New Pictures

We got new family pictures taken. You can see us below. Aren't we just gorgeous?

Staying out of it

Today for the first time I encountered little kids who were mean to mine. It was painful. I had to restrain myself from interfering as that would not help Kaleb learn to deal with these kind of things that will happen in his life. He needs to learn that not everyone is going to want to play with him and not everyone is going to be kind. I wanted to see how he handled it. He did pretty well. The story begins when we got to the park. Kaleb said he wanted to play with the other kids that were there. I told him he needed to ask them if he could play. So he did. They said no. His feelings were hurt at that direct rejection, so he kind of stood off to the side with his arms crossed and head down. Then the kids kind of taunted him, "are you crying?" (said in fairly snotty tones) Then he just kept trying to play with them. Eventually one of them did kind of play for a little while before returning to their friend, but the other one went off and moped and pouted. I stayed out of it, for the most part. I gave the kids a stern look when I passed by and suggested to Kaleb that maybe he should play somewhere else if they didn't want to play with him. Other than that, I just listened and played with Laina. Restrained I think. :)

One of the things about this that bothers me is these two kids were 4. Yes, 4. Aren't kids still supposed to be nice at 4?! I don't remember being mean at 4...later yes, but not at 4! What is this exclusivity about? Are children already developing cliches at such a young age and if so, where are the parents curbing this behavior? Or maybe it is the behavior of the parents. I don't know. I realize that children do not always behave in a manner their parents approve of. I just thought this particular phase started a little later in life. I know young children are sometimes painfully honest, but I can't say I have ever encountered ones this young that were just mean.

A learning experience for both of us I guess.

Good Soil

The sermon in church today was on the parable of the soils from Mark. And although I have heard this passage taught on a few times, as Scripture regularly does, a new depth was added for me today. The teacher said that while this parable applies to those who do not yet believe in Christ, perhaps it applies even more to those who already do. The things that I understood in this parable more than before are from my experience being married to a farmer and trying to garden some on my own, little tidbits that for me make the passage more real. I thought I'd share them with you. The passage is Mark 4:1-20.

First, of the four different kinds of soil, three of them require extra work. Well-trodden, compacted soil (by the road) needs to be tilled. Rocky soil needs the rocks dug up and pulled out. Thorny soil needs the weeds removed. None of the soils are beyond use. All can be redeemed to be good soil with work and pain. Jesus says our hearts are the soil and God's Word is the seed.

Jesus says the problem with the well-trodden soil is that Satan comes and steals way the Word. The seed is just out in the open for him to snatch. Even if a plant were to get a start here, the chances that it would be trodden on and killed are high. The speaker this morning suggested that possibly the church has done its fair share of walking over God's seedlings in their path. On our farm nothing grows in the tire-track ruts that go from field to lot to field. The soil is too compacted and it gets driven on enough that nothing has a chance to get a good start. In order for that ground to produce something it will have to be worked. My husband would have to rip it and plow it and disc it before he could plant it. And the route through the fields would have to change its course.

The rocky soil doesn't allow the roots of the plant to go deep so it can withstand the heat of persecution and affliction. Just as a plant in a garden needs a good root system to gather water and nutients so it can withstand the heat of the sun, so too do Christians. Rocks block our ability to sink our roots. What are the rocks? I think the rocks are the character flaws within ourselves that inhibit our surrender to the will of God and what He has for us. We need to get those flaws out of our hearts to allow God's Word to flourish.

The thorny soil chokes the seed. Nothing good grows in a garden overtaken with weeds. It just doesn't produce. The weeds take all the nutrients and sun that all plants need to bear fruit. Jesus says the thorns are the worries of this world, and the desire for riches and other things. If our hearts are overrun with the cares of this world, where is the room for God's Word to flourish? Matthew 6:25-34 comes to mind here. "...Do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?" The cares of the world. Note that Scripture doesn't say that God's Word dies in this soil; it lives but doesn't produce fruit. I am reminded of my garden last year, especially of my tomato plants. Fairly early in the summer I got behind on the weeds and never caught up. The tomatoes were overrun. The plants still lived though the season, but they produced very few tomatoes. They were a waste of garden space. If I had only weeded, they would have produced.

Jesus says in John 15 that every branch that doesn't bear fruit will be taken away and those that do produce fruit will be pruned by the Father so it will produce more. (vs. 2) All three of the poor soils don't produce fruit. Even if we are good soil that produces fruit, we will be pruned so we produce more.

It is important to realize that just because we till the soil and remove the rocks and get the weeds out, the soil is not necessarily good. We have made it better than it was, but not good. For soil to be good it needs fertilizer and continued care. Farmers have to add fertilizer to their crops at least once a year. The plants need these nutrients for food. Jesus says man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. God's Word in Scripture and in prayer are a Christian's food. We need to fertilize our hearts with these regularly to produce a harvest. We also have to keep the weeds down. Those who have a garden know that weeding is not a once a year thing. It is more like a once a week thing. We have to continuously pull the worldly weeds from our hearts and throw them into the fire. I read an article recently about garden weeds. It said that if you just uproot weeds and leave them in the garden they will come back, either because they will seed out and multiply there or they will work their roots back into the soil. You have to take them out of the garden and burn them to truely get rid of them. Weeds are tricky things. Sometimes they look like a nice plant until they get bigger and then they are really hard to pull. You have to make sure you get the root or they will just grow again.

A gardening tip that applies here is that when you plant your good plants closer together, they don't allow the weeds to grow. When we as Christians have the fruit of the Spirit growing thick in our lives because we have tended the soil of our hearts by fertilizing and ridding it of things that compete with fruitfulness--rocks and weeds--there will not be room for the weeds to grow up.

So those are some of my thoughts about that passage. Hope you were able to wade through them.