Proverbs 14:4 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
4 Where no oxen are, the manger is clean, But much revenue comes by the strength of the ox.
via Prov 14:4 NASB – Where no oxen are the manger is clean – Bible Gateway.
I am a simple-minded, long removed from the country-girl woman. However as I share what I see in today’s verse it will confirm to you that getting the country out of the girl is a long process. :)
Obviously, in a barn (manger) without oxen (cows, horses, or mules, same principle) there is no poop, no hold your nose smell and no messy clean up.But that is not all there isn’t in a barn without oxen. Neither is there fertilizer – a much-needed commodity to grow rich, healthy foods and neither is there strength to pull the plow to till the ground to grow the crops.
Babies.
Babies are messy. They too poop and smell up the place but love makes them worth every smelly diaper, two o’clock feedings, all night floor pacing and the list goes on and on.
People – family – friends.
Sometimes they are messy too. They stink up our lives sometimes with the things they do and say.
So what am I saying? A life lived in love gets messy and sometimes it just down right stinks! BUT the rewards are worth it! Enriching the lives of others, seeing the Holy Spirit ‘fertilize’, water and cultivate the seeds you have sown in the heart of a messy soul is worth it all when the fruit of holiness begins to peek its glorious head.
Proverbs 14:4 Where no oxen are, the manger is clean, But much revenue comes by the strength of the ox.
Barnyard animals and Messy People — how you handle them just might make you rich. :)
HOLY SPIRIT, I pray the ‘humor’ of this piece of writing will be useful and will be a tool fit for teaching Your Truth to receptive hearts. I pray we will apply ourselves to knowing Your Word and allow Your Word to equip us to love wisely the messy people in our lives; to love them so much they come looking for You. Amen and amen.
Please click HERE and pray.
Brave the Dark with The LIGHT,
Kathie
WEDNESDAYS are Praying for IDOKs by name days. If you have specific matters that you’d like for me to pray about with you, click HERE and let me know.
Good report from the doctor for my beloved today; recheck in a month.
It has been an on and off, hit and miss process but I am continuing to read A Love That Multiples by Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar. Obviously, I cannot say that it’s a book that I could not put down but I can say it is a book that I cannot not finish; there’s too much good that I don’t want to miss. Today’s reading portion is one of those lessons I cannot afford to miss.
Proverbs 15:1 21st Century King James Version (KJ21)
1 A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger. via Proverbs 15:1 KJ21 – A soft answer turneth away wrath but – Bible Gateway.
Michelle says she battles anger. Who of us does not?? And she has 19 children!! She has reason, right? But let me share a portion of her book with you – hope she doesn’t mind.
Let me set this up for us. One of the younger sons wanted some pineapple. The can was on the counter and Mama said as soon as she diapered the baby she would get the pineapple for him. It was a large can as you might expect. And you know what happened while she was diapering the baby, don’t you?
Yes. On the floor, under the frig, splashed up on the cabinet doors – all over! Sticky, sticky pineapple. Just that morning she had taught them from Proverbs. You got it, the verse we just read. A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger. She sent up a SOS asking the Holy Spirit for help to speak softly. He answered and she sent her son to his room to wait until she cleaned the mess. It took a while which gave the Holy Spirit time to minister to her. As she said on page 222 of her book: “. . . I felt a surge of God’s grace filling me with peace and erasing all traces of bitterness and frustration.” Then she went to her son. And what she told him is way passed marvelous!! She spoke and lived out before him what we must know about our ABBA if we are going to live victorious Christian lives. Her children are blessed indeed!!
Here’s what she told her son as written on page 222: “There are things you don’t understand right now that Mommy does understand,” I told him. “Sometimes I don’t have time to explain why I’m telling you to do something or not to do something, but you can trust that it’s because I love you and not because I’m trying to spoil your fun or make you wait for something you really want. God is teaching you patience–while He’s teaching me how to teach you.”
Do we see the parallel? There are many things that God does that I don’t understand. Even more things He allows that I don’t understand. But what Michelle said is the key: trust. When we trust that He loves us then we don’t have to understand. We don’t have to know why. Trust is enough.
And perhaps if we trust more, soft answers will come more easily too; or at least more often. :)
A blessed Tuesday to you — Braving the Dark with The LIGHT,
Kathie
Please click HERE and pray. Many need our prayers.
We have been remembering today. And not just here in America; other Nations have remembered and paid tribute as well. I thank them!
Memorials are good. Tangible places we can go; objects we can hold in our hands and remember. Remembering can be good, very good.
911
Let us not forget.
The Maker of Heaven and Earth.
Let us not forget. Let us not forsake.
Memorials are appropriate in remembering Him too. Ask Him for a few for you and yours.
Numbers 15:38-40 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
38 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them that throughout their generations they are to make tassels for the corners of their garments, and put a blue cord on the tassel at [each] corner.
39 These will serve as tassels for you to look at, so that you may remember all the LORD’s commands and obey them and not become unfaithful by following your own heart and your own eyes.
40 This way you will remember and obey all My commands and be holy to your God. via Numbers 15:38-40 HCSB – Speak to the Israelites and tell them – Bible Gateway.
And this. Lest we forget and lest they, the children, not know! Hear, O Church! Hear!
Deuteronomy 6:
4 “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!
5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
6 These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.
7 You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.
8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.
9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. via Deuteronomy 6 NASB – Obey God and Prosper Now this is the – Bible Gateway.
I hope you all are continuing to pray for Lily and her family. I received word today that her surgeons have replaced her skull and she is ready to go to Birmingham for therapy. This is good news but no time to let up on our praying.
Dori was in Sunday School and worship this morning!! Praise JESUS!!
Thank You, ABBA. Thank You for memorials. Help us remember and in all our remembering help us remember You First in JESUS name and for His sake and the sake of the children. Amen and amen.
Please click HERE and pray.
Brave the Dark with The LIGHT,
Kathie
