By Myrna Kinney
I’ve been doing quite a bit of reflection lately. There’s been news happening worthy of commenting on and unfair activities going on it seems to me. Friends I know are losing family members and other dear loved ones making me ask the reasoning behind what’s going on. My own personal reflection is because I am coming up on what should be the 47th anniversary of marriage to my husband Ted on July 28th but instead I see ahead of me the 1 year anniversary of his death on August 20th. I miss him but God has not been terrible to me. Instead, it is the opposite. I can reflect on his life with so much family around me. All of my children and grandchildren, old friends and new ones. I even live with 3 of my great grandchildren. I am an excepted 3rd member of the Malone family gardens, and I usually am doing something in them. In the summer I get to water unless God gives me the day off. Today was not that day though. I do love to water but I really noticed all the weeds. My mom and I haven’t felt up to weeding for a few weeks, so I noticed an especially tall one in an area I was watering. I have been taking note of that weed because it has become so big that it makes it’s presence known to me that I mustget my tools out to cut that sin (I mean weed) down. God tells me in that moment I happen to let sin become that big in my life as well. I asked myself as God listened, I am sure, “ Does everyone else notice the sin (weed) that big or just me? “Well you know the answer to that question as much as I do. We notice the work our coworkers do, or the grave sins our fellow church members do or especially our own family members. Do we muster up enough energy in our own life to work on cutting down the big weed in our garden or is it still growing after many months or years? Harder than that, do we muster up enough courage to talk to the person we love so much to ask them for a conversation to say I am seeing this in your life can we talk about the subject? I know that I am not good at either one, but I have people in my life that are very good at speaking truth to me in love. Do I listen to God, to them? I didn’t really ask God why my beloved husband died, not really. I did tell him that I trusted Him no matter what and in this almost a year He has proven Himself faithful to me even in moments that I haven’t been as faithful a servant. I leave you with a true story I witnessed that reminded me of my relationship to my own heavenly Father that I doubt I will ever forget the words. My grandson was playing downstairs with me before bed, and it was just him andme and his dad. Ollie was getting a little loud and not listening to either one of us with several ok 1 more time talks his dad tells him, “enough it’s bed time now. Pick up your toys and tell memaw goodnight.” He obeyed his father and picked up the toys and was sosad that he broke the rules and had to go to bed. I heard him tell Alec, “I’m sorry Dad” His Father said, “ I know.” Ollie said, “I love you dad”. Do you think his father told him well that’s the consequences of breaking the rules and being bad now you have to go to bed.
No Alec told Ollie what my heavenly Father tells me when I let a big weed grow up in my life and break the rules. “ I love you too Son”
I love you too daughter. You don’t always know what’s good for you but I do.
I still say, “I trust you Lord.”
Thoughts From the Garden 