The Palm Tree

My favorite tree is a palm tree. I simply love their majestic height and clean lines. I especially like palm trees with long frongs that bend towards the ground and blow gracefully when caught in the wind.

A palm tree provides shade to all things that take shelter under it's frongs. However, because it is also quite sharp along the edges of it's shiny green frong, birds do not typically attempt to build nests or take shelter at the top.

The fruit of a palm tree is the berries or the nuts that it produces. Once ripened, they fall from the heights of the tree to the ground below. A palm tree requires watering, though it is also capable of withstanding drought and extreme heat. This tree flourishes in full sunlight & with little fertilizing.

Unlike so many trees, a palm tree does not lose its "leaves" as a sign of dormancy. It produces its fruit year round. When a frong has reached its lifespan it begins to turn brown then dies. The frongs, holding tightly to the trunk, require tiny insects to eat away at them to losen their grip before finally rotting and falling from the tree. This process can take months to occur, so typically a landscaper speeds the process by simply pruning them from the tree, enabling the tree to heal from the death of the frong.

As I think about it, I am a lot like a palm tree. I thrive in the heat (persecution) and full sunlight (communion with God), but I still need to be watered (the Word). I don't need a lot of fertilizing (heavy teaching) to bare much fruit year round.

A sure sign that I'm a palm tree (follower of Jesus) is that I extend myself into the world around me (missional) and provide a place for shelter under my wings (nurturing relationships). Yet my sharp frongs (knowing the Scriptures) protects me from the enemy. As I bare fruit and it ripens (new converts into disciples) they leave the protective safety of my frongs (empowering) and start new trees (more disciples and churches).

As with any plant, in order for the dead (sin areas in my life) to be removed, I need insects (trusted believers with whom I can confess) to assist in cutting the dead away from my body (confession). I also need a landscaper to remove it fully (Jesus). Only then may I continue to flourish (heal) in the sunlight and repeat the process (making disciples).

Have you ever seen a palm tree that is planted in the shade, not watered often enough and rarely been pruned? They are ugly trees! While visiting my sister in Miami, Florida we drove the long stretch of land from the southern tip of the mainland across the man-made bridges, sand bars, and man groves that lead through the Florida Keys. Along the way, the landscape is raw in nature and quite overgrown in some places. The palms trees are not maintained like they would be if they were growing in someones yard. Many of the trees have dead frongs drooping from them, look anemic, and are really unattractive. As a follower of Jesus, I don't want to be like those!

My challenge to each of us is to find 1 or 2 other people with whom we can share our life. Where we can spend time consuming large portions of Scripture. Where confession of sin is vital to our on-going growth and healing. Where we can together extend ourselves into the world around us and make disciples who make disciples.

Wouldn't it be awesome if we looked like that famous strip in Miami where the towering palm trees are firmly rooted and well maintained along each side of the road, stretching their frongs toward Heaven and reaching out all around them, while the Sun pours down on them as if to say, "You are beautiful. Well done."?

That's what the Church should look like! And I want to be like that!

Let's do it!

A Season for Everything

So much is happening these days. I can tell spring is starting to spring! My life is getting busier again, not that it's not busy to begin with. But now that people are no longer desiring to be hermits, the streets are buzzing, the sidewalks are crawling, and the parties are hopping in the city! It's kinda nice to see life again. It reminds of the Bible verse that says, "there is a season for everything..." And the season for sleeping in and going to bed early is over. It's time to clean... clean house, clean up outside, and clean out our insides too. It's time to get outdoors and clean out the gardens, sweep the porches, wash the windows, and WASH THE CARS!!! Yuck! Soon it will be time to plant. And boy I can't wait to do that! I love spending time in my gardens.

For me right now, it's time to clean. I'm trying to instill the desire to clean up and tidy up in my children. What a fruitless endeavor at thier ages! However, I am finding some success is teaching them about how to keep their insides clean by making better food choices. And at the same time teaching them that our bodies are the temple of God. We must be better stewards of this temple and make better choices of what we put in the temple. Santa might like cookies and milk, but our bodies don't handle them too well. Now the kids are actually asking for carrot sticks!!! Yay! I accomplished something! WOO HOO!

We've had fun being creative with cooking lately. Below is a recipe that the kids have fallen in love with. Enjoy!

Mindi's Curried Chicken & Noodle Soup

1 box of tri color rotini1 chicken breast
6 large (huge) carrots, sliced
4 stalks of celery, sliced
1/2 half large onion, chopped
2 Tbs. dried rosemary
2 Tbs. Curry powder
8 cups water

In a sauce pan filled with about 2 cups water, cook chicken breast with a a sprinkling of curry powder until done. When cooled, chop the chicken into bits. Pour stock and chicken into a large soup pot. Add carrots, celery, onion, rosemary, curry powder, and water. Bring to a boil and let cook for 15 - 20 minutes. Add rotini, turn off heat, cover pan, and let sit for 5 - 10 minutes. Soup will cool while rotini cooks... perfect for serving to kids! Enjoy with homemade Indian Squaw bread (recipe coming soon) and butter! Mmm Mmm Good!

Jesus Loves Me

Today is one of those days that it's not too hard to believe in my heart, not just my head, how much God loves me.

The sun is shining! He knows this is one way for Him to speak to me. The winter weather has finally broke. Spring is just around the bend. There's a gusty breeze blowing. I was eating my long hair while walking this morning! (ha ha ha) And I definately had a spring in my step!

After a wonderful chat with my friend over coffee and a ham and cheese scone at my favorite cafe' (North Star Cafe'), I feel thoroughly blessed today.

It's the little things that speak to me in huge ways. It's the fact that Jesus has allowed for the sun to shine today. He created an opportunity today for me to be a blessing to another sister in Christ & for her to be a blessing to me, too. These are the little things that tells me how much he loves me.

So I'm home now, sitting at my desk which is strategically placed in front of a large picture window so that I can peer out at the world while I seek inspiration for my ramblings. I just glanced over to my right. I notice that the book I have been using as a study tool stands stragically propped up on my book stand & open to a page that is so appropriate for today. The title for Page 51 of "Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions" reads: JESUS LOVES ME ! Wow! How cool is that?!?!

Perhaps God will will bless you today, like He just did again for me through the reading of His Word and the words (in part) of Kenneth W. Ozbeck in today's entry (March 2):

Jesus Loves Me

The story is told of a brilliant professor at Princeton Seminary who always left his graduation class with these words: "Gentlemen, there is still much in this world and in the Bible that I do not understand, but of one thing I am certain-- 'Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so'-- and gentlemen, that is sufficient!"

Without a doubt the song that has been sung more by children than any other hymn is this simply stated one by Anna B. Warner. Written in 1860, it is still one of the first hymns taught to new converts in other lands.

Miss Warner wrote this text in collaboration with her sister Susan. It was part of their novel Say and Seal, one of the best-selling books of that day. Today few individuals would know or remember the plot of that story, which once stirred the hearts of many readers. But the simple poem spoken by one of the charaters, Mr. Linden, as he comforts Johnny Fax, a dying child, still remains the favorite hymn of countless children around the world.

Jesus loves me! this I know, for the Bible tells me so; little ones to Him belong, they are weak but He is strong.

Jesus loves me! loves me still,. though I'm very weak and ill; from His shining thone on high, comes to watch me where I lie.

Jesus loves me! He who died heaven's gate to open wide; He will wash away my sin, let His little child come in.

Jesus loves me! He will stay close beside me all the way; Thou hast bled and died for me, I will henceforth live for Thee.

Chorus: Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so.

"I will tell you the truth,

anyone who will not receive

the kingdom of God

like a little child

will never enter it."
Luke 18:17