Yes and No

I pass this sign frequently these days.

Every time I read it, I think to myself, "Yes and no."

I know what it's saying.  I even want to LIKE what it says!

But then I remember, "You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."  

(Jesus in Matthew 5:48)

Maybe the sign should read, "Progress TOWARD Perfection"?
***
On a lighter note, note the Progress toward Perfection 
on this little stand we found while garage-saling last Saturday...

  

My husband works wonders!
See more "wonders" HERE.

Walking Backwards - Counting Blessings

I'm sitting here on a Sunday afternoon enjoying a piece

of the first zucchini bread of the season!

I made it after coming home from a minor league baseball game.

As I snack, I'm walking backwards through my week, counting blessings as I go.

 The office staff from the office in which my husband works one day a week

enjoyed lunch and the potential of watching a double header earlier this afternoon.

(We only stayed for the first game.)

Before the game, I was blessed by a beautiful morning worship service

at our church.  (No photos.)

 Yesterday, my husband officiated at a funeral, but he encouraged me to take

the Home and Garden Tour by myself..  It had been rained out (over 4" of rain)
 the night before, much to our mutual disappointment.

I'm glad I did it. Here are some photos of a few things that caught my eye....

a leaf that fell on a shadowed sidewalk,

 a lovely lounging spot in the back corner of a well-groomed yard,

and these two chairs that I'm SURE weren't considered an actual part of the tour,

but which I found to be simply enchanting.  

(Maybe it was the powder blue railing....)

I took a TON of pictures on the Tour and posted them on my garden blog.

 Earlier in the week, we took our two grandsons to Sauder Village

in Archbold, OH

These two pictures from there bring me special pleasure.

Finally, one of my favorite flowers...

seen along a walk taken Monday.

I reflect on a happy week with a thankful heart.

Leading a hymn sing at a local nursing home,

driving a friend to her appointment for an MRI,

and meeting friends for lunch were among many other blessings I am counting

this afternoon.
Oh--I almost forgot!  I finished a novel, Those We Love Most, by Lee Woodruff,
and we sold the box-on-legs
that my husband remodeled from an old box I'd found at a garage sale in a field.
(I enjoy selling some of our stuff on a local facebook garage sale site.).

Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.  James 1:17, New Living Translation

It Never Fails

It NEVER fails!

A fly begins to bother me.

Gets really persistent.

I get up to fetch the orange fly swatter from the other room.

I return and wait for it to pester me some more.

It's almost as if its orange color is a silent warning, 

discouraging the fly's presence.   

It is strangely absent.

I return to what I was doing.
Apparently, that's what it is waiting for.

It appears again, and I stealthily reach for the orange swatter

only to have it dart off again to wait until I'm re-engaged in my task yet again!

I never DID get that pest yesterday!

Sometimes I wish I had an orange swatter to place at my side

when Satan comes to discourage or distress me;

when I am tempted to loaf, to gossip, to make a selfish choice.

Then I realized that I have something BETTER!

Spiritual weapons for a spiritual pest!

(Spiritual warfare, actually, as Ephesians 6 describes it.)

Christ's righteousness, faith, the Word, prayer, the gospel of peace. 

Truth!

The Presence and power of  God Himself--

His own Holy Spirit.

Spiritual weapons.

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith...

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ,

 after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you 

and  make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen. 

I Peter 5:7-10 

By the way, that's my "new" vintage sectional couch in the picture above.  The one I bought at a garage sale for $20!  I wrote about it HERE.  It sat in our garage while I tried to think of a way to fit it into our living room.  I gave up and listed it for sale on a facebook garage sale.  When the buyer was slow arriving to pick it up, I just HAD to bring it in to see if there was ANY way to make it work. 

There was.  

The would-have-been buyer was understanding.  

And I am thrilled.

...sitting in the garage

Serendipity

SERENDIPITY

1. The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident.
2. The fact or occurrence of such discoveries.
3. An instance of making such a discovery. 

It started with a Garage Sale sign and ended up being a Garden Tour.

Linda of Landscapes by Linda was selling some of her art - GARDEN art.

I usually don't splurge like this, 

but here it sits -- in one of our flower beds.

For a peek at Linda's yard and art, 

go to my Garden Blog - HERE!

You won't be sorry!

By the way, what was your most recent serendipity?

Timely Tweets

 

I purchased this old wind-up clock for a quarter at a garage sale over the weekend.

It appeared locked up and non-working, but my husband removed the back and oiled

some of the "works" inside it.

Now it ticks away, keeping perfect time.

I wish you could hear it.

There's something very soothing about it....

Now, here are some of the tweets that I "re-tweeted" this past week.

I find them especially timely.

• I believe in perspicuity of Scripture: "The main things are the plain things, & the plain things are the main things." – A. Begg
• "They set out" 38x in Numbers 33. Our life in Christ is not static. It is a journey, with many new beginnings. -Ray Ortlund
• Patience is something you admire greatly in the driver behind you, but not in the one ahead of you. -Steve Sammons
• The New Testament does not envisage solitary religion: regular assembly for worship is everywhere in the epistles. -C.S. Lewis
• Let us strive, every year we live, to become more deeply acquainted with Scripture. -J.C. Ryle
• Let us resolve by God's grace that, however feeble and poor our prayers may seem to us, we will pray on. -J.C. Ryle
• Are we willing to be reproached for Christ’s glory? Can we bear the sarcasm of the wise? Can we bear the jest of the witty?  -Spurgeon
• All foods for the life of the body. Every word of God for the life of the soul. (Matt. 4:4)  -John Piper
• Beware of manufacturing a God of your own: a God who is all mercy, but not just. Such a God is an idol of your own. -J.C. Ryle
• The judgment day will prove that the King of kings will reckon with all who insult His servants. - J.C. Ryle
• Anything built to great height will collapse without great depth.  -Rick Warren
• Whatever you don't turn into PRAISE turns into PRIDE. Worship is the purest form of humility. -Mark Betterson
• We may pray from any position but on our knees humbles the soul and honors God. We stoop to conquer. - Jack Graham
• I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages. -Spurgeon
• I often wonder if the social were suddenly removed [from our lives], how much of the spiritual would be left. -AW Tozer
• I believe that pluralistic secularism, in the long run, is a more deadly poison than straightforward persecution. -Francis Schaeffer 

It's the Little Things

A few weeks ago, I bought
this metal cabinet at a garage sale for $2.00.
I'm always happy to find furniture with storage potential!  

It was in pretty rough condition.

This picture shows it sanded down
and ready for primer and paint.
(All my husband's work, by the way.
You can see more of his projects here.
I say that he works wonders!)

 This is it - after primer & two coats of paint.
I'm excited about the end result.

But I'm most excited about the latch below!

Isn't it wonderful?

Often it's the little and most unexpected thing 

that catches my eye...It's that way with God, too.

But God made selection of the foolish things of this world so that he might put the wise to shame; and the feeble things that he might put to shame the strong. (I Corinthians 1:27, Bible in Basic English)

He who is faithful in a very little [thing] is faithful also in much, and he who is dishonest and unjust in a very little [thing] is dishonest and unjust also in much. (Luke 16:10, Amplified Bible)

But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.  They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.” (Mark 12:42-44)