HANGING BY A THREAD

I spent yesterday at home.  Always when I have a day at home, I have great expectations for great accomplishments.  I actually felt like I succeeded yesterday.  At 10:15 a.m. I looked at the clock and thought, "Is it not lunchtime yet?"  I had put on a pot of beans for supper, cleaned out the refrigerator, been to my office and back, pondered writing a letter to the county commissioners about the horrid traffic issue they have created in our once-rural area, washed the car (which I had not physically done in about 5 years...that's why God made car washes), cleaned out both fireplace inserts, did three loads of laundry, washed outdoor porch chairs and washed front porch windows and doors.  Uh huh....me.  I did all that by 10:15 a.m.  After that, I took a shower and just enjoyed watching The Grandbaby for a couple of hours while The Girl went to the store.  Holding a sweet sleeping baby is beautiful rest for the weary.

While I was cleaning off the front porch, I noted many spider webs and a small wasp nest that was uninhabited.  I got my broom and intended to knock it down.  After many tries, I was unsuccessful even though I disabled it.  On closer observation, I noted it was hanging by a very small "thread" from the porch ceiling.  I got my camera to do a close up of it and got this picture....

I left it there just as it was but did google later to see how those little wasps make such a strong nest.  All my faithful blog readers will remember I did not score good grades in Science so Google helps.  Google said that wasps get wood from various places to put in their mouth with their saliva and their saliva kinds of gels the wood making it paperish.  (You should google yourself and read the whole thing.)   They find a nesting spot and put that mouth concoction on the spot and it hardens into this STRONG base.  Isn't that amazing?  I mean really.  The wasp is fairly small and it's mouth has to be very small and imagine the effort to make such a strong thread.  If the base is not secured, the nest will fall.  This nest on my porch did NOT fall even with lots of hard sweeping.  Granted by that time, my energy sweeping level had dwindled but I did try.   The picture is a close up....look at that narrow strong thread.

Of course these little natural things get me thinking about my spiritual things.  I hope my base or foundation is strong like these nests are.  I hope that I build with the kind of base that will endure through all kinds of adversities.

I never would have attempted to knock down this nest had wasps been in it.  You and I know how angry wasps can get when disturbed and the painful damage they can do.  That reminds me to be diligent in guarding my heart against danger and to stand firm when the enemy comes.

So with all that said to give you not a Bible lesson, but food for thought, when feel like you are hanging by a thread, be sure your thread is strong!

JUST A LITTLE THING

Last weekend my immediate family all went on various trips and I stayed home alone.  Now don't go feeling all sorry for me.  I was fine and actually fairly excited to have uninterrupted time to do some cleaning that had been needing to be done.  I will admit I had a long list and only marked off about a fourth of it but I stayed busy.  I didn't cook except for making a gluten free pasta salad for myself and a Marie Calendar's teriyaki chicken meal.  Well, I did make myself breakfast but how hard is it to warm some Canadian bacon, pour some egg whites from a carton into a pan, and pull a gluten free bagel out of the freezer and pop in the toaster?   Not very hard.

The Husband actually made the statement before he left that he hoped nothing bad occurred while he was gone.  I do have a reputation for that happening.  One year, the refrigerator died.  I bought him a new one while he was gone as the repair was excessive.  And how can my faithful blog readers forget two or three years ago when I was sequestered in my house because of a dangerous criminal that was in my neighborhood and tracked to my yard?  That was a really bad one and could have turned out wrong.  You may read that in my post of "SAFE" on June 25, 2014.

Anyways, during the time The Husband was away, I realized the trash compactor wouldn't compact when turned on unless I held the right side together.  The compactor is pretty old and we have determined that when it dies, we will just have a trash drawer so I was expecting it's demise while he was gone just because that's usually what happens.

So on Monday morning before The Husband's return on Monday afternoon, I decided to empty the trash bag in the compactor.  I left the clean bag out with a note that there was no bag.  I was going to babysit The Grandbaby and wanted to use the vacuum cleaner on the inside of the structure when I had the drawer pulled out.  The drawer was obviously in distress and very shaky on that right side.  

After I arrived back home, I got the vacuum cleaner and did the best I could.  Those compactors can get dirty fast and furious.  I noticed something in the left track of the drawer roller.  I tried to vacuum it out and it wouldn't come so I reached and pulled and pulled and it came out.  

Uh huh....an empty generic Splenda envelope.  Well lo and behold, I put the new compactor bag in and the compactor closed on the right side beautifully.  That little piece of paper envelope was keeping the track from operating properly.  With it removed, the compactor works exactly as it should and the drawer is straight.  Huh.

I got to thinking....isn't that how it is with life "things".  We allow the tiniest, smallest of things to clog up our track and mess up our joyful times.  I told myself I was going to be more careful of not only the generic Splenda packs but those little thoughts, actions, and traps of confusion that I tend to fall into--thinking I was getting all messed up when all it takes is a little "removal" of that little thing. Nope, it certainly doesn't take a big thing to mess with you.  I need to learn to hit the trash with these little trashy critters.

As I always wind up realizing when I know it already, God is always there to help me clean things up when they need cleaning up.  Believe me, no matter how hard I try, there's always some mess to clean up.  Know what I mean?  😁

And about that trash compactor, I thought had bit the dust....I'm kind of glad she's still in working order.  I would have missed her in my kitchen!  

Until next time...........