Becoming like little children

Then he said, "I assure you, unless you turn from your sins and become as little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. Matthew 18:3 NLT

This has been one of the recurring themes that has been creeping up in my readings, the sermon this weekend, etc. Think God is trying to tell me something?

Here's what commentary says on NETBible regarding this verse: The point of the comparison become like little children has more to do with a child’s trusting spirit, as well as willingness to be dependent and receive from others, than any inherent humility the child might possess.

Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes. Matthew 6:34

I have things on my mind that I would like to blog about, but will have to get to them later. I've been trying to relearn, remember, digest enjoying the here and now and not "waiting for things to be over" or worrying about what might happen in the future.

I'm forcing myself to look up some verses in The Message Version of the Bible. I think one of the reasons I like the NKJV is because I can distance myself from it more. I used to use the excuse of it being the most untranslated form that is most like the original version that I can grasp.

...It seems like "Do not worry about tomorrow" is much easier than "Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now".

Birds

Yesterday, my husband said there was a bird trapped in a wall in his office. He just sent this to me today...

Dateline: *****, Kansas

At approximately 10:30 hours this morning, a small, grey bird was rescued from within the inner wall of the planning office of ***** (my husband's workplace). The daring rescue was pulled off by an intrepid member of the *** maintenance crew who first determined the trapped bird's exact location and then removed a set of wall outlets. This created a hole that was just big enough to pull the tired bird out of the wall.

The bird, once in the hands of the maintenance person, was gratefull to be pulled from it's dark, cramped trap. It is currently "trying to get it's bearings" in the breezeway of ***. It's progress will be monitered by the planners until it is strong enough to fly off to it's normal life.

The planning department is now relieved to not have to listen to the bird flapping within the wall, as it slowly starved to death.

Also yesterday, I found the second dead animal this year (a young bird) in my backyard. We are thinking about keeping a body count tally, as we have found at least two dead possums and various birds within the last four years...We didn't know we lived on an animal burial ground.

Linky about feelings

I read this today and liked it. Caution to the guys: It's to a blog called Girl Talk.

Memorial Day

What are your Memorial Day memories? When I was growing up, we would spend our time camping by the lake, and not in a tent. I'm missing bon fires and boating on big bodies of water. Yes, that was not the reason for Memorial Day, but those memories always creep in. Oh, and we did go to my grandparents' grave, but I didn't even remember them when they were alive, so it wasn't sad for me. Oh yeah, and school was out by then!! Yippee!!!

Nowadays, my husband and I seem to catch one or two war movies on TV during the weekend and on Tuesday go back to work...Oh, how I miss the summer vacation!

But this day is not about me...Here's to the original meaning of Memorial Day!

Intricacy

Intricacy is that which is given from the beginning, the birthright, and in intricacy is the hardiness of complexity that ensures against the failure of all life. This is our heritage, the piebald landscape of time. We walk around; we see a shred of the infinite possible combinations of an infinite variety of forms.

--Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

I've been enjoying this book, but it's a slow read. I'm at the part of the book where she talks about stalking muskrats and am using the tips to view my baby bunnies. Here's another interesting part of the book:

The faster death goes, the faster evolution goes. If an aphid lays a million eggs, several might survive. Now, my right hand, in all its human cunning, could not make one aphid in a thousand years. But these aphid eggs--which run less than a dime a dozen, which run absolutely free--can make aphids as effortlessly as the sea makes waves. Wonderful things, wasted. It's a wretched system.

And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. --Matthew 10:29-31

Show and tell

My neighbor Sharon and I played show and tell in each other's yards yesterday. These are her spiderwort, just some of her roses, and wonderful-smelling mock orange.

Motivation

I'm having a hard time staying motivated today while working.

Sgraffito

I have a new favorite word and favorite technique--SGRAFFITO. It just sounds cool, doesn't it? After the piece is trimmed, the slip (or paint in layman's terms) is put on. Then a design is scratched on, showing the original color. Then it goes through one firing, and then a glaze is placed on top of that (I will use clear glaze). After it is fired one last time, it will be finished.

I finally tried some different clay...The bad part about using this red clay is that it stains light-colored fabric and your hands--looks like a
self-tanning incident gone bad.

No boys allowed

Some ladies from Wheatland Mission threw a bridal shower for Leigh on Sunday morning. Leigh is super sweet and cool and just graduated as an elementary school teacher. She's in my house church group. If you're interested, you may click here to see some pictures from my flickr account.

Check out the rosettes on the cake plate...Laura M. made them out of Starbursts!

Baby update

The bunnies' eyes are starting to open.

This is the best picture I could get of the baby birds. They are fed often and chirp a lot.

Testing if comments work

Widlife in the yard

We've been enjoying the house sparrows having babies in the birdhouse that we can see from our kitchen window.

A rabbit decided to make a nest in our backyard, and here are three little bunnies with their eyes closed. We've been able to keep the dog away from them so far. Aren't they cute?

p.s. Sorry for the words being up with the pictures...if I put 100 spaces, blogger still won't separate them. Humph!

p.p.s. I guess no one can comment...I did read someone's blog from Colorado, and they had the same problem yesterday....It must've finally made it to Kansas.

Dream

I just remembered one of my dreams from last night. I developed to hives on my back, and they stuck out exactly 6 cm. They really hurt. I did eat Mexican food last night...

Praying mantis eggs

Look what my neighbor gave me! Hopefully I'll get a lot of neat pictures when they hatch in a couple weeks.

Bad new/good news

Bad news: My modem was fried last night by the thunderstorm and I couldn't start work until noon today...

Good news: It's not my modem, and I don't have to pay to replace it.

Feelings

Sight is not faith, and hearing is not faith, neither is feeling faith; but believing when we can neither see, hear, nor feel is faith.
--Hannah Whitall Smith

Lately I've been reminded not to let my emotions direct me...including not feeling God being there, but deep down I know He is.

I was also moved by this quote...

God, in his love, always leaves room for us to doubt. But God also gives us plenty of reason to believe.
--James Bryan Smith

My dog's going to be famous (just kidding)

Dogfessions got my postcard. You can see it
here.

Infomercial

Has anyone else seen the infomercial for The Secrets of Motionless Exercise? I had to watch it for a few minutes just to laugh. It only takes 7 minutes a day...

Here's their disclaimer:
*RESULTS VARY. TYPICAL RESULTS ARE 1 SIZE AND 6 POUNDS IN FIRST 14 DAYS.RESULTS BASED ON 7 MINUTE EXERCISE AND 7 SECRETS DIET/LIFESTYLE PROGRAM. CONSULT A PHYSICIAN BEFORE BEGINNING THIS OR ANY EXERCISE PROGRAM. NOT INTENDED FOR USE BY CHILDREN OR PREGNANT WOMEN.

Yellow

Baby Moon miniature daffodils (Yes, they are blooming now since I didn't get them in the ground until January 28th.)

This is what I ended up doing to the closed form. The glazing isn't very good on it because I got the glaze and covercoat mixed up and it had to be fired three times instead of twice...Also it doesn't fit together well...It was a learning experience of what not to do next time.

Wondering if you're humming that Coldplay song or that Beatles submarine song now... How about that polka-dot bikini song?