Chasing Dead Leaves

I have been chasing dead leaves and it took a butterfly to show me.

 

This morning, after a busy, busy few weeks of school, I slept in late and finally had more than a few moments to spend with the Lord.

He led me to just what I needed - and as I was "chewing" over it and contemplating what He was teaching me, my eyes focused on butterflies chasing each other outside my window.  

I was mesmerized by them.  I thought of how freely they were moving and enjoying the beautiful day.  

I decided to get up from my chair and open my front door to watch them more closely.  I made sure I opened the door quietly so as not to scare off any creatures.  

Except, when I opened the door, I saw that they had gone away from just seconds before!  I hate I had missed them!

But then, the Lord drew my eyes closer to our front steps.  There, I found a beautiful yellow butterfly flitting among the pink petunias.  The area was so alive and vibrant!  I decided I needed to capture this beauty so I went for my camera.

A few seconds later I saw those "butterflies" again - but closer this time.  

I realized what I had mistaken as beautiful butterflies chasing each other were actually dead leaves caught up in a mini whirlwind. 

It was then, the Lord began to use the Scripture He had already shown me, with the picture from His Creation before me, to teach me I had been chasing dead leaves instead of butterflies.

Since school has begun, I have been non-stop.  

Such is normal for a school teacher and mother.  It is life.  It is what I always expect this time of year.

However, this year I have felt more stress than before.  I think it has been a combination of things - older kids, more responsibilities with them, my regular students/parents and the normal time of getting to know them, responsibilities of teaching and what that requires, my parents' health not what it once was, my desire to get in 10,000 steps each day.... 

I think you get the picture.  

In all of that, I have felt recently that I didn't even really like MYSELF.  I have felt empty and stretched.  I have felt a bit "dead" - and caught up in the whirlwind of life.

I have had my daily time with the Lord, but I will be honest - it has been reading but not a lot of applying each day.  I am currently reading through the Scriptures in chronological order, and while that is important and I am learning from it, I have found I haven't gotten to STUDY the Scriptures deeply.  Then, when I have had a moment, I have just been too tired to absorb what He wanted to show me.

Until today with my Scripture reading and a butterfly.

He gave me Romans 12:12 today in my study - 

"Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer."

I have lost some of my hope because I was chasing the dead leaves of this life.  I was falling away from patience, and my prayer life had become like the whirlwind - fast and furious.

As I watched that butterfly I saw that it was still busy - but it was busy doing each flower one at a time.  It took what it could from one flower, and moved to the next.  

If you look closely at the picture, you see that the butterfly has had a tough time of it, because one of its wings is damaged.  Yet, it perseveres continuing to do what the Lord designed it to do.

I needed that picture. I needed that image of perseverance.  I needed to realize that my chasing of dead leaves was not beneficial to me or to those around me. 

The Lord didn't ask me to get caught up in the whirlwind.  He asked me to serve Him one flower at a time.

I am going to print out that picture after I put Romans 12:12 on it.  I am going to place it all around me where I can remind myself of this truth from God's Word.

A truth of what the Lord taught me as I chose to get out of the whirlwind and be still before Him:

Rejoice in hope.

Patient in tribulation.

Constant in prayer.

Shaping and Pruning - Yard Work With a Twist

So the family did some yard work at my parents' house this weekend.

We were so glad to help them beautify their yard.  It has been a hard year for them with Daddy's fall over a year ago.

As is normal for me, I had some graceful moments with the rake - and made my Dad laugh - which was a good thing.  All in all, it was an awesome day of working together and seeing the finished product.

We did a lot of pruning.

A LOT.

Poor Steve's arms were so tired after it was done.  We pruned around 40 or so bushes at their house.  Let's just say it was a lot!

I began to "chew" on the pruning as I was leaning on my rake waiting for the next opportunity to have a graceful moment.  We had been trimming off excess growth on most of them as they had just gotten so out of shape.

Then, we came to this group of monstrosity bushes.

These bushes have been around ever since Mom and Daddy added on the sunroom and deck behind it to the house... the late 1970's.

Steve showed Wesley how to shape and trim them to give his arms a break.  Wesley went after those bushes with all his might....and we began to find that those bushes were quite ugly on the inside.  That green foliage on the outside was hiding what was really underneath!

In the picture below you are able to see how the green was really on the top part of the stem while the remainder of the bush was just woody and prickly.

We decided we were going to go drastic - we were going to go beyond pruning and we were going to take them down to the ground!

And that is what we did.  You can see Mikayla was helping get branches that Steve had just cut off.  It was good.  It was a freeing of that area that had become so crowded.  We couldn't believe the difference.

As I was standing there waiting to get in with my rake, I began to turn this pruning adventure into a reminder for myself spiritually.

How many times have I been just like the bushes we were pruning?

I have had times when I just needed a "touch up" of God's Word to get me spiritually looking right again.  There were other times I have needed a few more branches trimmed off the bottom to get me looking less bulky.

But then, there have been the times I needed to be cut down.  I needed a new start.

I began to "chew" on those bushes in the pictures above.  I was amazed at the symbolism I found in our spiritual walk with those bushes.  The Lord taught me much that afternoon.

You see, many times we look like we are growing in the Lord.  There is some new growth and we are pretty big!

However, when God begins to cut to the heart of the matter while He is pruning us and shaping us, sometimes He finds we have gone beyond just the normal pruning needs.

He begins to trim and He finds no green below the surface of our spiritual life.  In fact, one would wonder how the green came to be at all.  For below the green lies prickly, woody stems that within their heart bear no green - no fruit.

Just like those bushes looked big, pride can make us look like we are bigger spiritually than we actually are.  When the green is cut off, we see the prickly, woody portions of our soul and it is filled with anger, bitterness, hardness, callousness.... and I could go on.  We want to grow on our own terms and not in the way God designed.

Those bushes above had to be cut down to the ground.  They needed to start over - they needed to become something they were not - useful.  We then covered them with pine straw to face the winter ahead and are looking to see them come alive again next spring.  It was good.  It was freeing.

Sometimes in our Christian life, the Lord has to cut us down to the ground so that we can grow back healthy and more full of HIS life.

He is the Master Gardener and we must trust Him.  His prunings can be harsh at times, but He covers us with His love and when new life begins - He is there growing us in His likeness and not our own.  It is good.  It is freeing us from ourselves.

Pretty amazing what the Lord can show you about His truth - while doing yard work - with a twist.