Smells

There's no telling what will come to mind when standing for 5-6 hours at a time cutting up peaches for pie filling.

So I was thinkin' about how in our big walk-in refrigerator, regardless what's in there, the first thing you smell when you walk in is the big bag of onions. (Now don't get sidetracked...I know the fridge isn't the place for onions, but it can't be helped!) Even when I've just put a big bucket of delicious and fragrant peach filling in there, there's just no overcoming that strong scent!

And what's worse:

the stinky onion smell gets into ANY other foods in the refrigerator that aren't well-sealed.

One thing that helps is to put a few open boxes of baking soda in the fridge. Although the walk-in fridge might require something a bit bigger than a little box of soda, it does help! Onion and peach, good and bad smells get absorbed into the chalky white contents of that little orange box.

But keep your nose clear of it!

After a couple months it's absorbed all it can, and isn't good for anything else.

So if you haven't guessed yet, I don't prefer to hang out with the onions. 

This past spring Tyler planted several pots of roses along the wall of...well, the bathrooms...and I was noticing today as I sat eating my lunch how full the bushes were with fragrant roses! Big hot pink knock-out roses, spreading their lovely fragrance. Sure wish I could put a box of that baking soda out there to absorb THAT scent, so I could take it home with me!!

Ahem.

So.

What are you?

What am I?

A stinky onion?

Baking soda?

Or a big fragrant rose?

Does our personal frustration, irritation, grouchiness, fearfulness, or judgmental attitude flow out all the time as a stinky stream, repulsing others...or worse...rub off on them? Do people come away from conversation with us discouraged and dragged down by OUR troubles, when those troubles ought to have been left at the Lord's feet...the only One who can actually DO something about them?

Or are we baking soda...taking in and then omitting whatever attitudes we come across.

Be it good.

Be it bad.

Responding in anger to anger, toward criticism with criticism.

Or yes,

cheerfulness with cheerfulness...

until the next grouchy person comes along, and pulls us down again with his stinky attitude.

Or are we roses?

Filled to overflowing with the fragrance of Christ, so that regardless of the situation, what comes out of us is lovely, refreshing, encouraging. And points others not to ourselves, but to our dear Christ.

"But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere." 

(2 Cor. 2:14)

It won't be lovely to everyone. To some it's life, to others death. Some people would just rather keep their noses buried in the stench of their problems rather than think they need the Savior to cleanse them of their filth. But to others...it might just be the fragrance that draws them to Jesus at the moment of their need.

"For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?"  

(2 Cor. 2:15-16)

Notice, too, that we're the aroma of Christ TO GOD. The main focus is on pleasing Him, not adjusting our attitudes to match those around us, trying somehow to please them.

Oh Father, let us be roses in this rotting-onion world...who even when we be plucked, crushed, bruised, and eventually reach the end of our life here, might give out the fragrance of

LIFE.

"Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent..."

(2 Cor. 3:5-6)

Words of Wisdom

Hope's words of wisdom from Proverbs 19:2:

"Zeal with a mallet is not good."

Almost as bad as zeal without knowledge, eh?

Peas and Cheese

Kate and Carrie watched throughout most of the cake-decorating process of Tyler's recent birthday cake.

They saw me make the frosting.

They watched me pipe it on.

Kate even got to help in one place, when Hannah's hand refused to pipe one more little green ball.

Yet they could NOT figure out what it was, even when the strange yellow frosting got blopped all over the top.

But you.

YOU faithful readers...surely YOU won't let me down and not be able to figure out what this is:

No? How about another angle?

And it is NOT peas and cheese.

That was just Kate and Carrie's first impression.

They did have the food category right, though.

How about this:

To date, only about half the people who see even THAT picture know what it is.

Well, the family thought it was funny, anyway.

Surely we're not the only group of siblings who kindly wish broccoli-cake-with-cheese-sauce on each other every year.

But this is definitely the first time anyone in our family has actually GOTTEN one.

Follow the Lamb

To follow Christ is to commit ourselves wholly and entirely to Him as our only leader and Savior, and to submit ourselves to Him in every matter, both of doctrine and practice. "Following" is only another word for "believing." It is the same act of soul, only seen from a different point of view. As Israel followed the pillar of cloud and fire in all their journeys - moving whenever it moved, stopping whenever it tarried, asking no questions, marching on in faith - so must a man deal with Christ. He must "follow the Lamb wherever He goes." (Rev. 14:4.)

~ J.C. Ryle