When Blue Skies Turn Grey

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We’ve all been there as moms, frazzled, tired and plain ol’ worn out. We can’t focus nor see past the circumstances before us. We turn to the left and to the right for advice from trusted sources only to realize their well-meaning intentions were just not for you, your marriage, your kids, and where you are in your momma life! We begin to hide away, sink into darkness, feeling convicted or judged by every, “You need to do this”, “You must do that”, “I guarantee if you do this or did this better,” ahhh!!!  And you wonder, are they really listening, do they hear your hearts plea? More often than not (myself included), the advice given or received is out of pride and a chance to elevate the very things deemed the “right way” in their eyes. This brings on feelings of condemnation to the very person who just needed a true listening ear, encouragement and a helping hand. In reading the book of Job, I find his plight very similar to ours today, not just as moms, but everyone.

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How Does Your Garden Grow?

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“Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.”

-Mother Goose

There’s just something about a garden whether it be a vegetable, flower, or fields of grain. As I gaze among them with awe, I see and admire the beauty in the backdrop of creation. By far, my garden is not even comparable to the awe-inspiring gardens of those featured in magazines. Each year we set out to plant a garden with hopes of it being better than the year before. We prep the soil in order for it to be less clay like and more fertile. We fuss about whether to plant seeds or plants already started from our local stores. We buy the plant food and the things needed to keep grub worms and pests away. There is also a fence around the garden to keep out the sweet, wild bunnies that love to eat away the vegetation as well as the slithering things that hide away in the brush to prey on their next meal.  In all our efforts to make a beautiful garden, we constantly fall short of the goal. Each year brings a new challenge leaving our garden not so appealing let alone tended to.

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