She watches over the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness.  Her children rise up and call her blessed; Her husband also, and he praises her.  Proverbs 31:27-28

My mom was absolutely the best.  All of my life I have heard it said that a mother's love is next to God's love and there is nothing that will ever change my mind about that.  I can still remember the stories of how my mom walked my brother to school every day for the first year and came back to get him in the afternoons and how on the first day she hid in the school yard for the entire day to make sure he was ok.  I teased him about it for years and he would always laugh and come back with, "Well she was still watching you get on the bus from the porch when you were a senior even when it was snowing and the temperature was 2 below zero."  He was right and at the time it was a little embarassing in front of our friends and we tried to discourage her (to no avail) but it was also a matter of pride because we knew it meant she loved and cared for us completely.  That 's the way it is with God's love, he is always there waiting for us with his arms wide open.  Sometimes we reject him, going our own way but still he is right there.  What a comfort to know how much we are loved and how blessed we are to never be alone.

Thank you God for my mom and the precious years we had together! 

     
   

A friend from work gave me a huge clump of iris yesterday.  She dug them from her mom's flower bed because they were so overgrown and wanted to thin them out some.  I'll bet there were 50 or more in that one big clump she gave me.  I had to slowly (but with much effort) pull them apart to seperate them.  There were plants of all different sizes but each was very green & beautiful.  My friend, Ms. Betty gave me instructions over the phone on how to do this.  The iris could have been planted all together but seperating them will make them more healthy and give them the ability to spread out for an even better effect.

It's just like in I Corinthians 12:17-19 (If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling?  But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.  And if they were all one member, where would the body be?)  each individual within the church body has a job to do.  Like the iris, some are larger than others but all are important to the body (whether it be the church - or the flower bed).  Each one has the potential to grow as it is cared for and fed.

This gardening thing is great!  My onions are up, I've planted tomatoes, cucumbers and bell peppers.  I shared some of my iris with the neighbors and best of all I've gotten to spend some quality time talking to Ms. Betty, our resident Covington Corps saint and ace gardener.  As you remember from my profile she got me started in the Salvation Army.  Gotta go for now, God bless you all!