God is in the small things

Did you know that it is possible to find God's presence in the necessary tasks of life, like in doing laundry?

Household chores in general are not my favorite thing to do. I don't keep the house obsessively clean; I'm comfortable with a small amount of clutter and I don't mind if the laundry piles up during the week. I'd rather do it in one fell swoop on one day rather than devote bits of time to it during the week. I think this drives my husband nuts. He would devote bits of time to doing the laundry during the week if he could.  Sometimes, he will even put in a load when I'm not looking and then tell me about it as he leaves for work. Bless his heart. At least he's not above doing the laundry.

Dishes are especially not my favorite, but these are all things that need to be done so they get done. That's one of the reasons for letting the kids do it. They need to learn these things, right?

Anyway, back to laundry.

In our house, the kids do their own laundry and we all have days of the week especially set aside for this. For instance, Stephen does his on Wednesday, Jon on Saturday and Andrew on Sunday night. I do mine and Mike's on Friday (and whenever Mike sneaks in a load). I don't mind this schedule, in fact this summer I've rather enjoyed doing laundry. No. I'm not mentally ill, really.

Ever since energy rates have skyrocketed, we've made some changes at our house and the way we do laundry is one of them. The big change is we're not using our dryer. It's proved beneficial. In June we saved $60 from not using our dryer. Oh yeah, and the oven. With the heat we figured it would be more beneficial to run our air conditioner and use the grill. The dishwasher, on the other hand, was not even considered in this deal. We are still using it. I haven't gone completely mad. You're welcome, boys.

Using our clothesline for laundry has proved beneficial in more than just saving money. It has helped me slow down a bit. It takes time to hang clothes on the line and while doing this I enjoy some quiet time and the beauty of nature.

It hit me the first time I took a basket of clothes outside. On that day, the sky was a deep blue. There was a gentle breeze and since summer wasn't in full gear yet, the sun felt warm and inviting. I that moment, I thanked God for what he had created. And then I got a good chuckle from the birds. They were scolding me from  the treetops for interrupting their feast on the birdseed we put out everyday. They had flown away when I came outside.

"Just wait. I'll be gone soon," I told them.

A few days later I was out in the yard and two blue jays were eating at the bird seed trough. The other birds flew away, but those two stayed. I watched them from the clothesline for a while. They didn't even care that I was there and for some reason, I felt energized and a little closer to God because of this.

And when our wildflowers began blooming, I got to enjoy the blue sky, the gentle breeze, the squawking birds, the warm sun and colors of the wildflowers all at the same time. It's amazing how delicate and perfect the wildflowers are. Each one is unique in itself - just like us.

So why would a task like hanging laundry and enjoying nature have such an life-giving effect?

Author Michael Phillips put it this way in his book "Dawn of Liberty":

"The Fatherhood of God is one that must not merely create, it must continually imbue with life, it must generate his own life."

Perhaps that is why.

Phillips also wrote "Men and women are drawn to the earth; many do not even know why. They cultivate gardens and tenderly care for its trees and flowers and shrubs. The wise among them, however, acknowledge what gives the garden its glory. Kneeling down to plunge their fingers into the moist earth, they recognize that the miracle of God's very creation is before them. When they pluck a blossom from a cherished rose, to offer in affection to a loved one, they perceive their participation in the greatest truth in all the universe - that the goodness of the Creator has been lavished abroad upon the earth for his children to behold, discover truth from, and then enjoy ... if they will but look up, behold his face of love, and learn to call him Father."

Nature - the birds, the flowers, the leaves blowing in the wind, etc. - like humans, are a part of God's creation. When we quiet our hearts and enjoy the beauty around us, we experience a feeling of oneness and we open ourselves to the quiet lessons about God that nature has to teach us.

No wonder Paul said: "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse."

Nature is tangible evidence of God. Nature itself shows God's divine fingerprint on everything. No wonder we feel so close to God when we incline our inner ear to its teachings.

Who knew that hanging laundry on a clothesline could bring about such a positive experience?

One of the good things about hanging laundry, too, is that the smell of the outdoors lingers on your clothing. This was especially noticeable to me when I opened my backpack on vacation. The clothes, which had been enclosed inside for several hours, immediately gave off the scent of outdoors. When the aroma reached my nose I was reminded of my time outdoors and I thanked God again.

Hanging laundry. Who knew??

Hanging laundry redux

It's springtime again and with that comes the joy of hanging laundry on the line. Here's something I wrote last year that I thought would be appropriate to revive today. I've also added pictures that I took last year and played with on Photoshop. Just a little fun to start off the week:

Did you know that it is possible to find God's presence in the necessary tasks of life, like in doing laundry?


Household chores in general are not my favorite thing to do. I don't keep the house obsessively clean; I'm comfortable with a small amount of clutter and I don't mind if the laundry piles up during the week. I'd rather do it in one fell swoop on one day rather than devote bits of time to it during the week. I think this drives my husband nuts. He would devote bits of time to doing the laundry during the week if he could. Sometimes, he will even put in a load when I'm not looking and then tell me about it as he leaves for work. Bless his heart. At least he's not above doing the laundry.

Dishes are especially not my favorite, but these are all things that need to be done so they get done. That's one of the reasons for letting the kids do it. They need to learn these things, right?

Anyway, back to laundry.

In our house, the kids do their own laundry and we all have days of the week especially set aside for this. For instance, Stephen does his on Wednesday, Jon on Saturday and Andrew on Sunday night. I do mine and Mike's on Friday (and whenever Mike sneaks in a load). I don't mind this schedule, in fact this summer I've rather enjoyed doing laundry. No. I'm not mentally ill, really.

Ever since energy rates have skyrocketed, we've made some changes at our house and the way we do laundry is one of them. The big change is we're not using our dryer. It's proved beneficial. In June we saved $60 from not using our dryer. Oh yeah, and the oven. With the heat we figured it would be more beneficial to run our air conditioner and use the grill. The dishwasher, on the other hand, was not even considered in this deal. We are still using it. I haven't gone completely mad. You're welcome, boys.



Using our clothesline for laundry has proved beneficial in more than just saving money. It has helped me slow down a bit. It takes time to hang clothes on the line and while doing this I enjoy some quiet time and the beauty of nature.

It hit me the first time I took a basket of clothes outside. On that day, the sky was a deep blue. There was a gentle breeze and since summer wasn't in full gear yet, the sun felt warm and inviting. In that moment, I thanked God for what he had created. And then I got a good chuckle from the birds. They were scolding me from the treetops for interrupting their feast on the birdseed we put out everyday. They had flown away when I came outside.

"Just wait. I'll be gone soon," I told them.

A few days later I was out in the yard and two blue jays were eating at the bird seed trough. The other birds flew away, but those two stayed. I watched them from the clothesline for a while. They didn't even care that I was there and for some reason, I felt energized and a little closer to God because of this.

And when our wildflowers began blooming, I got to enjoy the blue sky, the gentle breeze, the squawking birds, the warm sun and colors of the wildflowers all at the same time. It's amazing how delicate and perfect the wildflowers are. Each one is unique in itself - just like us.

So why would a task like hanging laundry and enjoying nature have such an life-giving effect?

Author Michael Phillips put it this way in his book "Dawn of Liberty":

The Fatherhood of God is one that must not merely create, it must continually imbue with life, it must generate his own life.
Perhaps that is why.

Phillips also wrote: Men and women are drawn to the earth; many do not even know why. They cultivate gardens and tenderly care for its trees and flowers and shrubs. The wise among them, however, acknowledge what gives the garden its glory. Kneeling down to plunge their fingers into the moist earth, they recognize that the miracle of God's very creation is before them. When they pluck a blossom from a cherished rose, to offer in affection to a loved one, they perceive their participation in the greatest truth in all the universe - that the goodness of the Creator has been lavished abroad upon the earth for his children to behold, discover truth from, and then enjoy ... if they will but look up, behold his face of love, and learn to call him Father.
Nature - the birds, the flowers, the leaves blowing in the wind, etc. - like humans, are a part of God's creation. When we quiet our hearts and enjoy the beauty around us, we experience a feeling of oneness and we open ourselves to the quiet lessons about God that nature has to teach us.

No wonder Paul said: For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

Nature is tangible evidence of God. Nature itself shows God's divine fingerprint on everything. No wonder we feel so close to God when we incline our inner ear to its teachings.

Who knew that hanging laundry on a clothesline could bring about such a positive experience?

One of the good things about hanging laundry, too, is that the smell of the outdoors lingers on your clothing. This was especially noticeable to me when I opened my backpack on vacation. The clothes, which had been enclosed inside for several hours, immediately gave off the scent of outdoors. When the aroma reached my nose I was reminded of my time outdoors and I thanked God again.

Hanging laundry. Who knew??

How does your garden grow?

It was a busy weekend and I apologize to anyone who came by the blog on Monday looking for the new items I was going to add to my store since I said on Thursday that I was going to feature them.

I'll have to wait one more day so hopefully they'll be up tomorrow.

Meanwhile, did you have a nice Memorial Day? We did. The weekend was busy with my parents visiting from out of state and then on Monday, after they had gone home and had taken two of the boys with them for the annual Camp GrammiePapa extravaganza, we had a chance to collapse for a little while. We've been burning the candle at both ends for the last few weeks and it was time for a rest.

Rest for us, many times, means piddling around the house - doing laundry, working on crafts or orders, pulling weeds and eating leftovers. It was a beautiful day; I even got a chance to  make a pitcher of mint tea.

I've posted about our garden in previous writing. This year, everything is growing really well and our mint is going out of its mind so I'm looking for things to do with it. Any suggestions?

At our house, we also have a wildflower bed. Mike was out yesterday pulling weeds in it and since there are so many varieties of flowers, he was having trouble determining which was a weed and which wasn't. He was sharing this frustration with me as I was hanging dishtowels on the clothesline. "Well," I responded, "if it pulls out easily it's a weed."

This was probably not helpful, but it's true. I learned the difference from mistakenly pulling a real squash plant versus pulling a weed that had disguised itself as such. It was a bummer. I tried to replant the squash but to no avail. It died.

As Mike and I were talking, a thought crossed my mind that I've thought in the past when gardening. Weeds in a garden are like any sins that take root in our life. They often look beautiful. They are lush, full and green and often look like the good things that God has planted in our lives; however, they are fakes and will squeeze the life out of the plant it disguises itself as if it is not uprooted. Weeds often uproot easily because their roots are shallow so there is not much depth to them as a plant. Yes, they are destructive, but with a little effort, God can rid us of them. All it takes is a little patience, a watchful eye and a discerning spirit. We ask God, the master gardener, to remove the weeds from our lives because he can distinguish what is growing in our hearts.

From a gardener's perspective, it is easy to see the destruction a weed can cause, but from our own perspective it can often be difficult to discern sinful attitudes taking root in the soul. For instance, I used to grow peas in my vegetable garden. At first we would cultivate the rows, slightly burying the plants so that the weeds would get snuffed out. We cultivated because it was really difficult in the first stages to tell the difference between the real plants and the weeds and, like with my squash plant, I really didn't want to pull my healthy pea shoots out. Then, once the pea plants were more established, we quit cultivating and had to actually pull the weeds. When I first started doing this, I was amazed at how the weeds could disguise themselves, but with practice I learned to tell the difference. When I was right, I was rewarded with an easy pull.

It's like that in our hearts. For example, perhaps God has planted a wonderful talent in us. He carefully cultivates that talent and watches it grow into a healthy plant. Then one day he looks into our hearts and he sees a similar plant growing next to his healthy plants. It may be the sin of pride or selfishness growing right next to what he has established. Since he's in the garden, we have obviously given him permission to be there so he begins to weed out the plants that will choke out the good growth in our lives. In the end, God will hopefully have something good with which to nourish himself and to share with others.

Eventually, as we listen to the Holy Spirit, we'll also be able to tell when the right plants are not growing in our hearts. At this point, we can ask God to pull them. Our quickness will keep our hearts healthy, green and lush.

In the end, we hope to have beautiful wildflowers and back in the day we had tasty peas. In our hearts, we hope that the fruits of the spirit flourish: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

How does your garden grow?