Returning to a Garden

Arriving home, we immediately check on the blackberries.  Deep black berries burst on the vine; we gobble them up and leave the red ones to ripen.  We're home! 

Blackberries Ripening

Our minivan's contents now spill across the living room, and everyone feels out-of-sorts (especially the mother).  I leave everything and run barefoot to the vegetable garden. 

Neck Deep in Tomatoes

With the exhaustion and disorder of arriving home after a summer of travel, I find myself returning to the garden.  It's overgrown with weeds, and nothing stayed quite in place.  But I'm out here, neck deep in green tomatoes. 

Something about growing things, something about the smell of the earth, the berries, and the vegetables reassures me.  We'll settle in, find order and rhythm, and harvest the fruit of a long, hot summer. 

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Journal:  What's so good about coming home? 

The Way You Should Go

On our journey home from Colorado, an older and wiser couple drive one hour ahead of us.  They warn us of traffic or storms.  They select the best hotel option.  They research and find great local restaurants. 

As we arrive behind them, we receive the reconnaissance report.  How easy to travel this way!  They even make dinner reservations for us so we just walk right to our table. 

It feels like we are not alone.  As I thank God for them, I realize they visually represent God's presence and provision all along. 


I recall the verse in Deuteronomy where the author reports that God "went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go."

I love that God shows us the way we should go.  






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Journal: Has it been obvious that God has gone ahead of you to show you the way you should go? 

7 Lessons from the Elevator

I'm teaching my daughters elevator etiquette.

1.  When the doors open, stand aside to let others exit before you enter.   
2.  Allow those with heavy loads to enter first.   Assist them if they need help. 
3.  Once inside, offer to hold the door so others can enter, and then politely ask which floor they want.
4.  If a child is on the elevator, ask if he or she would like to push the button for the floor.  They will want to.  
5.  Give people space.
6.  Don't make unnecessary noise or movement when inside out of respect to others.
7.  If a group travels together, offer to wait for the next elevator so that group can have room in the elevator.

Basically, defer to others.  Defer means to submit humbly to another person's desires or needs.   I want our family to say, "I defer to you," in as many situations as possible.

Living with flair means I remember my elevator etiquette.

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Journal:  Good manners have a lot to do with deferring to others.  Which elevator rule did I forget?