Grow!!!

For the last two weeks it’s been raining/blowing cotton all over the patio, plants and ground!

Probably a 70′ cottonwood tree is still covered with hanging cottony puffs from the ends of every branch. It will be a while before it quits dropping cotton. Each individual puff of cotton has only one tiny seed attached…kind of reminds me of a badminton birdie design.

Why do we need 4 million seeds flying around from one tree? Stuff is meant to grow and provide more than enough. This one tree provides not only seeds for new trees, but also seeds for birds to eat, plus the cotton provides soft lining for the baby birds’ nests. Left over cotton turns back into dirt to replenish the land. I have a love/hate relationship with the tree because of the cotton flying everywhere, but the upside is the terrific shade it provides and the rustley sound as the wind blows through it.

I think all of nature tells us we are to grow, increase, do better, strive for more, become stronger, in turn becoming more helpful…just look back at all the great things mankind has done to better the lives of themselves, creating more beauty, making life easier from what we’ve been given by the earth.

Let’s not digress and diminish what we do. There should be no guilt or shame for making/creating/having abundance. God intended it to be this way. He says, “Grow”! and remember Me while you do.

Leaving Home

Some earthly fathers make their kids leave home at age 18. Ready or not, away you go!

Time to flap your wings and fend for yourself. This is needful to learn and develop independence many times. Some parents, in a sense abandon their kids after a certain point to force them to mature and make decisions on their own.

If God is your Father, He will never kick you out of His house. You will always be welcome in His home and live there perpetually. You can ask him any questions you have, talk with him about anything, show him things in your life, and he’s never too busy, or on his phone distracted from your conversation. He sees you and understands every part about you. He knows why we do what we do and why we don’t. He wants to help us understand things about ourselves so we can grow stronger, be more useful, have more peace and joy.

‘I can’t even believe if there is a god, that he would even bother with these minuscule things pertaining to me.’ Well, he does. He made every snowflake look different, but equally beautiful. Look at nature. Every plant has its own style leaf, bark, root system, light and water requirements. Each of us humans have tiny cells that we can’t see but hold things together so we don’t fall apart. If there is a god interested in the outward and physical aspects of us, why wouldn’t he be interested in the inward parts of us…our mental and emotional and spiritual qualities.

My hope is for all ‘us peoples’ to recognize and know we aren’t on our own to figure out life and death and how to make life work. We have a god to turn to, who wants to help and direct us for good. Have you met him? If you talk to him, he will answer and help you.

Mental Freedom

The tyranny of the mind.

God wants to set us free from debilitating thoughts. That’s why he says cast your cares upon him. He does not want us bound in any area of our life- physical, emotional or mental.

He says he has given us a sound mind so we can make good choices and follow them instead of being led astray. We have to watch what we feed our mind because what we feed it will determine its strength and ultimately direct our body in that direction.

There are many mental poisons trying to feed us…through things we look at, read and listen to which may seem harmless and small at first…how could they hurt me? But the buildup over time is cumulative, and the end result will be detrimental to ourselves and others.

The mind is the body’s computer directing our every move. If we allow mental viruses to infiltrate – our hard drive can become slow, send wrong messages, get information mixed up, maybe even shut down.

Let’s stay free!