Seeds

As I write these words I can hardly comprehend the time that has passed. This is 2014 and Daddy passed March 2010. It has been 4 years! Wow! I can still see him gathering flower seeds, riding the lawn mower, roaming the hills with the weed eater, collecting apples from the trees…all those things that made daddy! As I maintain my own yard now I am reminded every time I pull a weed of the love and care Daddy took in his yard. The flowers that are blooming in my yard have practically all been strategically placed by him at one time or another. Anytime he came over he would pack his pockets full of seeds and I would see him roaming my yard spreading the posies around. I usually would not see the evidence till weeks later when they began to sprout up.

This week on my lunch break as I walked all over town I stopped to admire and of course take pictures of some beautiful flowers along Main Street. I noticed as I looked at these freshly planted flowers that there among the blooms were a few vegetables thrown in. A tomato plant and a cucumber vine hidden and growing beautifully and there at the end of the row, a pear tree among a bunch of crab apples. I thought the town of Rainelle had really come up with an excellent idea! Pretty and plentiful! That was Monday. Wednesday I was in Lewisburg and as I go into Wal-Mart there is Lonnie with a buggy of flowers. Now that is unusual for me to see so I had to look twice! But yes, it was my brother with a cart full of pretty posies. So we talk for a bit about the different kinds of flowers daddy used to have, about perennials, about annuals and collecting seeds. I tell him about my walk and how the flowers looked so pretty in Rainelle. Well wasn’t I surprised to learn that the town of Rainelle didn’t plant those flowers…Lonnie did. And he added those wonderful veggies. He plans on planting a strawberry or 2 also. I thought how much like Daddy he was; sowing seeds of flowers! Daddy would’ve approved; encouraged it and probably given him a few of his own to sow!

Proverbs 22:6 (KJV)

⁶ Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it

I think not only of the seeds daddy sowed down through the years but the seeds that Mommy sowed. Some have already sprouted, grown and made more seeds. Some are laying there waiting….I believe they have taken root, they just aren’t all flowery and blooming yet. They are getting their nutrition, water and lots of sunshine! We just don’t see the bloom yet. Daddy’s legacy of love of outdoors, hard work ethic, and love of family has produced many seeds, some we see, and some we don’t. But the roots run deep, just like with the seeds mommy has sown. Her goal in life was to see all of her children in Heaven with her one day. She planted those seeds. And just like daddy would bring seeds to my house in his pocket and spread them without my knowledge, Mommy was doing the same with us kids as we grew up. The many times I would see her sitting in her rocking chair with her bible? Seeds planted. The many times I saw her in conversation with Jesus? Seeds. Being kind no matter what? Seeds. Praying with me? Seeds. I have seen many of these seeds bloom…and as I watch my children and the other grand children I see more seeds that she planted take root and they are blooming and I know that in Heaven Mommy and Daddy are thinking about their garden here on earth. They are still watching out for us. And every now and then I can hear daddy say, pull that weed! Don’t let it grow because before you know it, it will take over the whole garden! That’s those little annoying things in our life. They all start out as little pesky weeds but if we don’t go ahead and take care of them- BAM!- they consume out whole life. Daddy was the best when it came to killing out weeds. He would use a dust and a spray and then he would always try a home remedy! I can’t help but think he would’ve been a fan of Pinterest! But the main thing was…get rid of the weed. Don’t nurture it, don’t give it the time of day…get rid of it so the good seeds can grow; become rooted; and bloom!

I didn’t have the pleasure of being with my dad this Fathers Day but I did have the opportunity to enjoy the garden he started. I got to see the seeds bloom that he planted. I even got to pull a few weeds in his garden. And just remember just because you don’t see bloom right away doesn’t mean the seeds you sow aren’t taking root and growing. All things in Gods time…Even seeds. So while you wait for the bloom…pull a few weeds.

Matthew 13:8 (NIV)

⁸Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown

Happy Happy Happy

If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands!  How many times have you sung that song?  Clapped your hands, stomped your feet and that was enough to know you were happy. How about this one?  I’ve got that joy joy joy joy down in my heart-WHERE? Down in my heart! Where?  Down in my heart!  Once again; we sing it, the Bible says it so it must be so!

Psalm 32:1-2 (NLV)

Joy of Being Forgiven

32 How happy he is whose wrong-doing is forgiven, and whose sin is covered! ² How happy is the man whose sin the Lord does not hold against him, and in whose spirit there is nothing false.

What is happiness?  What do you consider “Happy”?  Is it a good job with enough money at the end of the month to pay the bills with a little left over?  Is it having your family all together?  Maybe happiness to you is your grandchildren?  To some it may be “stuff”.  And that’s OK!  To those who think “stuff” will make them happy, you will figure it out eventually.  But in order to figure it out, you will probably have to go through something.  Something that will devastate you and you will try to cling to that stuff…that’s when you will figure it out.  Happiness…I am having a hard time with that one.  No matter how hard I clap my hands and stomp my feet…I am not happy.  I am trying to find someone to blame…can’t find that either.  I miss my husband and friend.  I can’t blame him, I have tried.  So how do we become happy?  What’s the recipe?  Because I really need it.  Sadness I think comes from the devil.  I am sure of it, but how do I overcome it.  Depression is not of God, I don’t know how to overcome that either!

Philippians 2:15 (KJV)

¹⁵ That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;

I feel like my light has burnt out.  I feel like I don’t know how to shine any more, not that I was very shiny anyway, but my sadness is beginning to creep into my everyday life.  I pray…boy have I prayed.  I pray for solutions, I pray for the darkness that has invaded my soul to leave just as the clouds roll in the sky.  That’s how it feels.  I feel like one day I was happy and a dark cloud rolled over and it started to rain on my life.  The rain and dark cloud won’t leave me.  So here I sit.  But I have noticed as I sit under my rainy dark cloud, I am not alone.  I am alone under my own cloud, but there are others out there sitting under their own cloud.

Proverbs 27:17 (KJV)

¹⁷ Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.

If we are all sitting under our own cloud, we aren’t getting very sharp now are we?!  The trouble with being sad is no one wants it.  They avoid it like the common cold.  And if they ask how you are, as soon as you start to tell them, they avoid it or leave as quick as they can.  So it’s easier for all concerned just to keep it all locked up and out of the way.  That works for a while.  Until it starts eating at you and then you get to where you can’t hide it and there ya are!

Luke 10:27 (KJV)

²⁷ And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

I think if we do this, there won’t be room for sadness, no room for depression, anxiety…no room for anything but Jesus!  Is this easy?  NO!  I haven’t been able to do it.  I am trying but I need that help that comes from above.

The Great Commission.  He gave us a mission with clear marching orders.  Go make disciples…go help others…If we get it figured out enough to pass on to others then that’s our mission.

Matthew 28:18-20 (KJV)

¹⁸ And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

¹⁹ Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

²⁰ Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

As I walked Sunday I tried to figure out my life. Why things happen the way they do.   I wondered why I was depressed.  Are Christians supposed to be depressed?  It isn’t from God.  Well I am here to tell you I am depressed and Jesus lives right there in my heart.  But that old devil tries to squeeze in there every chance he gets.  And it’s very often with me!  I have so many faults the devil just takes one look at me and says “happy, happy, happy!”

Lifes struggles and trials aren’t meant for us alone.  If we are doing our part in the grand scheme of things we are looking out for others.  God will send us someone with an encouraging word to lighten our load.  Sometimes He offers guidance, sometimes just a message to hang in there!  That was my case.  I got that word I needed from a friend.  So Monday as I worked I tried to not focus on my problems, not focus on ME!  My day was so much better.  I found myself reciting bible verses that I had learned years before.  Ones I thought I had forgot but they were still there.

Philippians 2:16a (NLT)

¹⁶ Hold firmly to the word of life;

On a normal day I leave work at 6:15p but today we were finished.  No patients so I left at 6pm.  I got a phone call from a friend I haven’t talked to in almost a year.  She was having problems with…guess what?  Depression!  We talked and prayed.  I know God has a reason for us to go through the things we do.  In all my instances I have encountered someone going through the same things I have went through.  And in each of those encounters I have been able to tell them how God saw me through.  Each and every time.  He stood beside me, wrapped me up and sometimes He even said hold on tight cause it’s gonna be a bumpy ride!  But He has never let me fall to the point I couldn’t get up! 

Psalm 119:16 (GW)

¹⁶ Your laws make me happy.
I never forget your word

 

Today is Wednesday.  It has taken me a few days to figure things out and I am still trying to figure things out.  But just like that song says, if you’re happy and you know it clap your hands, it isn’t always that easy.  We know we have much to be happy about but some days it’s just hard to be happy!  So instead of happiness I am working on the JOY JOY JOY JOY down in my heart!  Because if I have that joy, the happiness will come!  The joy will see me through my sad days.  It will see me through the days when I have nothing but tears.  Joy will be there when I don’t have words to pray.  That joy is Jesus.  That’s where my happiness will come from.

As I finished praying with my friend and we were ready to end our conversation she said these words, “Keep shining your light Trish, keep shining your light!”  I didn’t tell her how I felt about my own light being dim!  But those are the exact words I needed to hear!  God knew that!  He sent my friend at exactly that moment to encourage me.  To tell me to hang in there!

Psalm 119:35 (NLT)

³⁵ Make me walk along the path of your commands,
for that is where my happiness is found.

Kingsmen