Boojoyful

  Oh, my I am laughing out loud.  For the first time, since our daughter's wedding fifteen years ago, we decided to spare our backs and hire someone to take on the massive job of mulching at Shiloh. The crew we hired is delightful and unbelievably hardworking, but there is a bit of a language barrier. "You just show me" was the simple solution. I explained we would be out of town one specific day for a grandson's birthday, but as we traveled towards Charlottesville that morning the "Ring" thing on our doorbell went off alerting my phone someone was at the front door. My husband became tickled as he reflected on my communication attempt with the "Ring" app which works like a walkie talkie.  He said in his best "Cool Hand Luke" voice, "What we have here is a failure to communicate."   It was the equivalent struggle as when I,  in my southern drawl, am on a customer service phone call with an Indian. They usually have me spell  eve...

My head finally hit the pillow Saturday night at 11:30 after three non-stop days of ministry and yard work.  As I began to pray asking God to speak, a picture of two new hydrangea bushes and a freshly planted flowerbed popped into my mind.  An afternoon of downpours had forced us to stop our work and head inside to ready ourselves for a "thank you" party for our church Easter volunteers. Alas, we had not gone back outside to put our deer fencing back up when everyone went home. Jumping out of bed in my night gown, I donned my raincoats and a puffer jacket, a cup to scoop Deer Scram, and flipped on the flood lights.  If the fishermen were out on the lake they are still trying to figure that picture out.  I forgot to turn off our door alert alarm, so as I came back into the basement I encountered a very groggy husband standing there saying, "What are you doing?" The all too familiar phrase resounded...."I forgot..." Sundays for a pastor are like the day of a...

  Love the one your with.  In light of writing the "Soul Food" entry and encouraging us all to "talk about what God has done" as the "older woman" I emailed a group of women and shared wisdom from a devotional I had read that morning on Faith Gateway. It was called "Let the Sparks Fly"! I wrote:  "We have to be intentional at every stage of marriage to set aside the time to nurture that God given relationship, to count it as a blessing and gift to be treasured.  Y’all do that so well and believe me, people are watching. I try to be at the door, or sitting on the glider on our front deck, with a “I’ve been longing for you all day” attitude when my husband comes home.  The other day, I’d been working on cleaning out our garage. I was tired, sweaty and probably had spider webs in my hair, but I did drop what I was doing and made it to the front door to greet him with a hug and kiss. Reading the devotional I have forwarded you, I was motivated t...

Oh that we would delight in spiritual food the way we do an earthly spread.   David strengthened himself in the Lord his God  1 Samuel 30:6   David’s action of strengthening himself was intentional. Think of him before Goliath. The key element of this process was remembering what God HAD DONE for him in the past.  Oh, that we would all be people who are found saying, "Do you remember when God...?"  What if at the end of every day, as we sat around the dinner table or in a car at a drive through restaurant we shared "God did it" stories. Kay Swatkowski wrote, "Too often we wait for others to come along and nourish us. We hope that someone else will strengthen us. We blame others for our lack of joy or our stagnant condition….We cut ourselves off from the very things that would give us peace and joy: worship, study of God’s Word, prayer, community, and nature…  Our soul's health and welfare are too important to outsource." What s...

  "What else is going to break?" I asked the Lord, after three days where my glasses broken right in half across the rim, my back went out, the belt broke on my husband's riding mower, which then would not fit on the trailer he had borrowed, and the end of his weed eater split mid project. We went to turn on the outdoor landscape lights and a closer look revealed the deer had demolished 5 fixtures, the transformer was shot and an outlet needed to be replaced. The battery operated vacuum died, the base of a planter cracked off, the starter on our grill will not ignite and the garage door would not open due to a dead battery. "What's the deal Lord?" Ugh, ask and He shall answer.  "There are blessings in brokenness Boo." Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,   for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.   And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lack...

  The green of spring is back and it's beautiful. If the pollen count is too high, I'm guessing you still have some masks around. Take time this last Saturday in April to get out in God's glorious spring creation and turn up the song "Christ Be Magnified" and glorify His name.  Consider   the   lilies  of  the  field, how  the y grow:  the y neither toil nor spin . Matthew 6:28 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,   making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.   Ephesians 5:15-16 The Song  "Christ Be Magnified" by Cody Carnes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjGMlYywK9M

Not sure if he was kissing or whispering, but we got caught either way.                                                                                                A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends.  Proverbs 16:28 Oooh, whispers get me riled and often they aren't even filled with evil intent, but hurt occurs simply through the action of whispering. It creates a feeling of being left out. My husband has a great tale from his elementary PE teaching days where he caught a girl, who could be pretty cruel, whispering in class to a boy she usually treated badly. My husband felt certain her comment was against him, so ...