An Awesome Opportunity

Some interesting things have been happening around here lately. Here's the run down.

Yesterday morning my next batch of broiler chicks arrived. I'm trying something a little different this time--I borrowed a stock tank to keep the chicks in for the first few days. Right now they're in the garage, and the tank is working out a lot better than the cardboard box I've tried in the past. It's been pretty warm (in the mid to upper 80's [great weather for mowing away hay in the back corner of the barn where's there's no breeze!]) and although it's cooled down some, it is still warm enough that the chicks don't need nearly as much supplemental heat as my previous batches did. So my plan is that after the first few days of having them in the tank on newspaper and wood shavings, I'll move them right out onto the grass in the big broiler pen. I imagine that I'll still have to keep the heat lamp with them, but I think that the earlier that they're exposed to grass and dirt the better they'll do over all.

Now that the chicks are here and requiring attention, I've been staying home rather than going over to the Williams farm (that's where I was helping mow away hay on 90 degree days--the weather really has been quite good for hay this year--really good rains, but enough hot, dry days too, although we're a touch dry now.) After working over there and always being busy, now that I'm home I'm actually getting kinda bored. I guess I ought to make up a list of projects to work on. The gardens are disappointing me this year. We're only just now starting to get yellow tomatoes, the beans aren't producing as well as I'd hoped, (not to mention the fact that they didn't come up very well in the first place) the peas...(where to begin) I've replanted them twice and the few that did come up are doing really poorly. The pop corn that I planted at a friend's house--I put it down on the low ground because it looked like a dry year--is still yellow and not much over knee high because it's so wet down there! Oh, bother....................

On a brighter note, Grama is coming up from Florida. She'll be arriving tomorrow at 11:08 am at the Lansing airport, so Mom and I are going in to pick her up (and make the traditional run to Gordon Foods and Horrock's, plus look for another pair of high top shoes for me (it seems that hog manure is hard on synthetic soles and such)). Now this is the game playing Grama--we always have a ball with her. Cribbage, Uno, Triominoes, Dominoes, Farkle, Skip-Bo, Phase Ten, and Phase Ten Dice are all favorites that are usually well played before she has to leave. (Just for the disclaimer--yes we do still get a few things accomplished--she's also the sewing, weeding/gardening and walking Grama) We always look forward to her visits. Plus with the recent medical circumstances she wasn't able to make it up at Christmas, so it's been quite awhile since we've seen her.

Well, on to our Awesome Opportunity. On Monday afternoon of this week, we received a certified letter sent by FedEx--the letter was a "Warn Notice" from Von Wise--the company that currently owns the business where Dad works. Or I should actually say used to work. Tuesday was his last day of work. The whole company is folding up (unless by some minuscule chance they find a buyer), production is keeping going until the parts in stock run out, and then they'll be laid off as well. So we now have an Awesome Opportunity to trust God to provide and protect. Since the lay off was so sudden--Monday afternoon we got the letter, Monday night (due to rumors that there would be guards and locked buildings in the morning) we all went in and helped Dad clean out his desk, Tuesday morning there was a meeting, and 120+ people (out of about 212) were laid off--it's quite a shock to the system. The company was on the news and everything. He doesn't get any severance pay, but he does get the rest of his vacation paid--which is about three weeks. The insurance will run out on the 15th, so Mom's been trying to make sure we're all caught up on routine medical stuff--eye doctor appointments etc. So now we're trusting God to provide a new job for Dad, and in the mean time see if there is any way in which we need to try to cut back and live more frugally. We don't think that we'll have to make any major lifestyle changes, since we already try to live sensibly.

Overall, we are in good shape, both financially and (more importantly) Spiritually. I believe that the days ahead will be an excellent time to draw closer to each other as a family, and to God as we trust Him to supply our needs (in a more direct way than usual). It will also be an opportunity to be an example to the world of faith and perseverance in times of trouble. It's also a good time to have a big garden :-) (even if it isn't doing the best) Now if I could just convince Mom and Dad to get a Jersey milk cow..... ;-) ...and a couple of pigs, a horse or two, some cattle and a few sheep...Oh, and a few hundred (or thousand) acres would be nice too :-) (Ah well, a guy can dream, can't he?)


Well that's all the news that news worthy (I try to be more discriminating than the liberal media :-) ), so I'll sign off for now,

Y'all take care now, and remember that there is always peace in the shadow of His wings.

Matthew

The Desire of the Righteous

This is something that hit me the other day when I was reading in Proverbs the other morning:

"The desire of the righteous ends only in good, but the hope of the wicked only in wrath."--Proverbs 11:23

I read that, stopped and thought wow! The desire of the righteous ends only in good! And then I looked in my footnotes and they said to look at chapter 10 verses 24 and 28:

"What the wicked dreads will overtake him; what the righteous desire will be granted."--Proverbs 10:24

"The prospect of the righteous is joy, but the hopes of the wicked come to nothing."--Proverbs 10:28

Now if the Bible says something once, it's true. But if it says basically the same thing three times in a row?--God must really want to get the point across. (some days I need that--I didn't really catch it until the third time!) And while all our righteousness is like filthy rags, God looks at us (those who have been sanctified, saved by grace, and redeemed) through the filter of his son's blood--in his sight we are righteous. That means that our desires will be granted. That's huge. The God over all the universe, maker of heaven and earth, is promising to grant our desires.

Now we do need to be careful, while He sees us as righteous, we still have a sin nature and so not all of our "desires" are righteous. We must not think that God will just give us every little thing we want. That would make us lazy and selfish, and God doesn't operate that way--He wants (and acts for) what is for our good.

But if our desires are good and pure, ones that He Himself has implanted into our hearts--they will be granted.

That means that there is hope for my dreams--and yours. Not that we can just sit back and expect a huge farm or whatever to be dropped in our laps, no we need to keep working to gain our goals, but we can reasonably expect our desires to be fulfilled. Not in our time but in God's time. "He has made everything beautiful in His time." Ecclesiastes 3:11 So it may not be in our lifetimes, but if we follow His leading, our goals, our dreams, our desires will be accomplished.

What an encouragement! Isn't God good?


Matthew

P.S. Sorry for the formating--I've fought with it for quite a while now and I'm giving up!