fresh flowers for Nov 10

3 for 1 event
copyright 2006, lani wiens
a fresh flowers original

Fresh flowers continue to pop up regularly in my day, however, getting them to the display case seems to be a bit of a difficult thing to do since my baby showed up! So, here are a few tidbits that have been running around in my head until a fuller bouquet can be made...

Halloween - a blessed event

Yup, I think I've converted. I think that there are probably more people who act Christ-like on Halloween then any other day of the year. When else do people go out of their way to spend money on total strangers? When else do people fling open their doors and give to whoever asks? When else do we have the freedom to knock on our neighbor's doors and invite ourselves in, be it ever so briefly? When else do we have the opportunity for the world to come to our door so we can love them? Hide in my basement with all my lights off and be miserly? I think not...

Home - truly where your heart is

As we contemplate the possibility of moving again, not just across town but to a whole other life style and area we have have to make some mental adjustments. What is a house after all but four walls and a roof? Any place that is warm and dry will do in the end. When we looked at the faces of our six children and each other, my husband and I realized that we can be home wherever we are as long as we can have these that are most precious with us.

Then we contemplated moving on a far more eternal scale as we said good-bye to our friends' young son. Home is really not here at all. We truly are just passing through in these temporary shells. Home is in heaven, where we'll be all that we were created to be, finally.

Dehydration

It's amazing how exciting a pee-filled diaper can be after waiting for over 12 hours to see one happen. We had some nasty flu and cold bugs running through our house over the last two weeks which hit the girls the hardest. The process of rehydration is tedious and lengthy. We needed to feed Elizabeth every 15 minutes a tiny bit of liquid, hoping it would stay in her system long enough that eventually she would absorb enough liquid to eliminate wastes once again. Dehydration in babies can be a serious, even deadly thing. While I was going through this process I realized I was feeling a bit dry myself, but in the spiritual sense.

Re-hydrating my spiritual self wasn't that different than what I was doing with my daughter's physical body. Little bits, very often and soon the wastes start coming out. Then you can handle greater volumes and then finally back to solid food again. It isn't good for us to get spiritually dehydrated, unfortunately the symptoms present themselves far too often. I have no tears left, I'm listless and have no energy to fight against the onslaught of the enemy that is trying to take over my system. My mouth is dry, there is no praise or thanksgiving being offered, and the toxins aren't being flushed out of my system. Won't take long and I'll wither up. How's your hydration level?

LARGE FAMILY BONUSES: While it's true that in a large family it's difficult to find time to yourself, it's also easy to find someone to talk to or to get a hug from because there's always someone around.