Christians Read

As I have mentioned before, my husband has a green thumb. Last week I talked about the vegetable garden and fruit trees in our yard. But my husband also likes other trees, flowers, etc. The only thing he doesn’t like as much are bushes, but that is mainly because he thinks snakes could be hiding underneath. So he usually tries to keep the lower branches of the bushes trimmed.

One of my husband’s favorite things to grow are roses. We have several rose bushes in our yard. He might get this from his late mother, as I remember that she enjoyed getting new roses to root.

Some of the roses we have in our yard, we ordered through a catalog. There is one in particular that my husband was especially interested in planting. It is called a Blue Moon rose. The only problem is that it is not blue. Rather it is more on the pink or lavender side.

This prompted a conversation between my husband and me. “People” named this rose blue moon, even though it is not blue. And I don’t know where moon comes into the picture. I guess in general, it does have a nice name. It just doesn’t really fit.

The following day after my husband and I talked about the not-so-blue rose, we were talking about going to the grocery store for fruit. One of the things my husband wanted was grapes. And again the name issue came up. He said that the grapes he wanted were the green ones, but people usually referred to them as white grapes. Again this name came from “people.”

And the same is true for us. People will call us a lot of things. Some of the things they call us might be hurtful or they might make us feel good. Some things they call us might be accurate or they might be way off base. It can be easy to let other people’s words affect us. Hurtful words will bring us down, and nice words will give us a boost.

But what’s important to remember, especially as Christians, is to compare everything to truth. Truth comes from God, What Jesus did for us, and what the Bible says. Who does God say you are? Who are you in Jesus? And what truth can be found in the Bible? Whether the things said about us are good or bad, it is always best to bring them back to truth.

Most of us who keep up with news might have seen a report about a nine-year-old child being butted into the air by a bison in Yellowstone recently. I saw the footage and was horrified. But I saw how close the crowd was to that bison. Unfortunately, the adults ran away and the bison went for the closest person. That bison was not shown nearly enough respect.

When I say respect I mean you need to do it with fear and trembling, and give the wild animal a wide berth. See the moose above? He’s a big guy. He can cause a lot of damage. As much damage, as the bison. Or worse. If you ever see a mama moose with her baby, you don’t want to be anywhere around, because she will stomp the stuffing out of you.

If you go to Yellowstone this year, or any other place with wild animals meandering through it, please understand that these are, indeed, wild animals. As in, they are protective of their food, their young, their very lives, and you are the intruder.

Mel took a picture of this guy as he was getting nervous. There was a crowd hovering at the road a couple hundred feet from him, which to me was a little too close, but two women decided to get closer. They’d run a little farther, take a picture, then get even farther from the crowd, closer to the moose, until he raised his big head and glared at them and shook his mighty head. Even THAT didn’t deter them. I never heard about a bull moose attack in Yellowstone that day, but there could well have been. A moose is a wild animal.

Mel and I had just driven down into the edge of Yellowstone for a hike, and though it was a thrill to see this bull moose, we didn’t stick around. We also didn’t do much hiking in Yellowstone because of all the bear warnings–grizzly attacks. I love animals but not enough to risk getting mauled by a grizzly.

Last week we drove south into the mountains and went hiking. When we got back into the car Mel said something surprising–something he’d never said before. “I have this strong feeling that we’re going to see something picture-worthy on our way back home.” So he kept his camera out and I kept watch.

Sure enough, I caught sight of this pretty gal in the tree line beside the road.

Mel took this picture from the car. Granted, it was not a good place to stop, but traffic was almost nonexistent, and we weren’t about to find a place to park and come back for a picture by foot. That’s because a moose, like a grizzly or a lion or a wolf, is a wild animal and doesn’t know we’re just taking pictures. She might have thought we were stalking her in some way. Or she might have thought we were after her food or her baby. We have to respect the wild.

Fear and respect can mean the same thing. Take the Bible, for instance. If you’ve read  The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, you’ve seen that Mr. Beaver tells the children that Aslan is not a safe lion. In other words, our Lord is not a pet. He is Lord of the universe, and we do not control Him. He controls us. We owe him more than the respect or fear we would show to a grizzly or a moose we would see in Yellowstone or out on one of our hiking trails. We owe Him total honor, total respect, total love, our total lives.

Unlike with these animals in the picture, we can draw close to Him, but we must know that if we attempt to treat Him with disrespect, with dishonor, without love, then we are taking ourselves out of His realm of protection. And that is not safe or wise in any way. Don’t forget who the enemy is. We need to be in right relationship with our God.

My husband enjoys keeping a vegetable garden. Twice a year he will till up the dirt and then carefully place various seeds and plants in that dirt. Before too long, we will begin to see vegetables begin to grow. Some of the things my husband plants include cucumbers, squash, potatoes, turnip greens, collard greens, green beans, peas, tomatoes, bell peppers, broccoli, cabbage, and so on.

We also have several fruit trees, citrus trees, and grapes. All of this is thanks to my husband’s hard work. He has the green thumb in our family!

As the saying goes, you reap what you sow. The Bible even references this in numerous verses across the Old and New Testaments. One example is in Galatians 6. I am using the New Living Translation here, so it’s worded a little differently. Verse 7 says, “You will always harvest what you plant.”

This is something important to remember in general, not just as it pertains to gardening:

• If we sow seeds of negativity, we will reap negativity. On the flip side, if we plant positivity, we will harvest positivity.
• If we sow seeds of judgement, we will reap judgment. However if we plant empathy, we will harvest empathy.
• If we sow seeds of hate, discord, and anger, then we will reap hate, discord, and anger. On the other hand, if we plant love, harmony, and peace, then we will harvest love, harmony, and peace.
• Those who spend money foolishly, will suffer the consequences. But if they are good stewards of their money, they will reap the reward.
• If someone continually eats poorly and doesn’t exercise, in time they could see negativity effects in their health. But if someone makes a habit of eating nutritious foods and staying active, then their body will be better off in the long run.
• If someone plays video games all day, every day, they cannot expect to have a productive life. But if they set goals and work diligently, then they will benefit in the years to come.

Keeping this truth tucked in our hearts will help us make better decisions. It will prompt us to be more responsible. And it will nudge us to spread the love of Jesus wherever we go.

But let’s look at this from a different angle. You wouldn’t plant cucumber seeds and expect to produce apples. And you wouldn’t scream at someone and expect them to answer you calmly. It seems pretty straightforward and logical, right?

Well, actually, there might be times when you reap something that you didn’t know you sowed. A few years ago when my husband’s squash seeds began to harvest, a tall sunflower had grown in the midst of the squash. The only logical explanation is that a sunflower seed had accidentally gotten mixed in with the squash seeds.

Could we accidentally be sowing the wrong seeds in life as well? Maybe we snap at someone and we don’t realize that our words came out harshly. Or perhaps we feed our souls garbage, but we don’t realize it’s wrong because that is what the rest of the world is doing.

It helps to be intentional about what we sow. And it starts by surrounding ourselves with the right nutrients. My husband often gets the dirt tested to see if it is lacking any nutrients. Then he will purchase appropriate fertilizer to nourish the ground.

Likewise we can feed ourselves the best nutrients. For example, fellowshipping with other Christians will help us grow good fruit. Earlier I mentioned Galatians 6. If we backup to the beginning of that chapter, in verses 1-3, Paul says, “Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.”

We should all have some “safe” friends who can gently nudge us when they see that we made a mistake. And in turn, we should be able to do the same for them.

But most importantly, we should also make sure Jesus is our main source of water and nutrition. When we feed ourselves wholesome things, we will have better discernment between right and wrong. Jesus said in John 15:5-8, “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.”

In other words, it is essential for our own well-being and growth that we stay grounded in the Lord. When we do, we will sow and reap the best in life!

No matter how far I get in my writing career, the hardest part is always letting your baby go.  Allowing someone to read and interact with what you’ve written.  They might tell you that your baby is ugly.  Or your baby is unworthy and should go back into the dark places in the back of your drawer.  How terrifying that is to be bold and put your work out there for others to criticize.

When you’re seeking publication, agents and editors might tell you that your baby is ugly.  But when you’re published, ANYONE can say publicly how ugly your baby is and describe his flaws in detail.  This is the one thing I’ve discovered about writing and taking criticism:

If I BElIEVE in what I’m writing?  I couldn’t care less about what someone has to say about it.  I know why I wrote it.  You can assign ugly motive to me all you like, but that’s not why I wrote it.  And I know the truth. My motive was from a good place.  Was this person’s review?  Or was it just to criticize? I think this is a good lesson to take in life.  Does this person giving me feedback genuinely care about me?  Or do they have some other motive?

Over the years I’ve had a lot of people tell me THEIR version of Christianity should be mine.  Once I had a book cover where the heroine had a tank top on.  I was told that I was promoting promiscuity and I should never seek to call myself a Christian.  Okay, sure.  (At the time, I had NO say in covers either.)

It’s ironic that later my book on late-in-life virginity (What a Girl Wants) got purchased by a Christian singer who wanted to do a movie on that life choice.  The movie never got made, but you can see how people can read extremes into your words that aren’t there.  That’s because we all come to books with baggage. Our own baggage and backgrounds and it colors what we read and how we see the world.

No writer is for everyone.  I’m certainly not.  I’m for people who live a Christian life surrounded by atheists.  That’s my truth. That’s what is in my books.

All this to say, what people say about you has little to do with you.  Let them have their opinions.  It has no bearing on you.  Although once I did let my baby soar and he ended up in the Middle East.  He sent me this picture along with the words, “I’m fine, Mom.”  The last picture he sent me with those words, he was hanging out of an airplane over Okinawa.  On second thought, maybe we should put a leash on our babies…

My husband and I consider the mountains our home away from home. We try to visit the area at least once a year. Our favorite spot in particular is Cades Cove in Tennessee. There is always a lot of wildlife that we see there. So I wanted to share with you some pictures from our trip earlier this month. We took around 2,000 pictures and it was difficult narrowing them down. But here are some of the best shots of wildlife in particular.

Our favorite animal we look for are the black bears. Here is a mom who had two cubs.

We also saw another mom with three cubs. But we were not able to get all four of them in the same picture. Here is mom and one of the cubs.

We also enjoying seeing the deer.

Here are two different (but not great unfortunately) shots of a mom and baby deer. The baby still had wobbly legs.

We also see a lot of turkeys. Here are only a couple of the many pictures we captured of them. The first one is a mom and baby.

The horses in Cades Cove are not wild. They are used for horseback rides and carriage rides.

We also saw elk on our trip. This was not in Cades Cove though. This was close to Cherokee, NC.

I hope you enjoyed seeing these pictures, as much my husband and I enjoyed taking them!