Turn the Other Cheek

Our pig, Penelope, has finally gone for her date!  We are looking forward to piglets - a new venture for our funny farm.  We had a fun time catching her today.  Our friend (and co-farmer), Bob, along with Jerry and Carter chased her all over Bob's pasture.  I am not sure who tired out first, but eventually they managed to corral her into the shelter and harnessed her with a rope.  She gave them quite a fight as they tried to coerce her out through the gate.  It took several tries, a lot of squealing, and some very funny video footage, but they did load the 200 lb. sow into the trailer.  Check it out on this video!  http://youtu.be/PZc2eqeVeVk

She was very friendly before all of the drama, but this picture of her in the honeymoon suite, awaiting her man, demonstrates just how she feels about us now.

Speaking of turning the other cheek, I learned an amazing piece of information today in Sunday School.  We were discussing mercy and forgiveness as part of a study by J. D. Greear, and we came to the verse, Matthew 5:39, which says "But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also."

I have always viewed this verse in the light of a martyr, but what I learned today gave me fresh insight and a whole new perspective.  Jesus was speaking to Jewish people, therefore, we need to understand the Jewish culture to really understand what he meant.  In their culture, the standard greeting was a kiss on the cheek.  If someone slapped you on the cheek, it was meant as an insult and begged for a reaction.  When we turn the other cheek, we are not inviting the offender to strike us again.  Instead, we are offering another opportunity for relationship!

God has been bringing me back to my favorite book of the Bible, Romans 12.  I really believe this book is all about relationships, and more specifically, difficult relationships.  I am feeling called to write more about difficult relationships and I think I will have the opportunity to speak on this topic soon as well.

I guess Penelope is probably spending her evening thinking about her difficult relationships.  Hopefully, we can re-establish a good one with her once she comes to Cornercopia.  I am planning to try bribery with marshmallows!

Getting Ready

We spent a glorious rainy morning outside today.  It was mostly misting and fairly warm, so working on some of our farm maintenance projects seemed like a good idea.  I took a look inside of my milk cartons, and I was so excited to see green peaking out!  This is a picture of loose leaf lettuce seedlings.  In a few weeks, I will open the cartons to let in more sunshine.

One of the projects we need to tackle soon is our blackberries.  The old growth needs to be trimmed back and the new growth trained, but first I had to clip off all of the shoots that have rooted over the winter.  I now have over 50 new plants waiting to planted.  

Another important project is building a fence around our garden to keep the chickens out.  While it would be nice for them to eat the bugs that get on my plants, they also dig up new seedlings and peck holes in my fresh veggies.  They have become unwelcome guests in the garden.  Jerry used the chain saw to cut the cedar poles in quarters to make the rails.

The pickets will hang on these rails.  We were able to finish most of the rail fence today.  Whenever we get a sunny day, I can paint the pickets so they can be hung!  I am really hoping to have the garden ready to plant my lettuce, spinach, and some sugar snaps peas by the end of April.

Before we came in out of the rain, we peeked in on Roadrunner, our broody hen.  She was very unhappy to be disturbed and let us know by making her warning sounds and pecking Jerry when he messed with her!  What a great sign of spring!  I can't wait for her little chicks!

Spring Cleaning

I get an incredible urge to dig in the dirt this time of year.  Fortunately, there are plenty of things to do in the garden to prepare for planting when the weather gets warmer.  Today, I started spring cleaning in my strawberry patch.  

Last year, I planted strawberries in small circular raised beds made from the green plastic rings that are made to put around water meters.  I had spied those rings in Ms. Agnes's barn, and she was happy for me to use them.  After lining the whole patch with plastic, and under the beds with landscape fabric, I filled the bottom half of the beds with manure hay from the goat pasture and then added good dirt on top.  My strawberries grew well last year, but the immense amount of rain made the berries mushy and ants from the manure hay ate holes in most of them.  I read somewhere that ants do not like mint, so I transplanted some of my peppermint into the strawberry beds.

As I was surveying my strawberry patch the other day, I noticed that the dirt had sunk as the hay in the bottom had composted.  One of my beds had been invaded by wire grass and several of the others had been completely taken over with mint.  I would definitely have some work to do if I want a successful crop this year.

Today, I worked first on the bed with the wire grass.  Because it is so invasive, I had to remove all of the dirt in that bed.  After moving the strawberry plants, I shoveled out the dirt. I felt like crying, throwing out such pretty dirt, but the ugly roots I found throughout the bed were confirmation that it was the only way to completely rid it of the evil weed.

After mixing up new dirt and replanting that bed, I began to tackle one of the beds infested with mint.  I didn't throw out the dirt in this one, since I wouldn't mind some of the mint reappearing, but I did need to add more dirt to fill the bed.  As I pulled the plants apart though, I was shocked at how tightly the mint had wound itself around the strawberry plants.  It would have completely choked out my strawberries had I not removed the mint.

I stopped with those two beds today - I'll finish the rest this weekend - but the whole experience left me thinking about the similarities between the wire grass and the mint.  I planted the mint on purpose with good intentions, but, though it accomplished its purpose, the mint took over and choked the plant that produces good fruit.  The wire grass forced its way into the bed, unwelcomed.  It was never wanted, and it ruined the entire little garden.  Both plants, though their intentions were different, ultimately destroyed - both plants had to be removed.

There are many things in our lives that can destroy like wire grass and mint.  Some things may seem good and right at the time, but can take over and choke out our potential to produce good fruit.  These things must be pruned and potentially removed so that we can fullfill our purpose.  Other things force their way in and are bad from the beginning.  Pruning may not be sufficient with these things, our lives will need a total cleansing in order to save us.

Regardless of what things we have in our lives, we can all use a good spring cleaning!  I pray that God will refill my spirit, remove all of the weeds, pull off any old growth that is dry and dead, and thoroughly soak my roots with His living water.  Then, as He shines on me with the light from His Son, I will grow and bloom and produce plenty of good fruit!

Choose To Love

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:2

My teenager and I had a very interesting conversation today.  I was explaining that we can change our minds about our feelings - we can make the choice to change our minds.  He wrestled with that philosophy and argued against that statement until, finally, we just had to say, "We are going to bed!"  He was still shaking his head as he walked away.  He just couldn't believe that we can choose how we feel. 

Jerry noted that the part that was tripping up our boy tonight, was the word, choice.  We tend to think of a choice as an instantaneous, one time decision, like choosing which color phone to buy.  The problem with that kind of thinking in this society is that almost every decision we make today can be reversed tomorrow.  We live in an age of returns, refunds, and recalls.  Whenever we change our mind about something, we just trade it in for something else.  This might not be so bad if we limited these transactions to things, but we have allowed this practice, of changing our minds with the shifting of our moods, to overflow into our relationships.

In order to love someone in a sincere way, we must choose to love them.  Relationships that are real and lasting are not based on feelings.  How can they be, since our feelings change as quickly as the weather!  When we begin to feel unloving, we must change our minds.  Since our actions reflect our thoughts, we must choose to think in a way that is loving so we can act loving. This sounds simple, but it is not.

In fact, it is such a deep concept, that I cannot expect a teenager to grasp it.  That won't keep me from trying to teach it though!  God knows that it is too deep for us as well.  He gives us the instructions in Romans 12 for dealing with difficult relationships, but He knows it is impossible for us to do it on our own!  We can only love God's way with His help.

Who in your life do you need to choose to love?  My son asked me for a list of things to do to improve a difficult relationship.  That was easy - Romans 12:9-21 is a point by point list of how to love difficult people!  Look it up.  Read it over and over.  Do what it says.  Practice the things in this passage and you will be "transformed by the renewing of your mind"!

Ready For Spring!

We had a wonderful surprise when we went out to the barn - our final baby was born today.  Little miss Viola came into the world sometime during today's springtime snowstorm and she was out of the barn enjoying the weather when we found her!  She's a sturdy little thing too!

Jerry and I were dreaming about our garden today, so we actually went outside and started working on  the garden fence.  We need a better way to keep the chickens out of our tomatoes this year, so we are going to build a proper fence.  I am so excited!  We sunk the cedar poles and hung the gate today, and while this won't keep out any of my feathered friend yet, it is really cute!

By the time Jerry and I got a few more poles in the ground, it had started snowing again.  So much for our spring gardening.  We decided to go about it another way by starting some sweet potato slips.  These are actually sweet potatoes from our garden last year, and I am hoping to be able to propogate my own plants from them this year.  Since I have never done this before, it's another of my great gardening experiments this year.  I think the next one will be planting asparagus!

Pulling Down the Walls

I love it when Jerry's Dad comes down for a visit!  When he is here, he and Jerry get all kinds of little projects done.  This weekend, they hung gutters on the chicken coop.  That may not seem like a big deal, but the gutters have been laying on the ground by the coops for a long time.  Now, they will catch the rain off of the coop roof and drain it into a rain barrel.  We can use that water for the chickens and rabbits, as well as the garden!

Today, Jerry and his dad tore down the drywall and studs that were against the cinderblock walls in the room downstairs that will be Trevor's.  As the old walls and ceiling were removed, it exposed the residue from a fire that had occurred long ago behind the Sheetrock.  It is really frightening to see what was underneath, but now that it has been revealed, it can be cleaned up and painted.

I saw the very same thing happen this weekend at the conference.  As we studied about our need for God, some of the ladies pulled down walls that had been hiding residue from past fires in their lives.  As they exposed those hidden hurts, they were able to turn them over to God.  They remembered how He intervened in their lives and they gave it all back to him to cleanse and renew their hearts!

We all go through difficult things, hurtful things, ugly things.  If we put up walls in an effort to cover over the damage, our lives may appear clean and pretty but they will not be healthy.  We must pull down the walls so God can create in us beautiful and healthy hearts.

A Time To Rest

What an amazing weekend!  The conference was a beautiful thing.  It seemed to clarify each lady's story and gave them a tangible way to remember and share it.  I am both blessed and overwhelmed!

I came home from the conference yesterday to a yard full of people!  Adults and children were enjoying the funny farm.  Our baby goats had lots of socialization yesterday!  We loved the fellowship that was happening at our place and hope that it is just the beginning of a season of sharing our place.  People kept coming and going until late last night and we finally settled in to sleep.

 

I had the opportunity to share a bit about the conference in church today and the ladies kept on sharing their stories.  We even had some men and children sharing in their own storytelling!  I am so amazed at just how far-reaching this is.  I have made some wonderful new friends myself, and I love the new relationships that I saw blossom among others at the conference.

I think my poor body just gave out today, as the work of the last few months is winding down.  I have been resting this afternoon, after my quick trip into town to visit a doctor.  I am hoping that turning in early today will refresh me enough to make it through a week of school, but I am really looking forward to my Spring Break week coming up next!