The Opportunity of Adversity

I'm in love with a book that was a gift from Andy Wilson, Sun Stand Still. It is life changing! I keep rereading it trying to soak up all the wisdom. These are some nuggets from the chapter I read today.

"Don't you typically think of adversity as the opposite of opportunity?
I usually pray for God to remove all the obstacles and opposition in my life. To my way of thinking, adversity gets in the way of opportunity. But God doesn't think like I think. I guess that's why he rarely asks me what I think. So instead of taking away our adversity, he develops our faith and demonstrates his strength by working through our adversity...All good stories start with adversity...We'd prefer for God to build a bridge over our troubled waters but it doesn't work that way. It can't because you'd never see how strong God is if there were no opponent for him to overcome in your life.

Without crisis moments we would know nothing of his power. We would have nothing on which to base our trust in his unlimited provision, never prove his potential, never be carried by his tender mercies or have stories to tell of his presence in our darkest hours.

Sometimes his strength is demonstrated in what he does around us and other times his strength shines in us enabling us to endure devastating setbacks with remarkable strength.

Remember that your crisis is your greatest opportunity to see God's glory and goodness revealed- and to have the high honor of revealing him to others."

What Does Your Face Say?

When someone you love walks into the room, does your face light up?

Jesus said,"whatever is in your heart determines what you say" (Matthew 12:34). I believe whatever is in your heart will also determine how you interact with others by body language. So what is in your heart? Are we filled with busyness, stress and selfishness? Are we filled with criticism and fault finding? What does our face say to our spouse or child when they walk in the room? "I'm too busy", "you're not worthy"?

The Nobel prize winning author, Toni Morrison learned this lesson with her children but I believe we should take notice of this with every person in our lives. "When my children used to walk in the room, when they were little, I looked at them to see if they'd buckled their trousers or if their hair was combed or if their socks were up. You think your affection and your deep love is on display because you're caring for them. It's not. When they see you, they see the critical face. But if you let your face speak what's in your heart...because when they walked in the room, I was glad to see them. It's just as small as that, you see."

When someone you care for walks into the room, does your face light up?

Does your face tell them you are glad to see them?

It's SWARM Season

So far we've got two calls about swarms of bees. One is in Tontitown inside a tank on a semi truck. That'll be interesting because we have to remove the tank off of the truck and bring it all here to the house to begin moving the bees into a hive box. The other swarm was in someone's tree in their front yard. We invited 'rookie' beekeeper Steve L. to join us and have his first experience picking up a swarm. (I wasn't much help. I merely rode along to take pictures)

Go for Golf Cart!

So, the $100 golf cart is up and running! All it needed was new batteries. It would've been running sooner but the battery tray was rusted out so once he got new metal welded in to hold the new batteries we could finally try to start it up and it runs like a charm!

17 days post surgery

Here's how we're healing. Still swelling, lovely tape burns that nurse Amanda says looks likely to scar (joy). I'm staying pretty close to my new best friend, the continuous cold therapy machine, which has helped with both the swelling and the pain. I'm counting down the days until life returns to normal.

New Fruit

The first strawberries of the season!!

CASA playhouse palooza bash

Cesar and Angela from Ink and Thread Creations invited us to the annual CASA playhouse palooza bash last night. CASA is a much needed organization in NWA and we always have such a great time with C and Ang! Last night, Steven won an autographed Troy Aikman jersey. They provided fabulous food from Abuelos and we rocked with Oreo Blue! It was a good night despite the knee pain (11 days post surgery). I'm staying on the continuous cold therapy machine today, watched church live online-too cool!

Spring Rains

We got over 14 inches of rain in a week's time! Sad thing is, it's raining again this morning.
Maybe we won't get the river through the front yard again. The marina is flooded as well. Two of the docks had ran into one another. Not sure when we'll be able to get out to the boat to check it.