i was hunting for something different...looking high and low...here and there...
And i caught a glimpse of color...and found treasure.
Roses...
Fishers of men and women...
By the look of this tree, the gardeners have been nurturing this backyard for many a long years!
The gardeners are not angels, but some of us think they might as well be, for their hearts are like the angels'!
Jardin...Garden...A beautiful garden takes a lot of work! Like marriage...good soil is crucial...nourishing it with good works towards one another is key in keeping the bond of love strong and healthy and ever growing. Weeds sprout up...like weeds! Both gardeners must dig up the roots so that the problem weeds don't keep coming back up. As soon as a tender shoot comes up, the gardener must stamp it out immediately.
So it takes constant and diligent watchfulness so that weeds do not grow out of control. Such is a garden...such is a marriage.
Give honor to marriage, and remain faithful to one another in marriage. (Hebrews 13:4)
This is Bubblehead, belly up...dead! Here today, gone tomorrow...and his tomorrow was today! He's only a fish, but it hurt me to see him dead.
This is Fantail...buried with Bubblehead as fertilizer for Spring's vegetables.
And this un-named one...!
The whole tribe of them...fertilizer. They're just fish...but i miss them! Why? Because they were alive...and now they're dead.
This bunch of kalamansi is good for making juice, but a lot of sugar is needed to counteract its tartness. If you bite into one, thinking it's a sweet orange in miniature, you'll be in for a surprise. It iS SOUR! For such a little fruit (usually one to two inches in diameter), it packs quite a punch on the sour meter!
These oranges are not quite ripe...and even when fully orange in color, they are still sour! After picking, we have to let them sit for a week to allow them to ripen into sweetness. But if you like sour flavors, you can slice these and sprinkle salt on them...that's how we eat green mangoes -- sliced, salted, or dipped in bagoong. (Are you now salivating as you read this?)
These lemons are from the neighbor's backyard, hanging over Mom's fence. And they are sour indeedy! Even now as i'm typing this, i'm swallowing my saliva. Is your mind as programmed as mine? As unruly...as conditioned to react with the subtlest suggestion?The writer of the Book of Proverbs, King Solomon, knew the unruliness of man's monkey mind. He wrote in Proverbs 23:7, "For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he." How crucial it is to feed our minds with wholesomeness so that we may be able to counteract the unwholesome stuff that constantly splatter and bombard us from all sides!
Paul, the Apostle, advised in Philippians 4:8, "...whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy--meditate on these things."
Doing dirty dishes is now more enjoyable! We are mesmerized by the fish going around and around (and around and around and around and around and around!) in their swimming pool. i wonder if they get stir-crazy...
Side yard -- Mom's "green babies" are a bit neglected now since the new residents have come to live in the swimming pool.
My point of view as i paint the OFF-the-WALL wearables...with Charles Stanley or Zola Levitt on the Internet, renewing my mind with the Word of GOD.
Only GOD sees the whole picture...clearly, unfiltered, without bias -- past, present and future -- all at once. In His omniscience, in less than a blink of an eye, He knows all about all things. We see as through a dirty window -- through the filthy rags of our self-righteousness.
"The harvest is finished, and the summer is gone," the people cry, "yet we are not saved!" (Jeremiah 8:20)
No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening--it is painful! But afterward there will be a quiet harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way. (Hebrews 12:11)
JESUS said to his disciples, "The harvest is so great, but the workers are so few." (Matthew 9:37)
Like a flower, we blossom for a moment and then wither. Like the shadow of a passing cloud, we quickly disappear. (Job 14:2)
Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. (Psalm 91:1)
We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing. We heap up wealth for someone else to spend. (Psalm 39:6)
My life passes as swiftly as the evening shadows. i am withering like grass. (Psalm 102:11)
Whatever is good and perfect comes to us from GOD above, who created all heaven's lights. Unlike them, He never changes or casts shifting shadows. (James 1:17)
Guard me as the apple of Your eye. Hide me in the shadow of Your wings. (Psalm 17:8)
For these rules were only shadows of the real thing, CHRIST Himself. (Colossians 2:17)
A farmer went out to plant some seed. As he scattered it across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them.
Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The plants sprang up quickly, but they soon wilted beneath the hot sun and died because the roots had no nourishment in the shallow soil. Other seeds fell among thorns that shot up and choked out the tender blades.
But some seeds fell on fertile soil and produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted. (Matthew 13:3-8)
i like sun-dried laundry...so i'm doing the natural and free -- airing my clean "dirty laundry."
Another treasure from the ShoppE at Rose's...
Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. (Romans 12:9)
Test all things; hold fast what is good. (I Thessalonians 5:21)
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:23)
You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. (Deuteronomy 13:4)
