The Salvation Garden

So today I keep having this verse show up.. IN MY FACE..

James 1:19-21 in the Message:

"Post this at all the intersections, dear friends.  Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God’s righteousness doesn’t grow from human anger. So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation garden of your life.”

I have a NIV Life Application Bible and it reads very differently:

"My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become to angry because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.  Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you."

I read this..  I digest it..  I roll it over in my head and through my heart.  Honestly, I love the way the Message speaks but I love the NIV version as well.  What this is saying to me is when I talk too much and listen too little, I am saying to others that my ideas and feelings are much more important.  When I become angry quickly, I am communicating that although I may speak God's love with my mouth, I am not showing God's love with my actions.  I WANT this salvation garden in my life!  I want the Word planted in me and I want it to flourish.

My mind goes back to yesterday afternoon when I was short with one of my daughters because she was grouchy when she got home from school.  Or to this morning when I was not as nice as I should be to my husband because mornings are just stressful and we had too many things going on.  I don't want to be that person.  I want to be the wife/mother/woman that shows evidence of a well tended garden.  I want to be a woman that takes in the Word and lives it and breathes it and my life shows it.  I love it when He gives me Truth that I am specifically needing!

Let's Stretch!

When I was in school I never studied for a test... and yet I made straight A's.  God blessed me with a great memory.  I could skim the text a few minutes before the test and BAM! there was my perfect score!  I can still remember phone numbers from my grade school friends.  I remember birthdays like a pro..  However, Bible memorization has always seemed very daunting to me... intimidating to say the least.  Why?  I don't really know.  Maybe I don't feel worthy.  Maybe I don't want to be confronted later and not be able to recall the perfect verse for the situation.  Whatever the reason, I have never memorized scripture.  Do I read scripture? Of course... I even remember things from the Bible and can talk about things from the Bible but "verse memorization"...  No way!  So here I go.  My dear friend is calling a group of us to memorize 2 verses a month for the rest of this year.  We are posting these to her blog so we can hold each other accountable.  She asked us to buy a handy dandy spiral to keep them in.  

I am a little scared about this process..  Am I going to be quizzed?  What if I fail?  Can I do this?  So many insecurities!  But this I know.. I have some good friends cheering me on!  And God loves that I am doing this.. 

I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Psalm 119:11
I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart. Psalm 40:8
The law of his God is in his heart; his feet do not slip. Psalm 37:31

I really want His word hidden in my heart.  Not so that I can throw verses at people but so that I can recall them when I need them, so that I can grow. He gives them to us for a reason.  I NEED His Word.  I pray I grow through this.  I am thrilled to pieces that my sweet friend is challenging me!  I need to be stretched.  It is scary but in that fear I will grow.  I always do and come out so much closer to the Lord!  Join me in this if you want to.  You won't regret it!

Be Real...

So let's be real...  I don't like conflict at all.  My husband might disagree with that statement but I really don't. I truly want the perfect marriage.  No arguments.. ever..  And could we always just put each other first please?  Also on my list would be that we always greet each other in the morning with a hug and a nice good morning instead of a grunt that slightly resembles a good morning but neither of us really talk a lot in the morning so I am learning to accept that.  The list would also include that he never fusses when I spend too much and he would clean up better after himself.  I would also request that our eyes meet across the room sometimes with "that look".. I really don't ask for too much.  I am pretty sure he might have a list as well but he doesn't voice his as much... bless the nagging wife...  However, after 21 years, my fairy tale wishes that were ridiculous have definitely become more realistic,  I do believe.  Things that my husband could never achieve have slowly left my expectations, as I have realized that he is only human.

All this said, I must say, Saturday I was slightly annoyed at my husband when I returned home from my mother's house after being gone all day.  My husband, the man who would never sit down, who always had to be doing something, has suddenly, the last few months, decided to sit around and read his Bible much more than he ever has.  This should be something that makes me so happy and it does.  BUT when I came home to clothes in a basket that weren't folded but CRAMMED in there and wrinkled, which meant I had to put them back into the dryer to get the wrinkles out I was perturbed.  There were also towels in the dryer that had not been folded.  My temperature began to rise.  Then I went into the kitchen and the dishwasher which needed to run that morning when I left had just been run, which meant that the dishes could not be unloaded until they dried for a while so the supper dishes had to be piled in the sink.... Then, the only chore I had asked him to complete while I was gone was to do the vacuuming and he only did the downstairs and didn't even do the staircase.

I don't say anything because I am avoiding an argument because as I said.. I don't like conflict....  So I seethe about this Saturday night and Sunday morning while I fold towels and unload and load the dishwasher back before church and even Sunday afternoon after church while I attempt to take a nap.  Sunday night I sit in church by myself (well, with friends) because he had security duty at church and I start feeling a little tugging on my heart.. but I am still mad...  Sunday night we come home and I am still ill but the tugging is a little harder..  Monday morning it is worse.  I recall the lady we sat by at lunch on Sunday sharing with me how her husband had passed away unexpectedly a few months ago and how her friend who was also eating with her had just lost her husband in December within 15 minutes of taking an antibiotic.  I begin to recall Brother Ben's sermon from Sunday night on the confession of a pastor who had a fight with his wife and how he told the whole congregation and how he confessed to them "This will be made right tonight".  I am suddenly overwhelmed with the fact of how hard my husband works through the week and how long his hours are and how he provides for our family.  I realize how hard he works to prepare the lesson he teaches to the boys on Sunday for Sunday School.  Maybe he doesn't do as much around the house as he used to but I work less hours than I did then and he works more so shouldn't I take up the slack?  Shouldn't I just stand in the gap?  Maybe I should consider my man my mission instead of being bitter about the extra that I have to do....

So, tonight when my man comes home, I am going to confess to him and I am going to apologize and I am going to ask him to forgive me and I am going to thank him for all he does for us.  I hope this is an encouragement to someone.  And now that I have confessed this to you, I can move on...  just being real!  :)

EPIC FAIL

So tonight we realized that we had a coupon that ran out at the end of the month and being the tightwads that we are,  we rationalize that we must jump into the car and go out to dinner to use this coupon.  Now, would it have saved more money to just stay home?  Well yes it would!  But no, we must use this coupon!  Now, in case you didn't know, we are penny pinchers to the extreme.  We buy on the clearance rack and then use a coupon and that is the only way.  We never pay full price for things.  We are bargain shoppers and always are so proud of the deals that we come across.  If it isn't a deal, we don't buy it.  So anyway, we take the girls and go out to a nice dinner at Perkins in Milan.  This was a buy one entree get another free.  Good deal right?  So we eat and laugh and enjoy our meal and have a wonderful evening.  Until... we get our bill.. and I pull out the coupon.. and read the very small print that says that it is only good for one person per one table.  YIKES!  And we have just bought 4 adult entrees thinking we are getting 2 of them free!  Mike and I look at each other with a look of dread and that sickening feeling fills our gut... Suddenly, the meal wasn't quite so good.  We fuss at ourselves, fuss at each other, fret over our predicament, try to find a way out.. and realize we must bite the bullet and learn from our mistake.. as hard as it is.. So we sit there a minute and gather ourselves and decide it is time to face the music, pay the bill and get out of there!  Mike is at the cashiers stand paying and I am leaned over the counter,  just sick about the whole thing.. and when I think it can't get any worse Mikayla says "Look at that sign Mom!  Adeline could have eaten free!  Kids 12 and under,  Monday thru Friday eats free!"  Should I scream now?????  EEEEKKKKK!!!!!!!  Yep, EPIC FAIL, as my kids would say!  Oh, how I will read the small print better in the future!

New Year? Yes Please!

I have been thinking a lot lately.  That could be a bad thing considering I don't really feel like I have the brain cells to do that anymore.  However, I do have "heart cells" and heart cells is what this kind of thinking requires. My life needed an evaluation.  I feel like I am wasting time.  I only have this one life to live and what am I doing with it?  Am I using it wisely?  I am thinking .. not!  I am not a person who makes resolutions for the New Year but this year I felt compelled to.  The reason that I don't is because I don't want to feel like a failure when it hits about mid-January and I have already bombed at everything on my list.  However this year I have been under major conviction to make this list.  I also was under conviction to make my kids make a list but they weren't falling for it so that still hasn't happened.  My list is this...

1.More in-depth Bible study daily.
2.Pour more into my marriage, children, family, friends and youth.
3.Less TV/computer, more God/people.
4.List blessings and God moments daily.
5.Exercise.


I tried to keep my list simple and short so I wouldn't get overwhelmed.  (It was a lot longer and I had to work on it to condense it)  Honestly, I am feeling pretty good about it because other than the exercise I am doing fairly OK so far.  Could I do better?  Absolutely!  But couldn't we always do better?  The fact is that I am trying.  I am a work in progress.  But most importantly I am already doing better than I was last year!  I am reading my Bible every day and actually studying it.  I am listing my blessings.  I am talking to others about Christ daily (trying to include strangers into this mix-at least one a day).  I am working on limiting my computer time, which is more of a challenge to me than the TV so I can spend more time with people.  Do I have a long way to go?  Oh, do I!  But by the end of 2012 I hope to have made a radical change!  I want to be that person that spends my days loving on people.  I am called to do that, this I know.  Find what you are called to do in 2012 and do it!  No time to waste!