Martha, and me. Mainly, I think, Martha and me. (Sigh.)
So if I've been praying pretty continually regarding all the work, but then getting a little strident as I go, I think something is getting mixed up. Am I dropping His orders and filling my own? Are my motivations wrong? I felt Pastor's nervousness meant I'd been lacking for the right attitude and trampling toes some, though I had been thoroughly enjoying the work; actually getting kind of excited because some plans were becoming actualized and things were going so well. I just have to be careful how I affect others along the way, and that I go in His strength and not my own.
I hope to get a picture of the church as it is (didn't take any before-pictures of the inside) to post, and then post one after it's painted so we can compare before and after shots regarding the outside paint job. It's a great little building, in my mind, though probably just because I associate it with how great it is to be there on Sunday mornings. It's the best! I'd rather we'd keep that little building than have a towering cathedral, if the people inside had to be different too.
I asked Pastor today at church whether I had indeed made him nervous, trampled his toes, so to speak...and he said no, that his main concern was that I was actually getting my orders from Christ. So all is good, and I just imagineth too much. Praise God!

Come See the Dirt that Isn't There!

Housekeeping is a funny thing. It's not like the work of a painter, where when he's done, someone says, "Look at the work he did!" No. The housekeeper's work doesn't show; the only work that shows for a housekeeper is the work she doesn't do. I was trying to double up some of my work so that the place is ready when Katie's friend Erica comes from California. It really does need some extra attention; maybe I stop short on normal days of giving it the attention it should get, but I do work through the day for the most part, or am needed for other things such as driving places, and I tend to only sit when I'm homeschooling with Tim, exhausted and need a rest, or have work that needs sitting, such as sewing. (Or blogging. Never mind; I do that when I need a rest!) It's why I wouldn't mind living in a smaller house. Maybe I could get it all done someday and say I have nothing more to do but sit!
So I do some dishes, and then the laundry, and sweep the front porch, and clean up some weeds, and clean some carpeting, and vacuum, and wash windows...but unless I told someone, no one would know that I had even done them. That's a little disconcerting when you're exhausted at the end of the day and the house still has work yet to do (which can easily happen when there's a young male in the house, and double for every friend he has with him). Still, if my focus is right, I can't complain. If I'm working for the approval of men, I will need affirmation from...Gary. From Katie. From Tim. If I'm working to please God, then I know He is watching the whole time and knows my heart and my work. The only drawback there is that my work is not perfect, and that sometimes I don't do it with the right attitude and maybe I don't do it even as well as I can. Then I know that He sees that, too, and there's nothing I can do to hide it. Knowing He's watching in perfect love, though, helps everything to be a rewarding task more so than if any mere human were watching me.
All the more I'm thankful that He knows my frame; He knows I am but dust. And He was gracious to save me anyway. Oh, do you know just how thankful I am to know it! Okay, I think I'm rested up enough now to go and do some more. You won't see it when you come to visit. It will be the dirt that isn't under the table, the smudges that aren't on the windows, the shoes that aren't scattered in the hallway, the dishes that aren't piled up in the sink. (Well, sometimes they are.) But today's will be gone, when you come to visit. I can't promise about tomorrow! And if you don't notice the old dirt that's gone, but do notice the new dustbunnies and all that have just arrived, then that's fine. It's not really all about you, anyway, is it. You might think so, because here I am telling you all about it! That's a conundrum that has me going in circles and I can't explain it. I just thought it was worth sharing, and that's all I can say. Ha!

All in a Day's Work, it's a Good Feeling

Today's been a really good day. For one thing, I woke up to the birds all singing, all glad because they lived through the great terror of July 4 one more time! And because I'd done a bunch of cooking yesterday for our huge church celebration, I had a huge cleanup to do today (it would have been impossible to do the cooking and the cleaning and go to the party our church had and all the rest of the stuff we did)...so I got that done and got set to do a little cooking again. Well, before I could cook, we took Katie to Red Robin to work and then went to Costco to buy flooring for our closet--the first of many floor projects. (It was on sale, and we want to make sure we can do it well before we buy enough for much of our main floor.) Then to Freddies for groceries, where Gary also bought a bike on sale; he's the last one to get one, and now we'll go biking more often (that is the theory). And then home to cook.
So I got my cooking projects done. Gary mowed the lawn and then he and Tim went off to a baseball game. (I would have gone if they insisted, but when I said I'd stay home so I could go get Katie if she called, they didn't argue! They know I would be near clueless about the game anyway.) It's a men's night out, a mom's night in, and we all are happy--well, I hope Katie is!
Then I set to sewing. Now I have a whole new skirt that I made all this afternoon, and I am so happy with how it turned out. It's not perfect, but it's much fun! I think that in getting older, having more time is the compensation for having less energy or more aches and pains...I'm having more fun with projects than I ever used to, taking them on because I want to instead of because so many are facing me and I must do them. Well, I must do some of them, but it's not so bad.
And then tomorrow we get to go to church, and our Pastor Ken and his wife Kit are back from sabbatical! We did very well for the months that they were gone, but it will be so nice for all of us to have church as usual again. (At least, nice for all of us; not sure how Pastor feels about it!) Life is good. God is great! But then, we knew that.

A Lot of Paint and Some Pondering

I've been painting like crazy around the house lately. It is, we hope, the last step before re-doing floors so we can sell our house later this year. We're hoping that we can do much of the floor installation ourselves too, to save some money, but it will probably be a huge challenge. We haven't ever been big into table saws or mitre saws, and the work will probably involve the use of these to one extent or another. If it's too challenging, carpeting will cover more of the floor than we presently hope.
While I paint, I think about things. I ponder various problems and issues we deal with, I pray for people I'm concerned about, and I wash up in a hurry to answer the phone or to go to the store for supplies or to make dinner. My general housekeeping and cooking quality goes down the tubes when I have other projects in process. Painting is consuming work! Clean a lot, paint a little, clean drips a little, find missed spots a little...and start all over again in another place. I spend as much time fixing my mistakes as doing the original work. Still, especially on the walls that I've never painted, covering the builder-quality paint with a new paint with some sheen and substance to it feels oh, so good.
Tim had three of his friends over for the day yesterday; that's a good thing, because when I'm painting, he doesn't do very well at keeping himself occupied. There's only so much a kid can do out in the yard alone, and the tv becomes too convenient. (We've had his eyes examined, and the doctor says he can't focus well yet--he needs eye therapy, so until we have insurance again, reading by himself is a rather short-term occupation.) While his friends were over, they would one by one come into the entry where I was using an extension rod to reach the highest portions of the wall. The extension goes up about 15 feet, I'd guess, and I think it's very nifty. May God bless the person who invented that, and all his offspring! I never would paint those walls without it--a person could die from the fall from a ladder!
I was pretty surprised at the boys' choice of questions. "What are you doing?" (This with two five-gallon paint buckets, one one-gallon paint can, a painting tray, various brushes, a roller, wet rags and little corner tools etc. scattered across the floor where I was working, and the extension rod in my hands.) "Painting." "Oh." (Two boys asked that.) "What color are you painting?" asked another, later. "Brown," I said, holding a paintbrush with brown paint in my hand. I was touching up the paint over the front door at that point. When I was using the extension rod, I thought that would catch their attention more than anything, but none of them seemed to be in the least impressed by it.
Considering the low cost of paint, it hugely improves the looks of the place--that and the cleaning of cobwebs and dust that I discover along the way. Our ledges over our entry were huge dust collectors, and having cleaned and painted them, the climb up the stairs seems much brighter and will be easier to clean with the shinier paint. I've painted the high entry walls, the ledges, the stairway down to the basement, the family room, and I'm now working on painting our bedroom. I also touched up a number of other walls. There are a few more rooms to go. I found two places where just-painted corners got nicked again, needing plaster and texture before paint, and about four just-painted walls where fingerprints and mud splashes repopulated the surface. I guess I can be thankful that we only have one boy around most of the time! I may never finish, at this rate.
Still, I rarely feel this productive. It's easy to let a lot of time go by without doing anything that has a long-term effect to it, and many days would seem to have nothing much to show for them. Sad to think how short-term this long-term thing actually is...we'll only physically see it for as long as we own the house. If I didn't think it would help to sell it, I probably wouldn't bother. Hopefully it will make it sell faster, and maybe for more money, so that we'll be able to buy the next house with less debt than otherwise.
It makes me want all the more to focus on the things that give my life the longest-term effect for the time and energy invested in them. Cooking and cleaning are so daily and ongoing that it's hard to see any long-term good in them. I guess raising kids and being married (hopefully all to the glory of God) and growing in faith are the long-term, nay, eternal elements of being an at-home wife and mother...the dishwashing and cooking and laundry, and even painting, are just necessary distractions along the way.

Random Acts of Kindness...Make me Think, at Least

Today we were the recipients of what in today's vernacular would be called a "random act of kindness." Lately I've been reading the Beverly Cleary books to Tim in our homeschooling (not that they're terribly educational. I do think, though, that they show him what life was like in the '60s when I was growing up--amazingly different in some ways from today, and amazingly similar in others). In one of the books, the family goes out for dinner at the Whopperburger restaurant. It's been a horrible day and a grouchy night, and they're glad to be at their favorite restaurant rather than facing their crock pot that hadn't been turned on that morning. The heroine, Ramona, makes an impression on a lonely older man, who pays for the family's dinner out and leaves before they can thank him.
Well, tonight I thought of that book, because we were celebrating a family event tonight. We went to Olive Garden, partially because my mom had sent a gift card at Christmas. We hardly ever go out to eat, at least at a sit-down restaurant--I'd usually rather eat at home--but maybe once or twice a year we do. While we were waiting for our table, Gary was talking to the young lady sitting next to us about sports. She was young, a new mother, and her husband was using the waiting time to go out and buy a diaper genie. Gary told her all about our family event (though I had asked him to keep quiet about it--it mortifies me when he does that), and she wished us happiness as they left to go to their table. And just so you don't wonder, I'm not pregnant. Whew! Glad I thought to clarify that.
We had our dinner, and the waitress was friendly and good at what she did. At another table, the staff crowded around and sang their version of Happy Birthday (the original of which chain restaurants do not use--it happens to still be copyrighted, we found when Katie worked at Red Robin). I told Gary that I really didn't want...well, I think the fact will come out in the telling, I don't know how to blur it better and still get the point of this post out...well, I didn't want them crowding around our table in similar style. We recognized a woman who came in with her daughter and sat at the table behind us. He told her...that it was my birthday. She was about the 8th person he had pointed that out to today; I should just get used to it, I guess! After all, most of the world already knew by the time we'd left the restaurant.
The waitress came from somewhere unseen, and wished me a happy birthday. I asked Gary if he had told her, but I think she'd overheard him during one of his many overexuberant conversations. I told her I'd just like to pass on the dessert and attention, but she ignored me. I was pretty sure she had heard me, but she didn't say anything. She just went away, and came back with an entourage of highly enthused, no, laboriously willing participants (one even joked that she'd have to pay him) to sing me their little ditty. And, they brought a cake, which seemed enormous as a birthday favor--enough to serve at least four and more like six people easily. Especially after an Italian dinner. I thanked them, and I was sincerely impressed. Wow, what a cake. After the hubbub died down, she told me that the cake was a gift from the couple we'd met while waiting for our table. They had already left by the time I knew they had given it.
I have to wonder at this. I'm pretty sure they weren't believers; not sure why I think this--we didn't give them any more impression than they did regarding such things, I realize looking back. It seems that it might have been motivated by the idea of the "random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty" that started swirling in the public consciousness not too many years ago. I still don't know what would motivate someone to do this, apart from faith, or maybe the idea of "what goes around, comes around." Though still, I realize unbelievers can seem kind, can exhibit what would seem like a fruit of the Spirit, in such a way that it would seem to put anything I do to shame and make me wonder what is the matter that I don't do such things at random.
We discussed it on the way home. I was saying that when I do what I perceive as kindnesses, I do them in far more measured ways--I tend to do them to encourage someone who needs encouragement, to help someone who needs help, to lift someone in some way when something has knocked them down. I rarely spend time doing kindnesses to people who don't seem to need them. And I have to wonder, which way is better? God loves a cheerful, hilarious, extravagant giver. He loves for us to help the downtrodden. He wants us to be good stewards. He also doesn't play favorites, so I suppose in that way He would want us to show kindnesses to everyone. How much would He want us to buy birthday cakes for people who probably don't need them? (I'd already received two--one from Gary, bought at the store, and one from our neighbor Stacia, home-made.) Yet it seems like a sweet act. I just have a hard time evaluating all these seemingly conflicting standards.
I would like to become more unthinking, more extravagant, more exuberant, more knee-jerk in my kindnesses, more forthcoming in that fruit of the Spirit. I don't want to be foolish, I don't want to be a bad steward, but I would like to just exhibit God's abundant, loving, joyful goodness. I know that if it's from Him, He will replenish what we give out, providing it into our lives and letting us channel it out to people. We are His vessels, His servants, and if He wants it done, He will give the means to do it--the one difference I can think of is that we should do it to His glory--somehow let it be known that it is His doing:

Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed; as it is written, "HE SCATTERED ABROAD, HE GAVE TO THE POOR, HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS ENDURES FOREVER."
Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness; you will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God.
For the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing through many thanksgivings to God. --2 Corinthians 9:6-12.

I love that passage! Yet I'm sure that I can forget its message within the hour. Perhaps I need to read it every day. It illustrates that stewardship can be more a matter of giving forth rather than measuring out; pouring out rather than doling out. I like that. If we err in our kindnesses, it's probably better to err on the side of foolishly giving something that wasn't too badly needed rather than foolishly withholding something for fear of wastefulness.
It may be a rather sad thing that I have something to learn about God from someone who might not even know Him. All the more, I hope that it is a lesson well-learned.

Spring is Coming, Projects Beckon!

There's something about the time of year that determines my energy level. For the months after Christmas, it seems to drop--and this year I don't think it's because the holidays were so exhausting; I restrained my shopping like never before, and kept everything at a quieter pace. It's something about the wet, the cold, the wind that (even though we don't necessarily subject ourselves to it much) affects my outlook and subdues the force of my attack on projects. (Maybe it's also that the early months are the season in which I do our taxes, which are finally finished!) Spring is springing, the green is a little greener (not so brown and tamped down), and the brown is a little greener (the little buds in the trees). Things are coming to life, and I'm feeling much more motivated to paint and clean and sort and get rid of stuff.
Gary used to go on trips for a week every month with his work. When he was gone, I'd often attack a project and see how much of it could be done before he returned. It was good to have something to do, and to get something accomplished, and to have a time frame to encapsulate it. Now our church has a team of people going on a missions trip. I'm using that as my time frame, seeing what can be done while they're gone.
Last night I pulled some paint in from the garage, and started repainting our entry. Amazing how much a little paint makes things look better, covering barely noticeable marks and the plaster repair jobs at the corners! I'm resolving to paint as much of the house as I can in the next few weeks. Most rooms need it to one extent or another. That should keep me out of mischief and focused for a while. Don't stand still at our house, or you might end up with a coat of paint!
I've developed a to-do list with three columns, one for me, one for Gary, and one for us to work on together. (I guess I'm a list person. I also have a to-do list in a tiny binder, with one page for each room.) Now Gary is no longer safe. If he's horizontal, reading a paper (generally a horrible waste of time and energy), I will roust him with a project, if possible. If not, I'll threaten to paint him. Ha!
When the projects are done, we intend to sell the house and move into something smaller, something that doesn't need so much maintenance, so we can focus on more meaningful things than painting walls and the like. Maybe the housing market will improve. Our neighbor's house has been languishing on the market for months, and they keep dropping the price to no avail. Still, even if we have to sell for less than we want, we will buy for comparably cheaper as well. In spite of wanting to sell, another project to make progress on in these coming weeks is planting our vegetable garden. Never mind that we may never be able to harvest the good things that grow there. It calls as the spring grasses rise, the weeds claim their corners, the trees need pruning, and the compost beckons for stirring into the more useless Marysville soil. The ground is waiting, and I must work it.