america’s favoUrite family
Jude and me went to see “The Simpsons Movie” tonight. We went to the 9.30pm showing in Ballymena rather than waiting until the 10.40pm showing in Antrim that most of our friends were going to see. I had been looking forward to seeing the movie since I first saw a trailer, but unfortunately it was disappointing.
It was alright, I guess, but it seemed to me like it was trying too hard to be a movie rather than just sticking to the simple, funny stuff that has kept it going for all these years. To be honest, I was beginning to get a little fed up towards the end; I was looking forward to the credits.
On the way home I asked Jude what score she’d give the movie out of 10. She said 6. I said, “that high?!” I scored the movie at about 4.5 or 5. ‘Twas no classic.
(God was looking out for us again tonight. On the way to the cinema Jude and me were talking. We knew that it would be busy but I joked that, even though it’d be busy, we’d get the best seats in the house – in the middle and two-thirds back. When we entered the screen it was already looking busy… but the seats we’d joked about were free. God is good!)
the simplest of prayers, answered
It was sunny and warm and just before lunch, so I decided to cut my grass. But before I started, I felt the Holy Spirit move me to stop and chat to my new neighbour. (Her and her partner have only recently moved in next door with their 4 month-old daughter.) Then I got started mowing…
I finished the front lawn (and did my neighbour’s while I was there). I then moved round to my back lawns. As I was half way through the larger of the two lawns the clouds above suddenly blocked out the sun and it began to get dark. I knew it was going to rain. I was using an electric mower and I wasn’t keen to mow in the rain, but I kept going believing I had a bit of time.
As I was wrapping up the lead, putting the grass in the bin and doing all the necessary clear up stuff, I quietly prayed, “Lord, please keep the rain off until I finish.” I kept going with the clear up, and eventually finished. I walked to the back of the house closed one of the two double-doors. Then, as soon as I closed the second door, I saw the rain on the flag stones! God answered my prayer!
Simple, yet powerful.
Prayer.
Why don’t I do it more often?!
seeing sin in weeds
I did something good today – I used my initiative. You see, I live in a mid-townhouse so I share a back pathway with my neighbour, which is how we get our bins out the front ready for collection. However, it has become very overgrown with weeds, trees and moss, etc. Some of the weeds were nearly as tall as me! So, I set about to tidy it up a bit. I spent an hour at it and completely filled my brown bin (organic waste).
But for all my work and despite the (very) noticeable improvement, there are still smaller weeds and stuff there. These are the small things that were underneath the other weeds, not visible when compared to the larger weeds but very noticeable now they’re all that remains. So, there is still work to be done but I need to wait until I get my brown bin emptied this week.
Why am I breaking my blogging holiday and telling you all this? Well, the Holy Spirit taught me a lesson while I was chopping down weeds and scraping up moss. He showed me a picture of sin. That it doesn’t just “happen”; rather, it’s a byproduct of neglect. Furthermore, even when I sort out the obvious stuff, there is still a lot more to do. Constant work and effort is required.
It’s probably not spectacular to anyone else but it was great for me to know that, even in the menial tasks in life, God can show me eternal truths.
