Well, I used to be a good speller--way back before spell check on computers. Or way before checking so many spelling tests at school.... It gets hard to recognize correct spelling after seeing so many misspelled words on tests and in writing assignments. Then, again, a lot of my misspelled words are just fingers hitting the wrong keys when I type. Spell check doesn't catch them all.
I was looking up information on lightening bugs, and found out that I'd spelled the word incorrectly. They are lightning bugs. Ah, well, my blog will always have the wrong spelling in my URL.
The other day I was sending out a prayer request, and I did not notice that I'd misspelled "moms" --meaning more than one mom. Instead I'd typed "mom's." It seems to me that my spelling is getting worse and worse.
Back to lightning bugs...
Recently in the Tribune Review there was an article stating that lightning bugs were decreasing greatly in most states, but that in western PA there were a lot of them, maybe more than there have been in many years. One reason given for their increase in numbers is because we've had such mild winters the past few years. That reason I understand. But they also said they thought it was because of our "plentiful rainfall." If rain is needed for them to proliferate, then next year we may not have as many lightning bugs, it seems to me. We've been in a drought, except for the major downpours we get once in awhile. Gardens have been suffering from the lack of rain. Grass is brown in our yard and in many other yards around. I hope that we have had enough rain to keep the lightning bugs in large numbers.
The article goes on to say that a lightning bug (or firefly) lives 2 weeks to a month only. I assume that means the lightning bug is not being put in jars and left there to die. Children are not catching them to take the light off to put on their fingers as rings. The lightning bugs are allowed to live their lives as God created them to be.
Which leads me to wonder, am I living my life the way God created me to live? Am I following His will, or am I doing my own thing and hoping that He is going with me and is okay with my choices? I want to follow Him and be His hands and feet, but is that just what I think and not what I do? Or am I really allowing Him to use me? What would He say? Do I live my Christian walk as carelessly as I seem to spell anymore? Or do I walk on the path He's wanting to lead me on?
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
I never thought I'd ever have a need to blog. But on June 8, 2012, a status update on Facebook made me realize that the time had come for me to join the ranks of the bloggers. There wasn't enough room in the comment section on Facebook for all of the thoughts racing through my head about that status update. But I didn't actually sign up for the blog until yesterday, July 16. I wrote my response to the status on paper, but didn't understand how to sign up to actually begin a blog (or maybe I didn't have the nerve to actually do this) But here I am now.
This blog will be an outlet for some of the thoughts that get jumbled up in my head. If no one but God and me reads this, that is fine with me. But I may email the next writing to the person who made the status update that started all of this. God already knows what I'm thinking. I'm the one that needs to write out my thoughts to make sense of them. I'm hoping that when my fingers are typing, God will also speak to me.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Mosquitoes
Paul and I went camping this weekend to a wonderful campground in Mercer, PA. It was old and run down, until a wonderful couple bought it last year. They are working on sprucing it up to make it a beautiful place for people to get away from it all. This campground is Rocky Springs Campground. This is the first campground we've been to where they pick up your trash every day at 6 p.m. and every morning a man comes around to clean out the ashes from your fire ring. Very special treatment! But I digress.
As I said, this was a wonderful, even beautiful campground. Paul doesn't usually sit around the campfire, but on both nights he built a fire and we sat there enjoying it, until we could not stand the mosquitoes anymore. They were very tiny and very hungry. They came into the trailer with us, so we couldn't really get away from them inside the trailer, either. Our bodies are covered head to toe with mosquito bites, a reminder of our weekend trip.
The buzzing mosquitoes reminded me of the children's book Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears. We discussed that book a little bit. But then I started watching the lightening bugs coming up out of the ground. There were hundreds of them, and they were beautiful! Which made me wish I could write a book entitled Lightening Bugs Don't Buzz in People's Ears. Who knows, maybe some day I will write such a book, at least for my grandson.
As I sit here trying not to scratch, I wonder why God made mosquitoes. I know that they are food for other insects and for birds. But why do they have to feed on the blood of people and animals, causing insane itching and swelling, and sometimes causing diseases? I know God had a good reason for putting them in the food chain, but I just don't understand. Maybe that is one of the questions I'll ask when I get to heaven. Or maybe I won't care when I get there.
The creation of lightening bugs (or fireflies), on the other hand, I can totally understand. They are beautiful to watch at night. Children through the generations have captured the creatures not knowing that they are harming the lightening bugs. The lightening bugs eat other insects who are pests to us. Do they eat the mosquitoes? That I do not know. They do not sting, bite, or otherwise harm us. In the daytime they are very non-nondescript.
But at night, their light that they use to send messages to other lightening bugs makes for a beautiful field.
Their lights kind of remind me of God. He's the light in the darkness around us. He is shining his light to get our attention and to show us the way to Him. We can go to His light and become one of His children, or we can ignore the light, or capture it and put it in a jar until the light is no longer there for us to see. God is always there, but if we ignore Him long enough, He either stops calling to us, or we harden ourselves so much that we don't hear Him and don't see His light calling to us.
As Christians, we are to be like the lightening bugs, shining God's love all over (hundreds and thousands of us) to lead others to Christ. We are not to hide our light under a bushel, nor hide it in a jar where it can go out. But we can be afraid to let it shine, fearful that we will offend someone, or afraid that someone will make fun of us, thinking we are just too weird. Let that light shine! It can change the lives of others, getting rid of the bad in their lives and turning them into followers of Christ.
I may have stretched the comparison a bit, but that is how God spoke to me as I watched those lightening bugs.
AGH! I need to scratch...itch, itch, itch. I can't stand it!
As I said, this was a wonderful, even beautiful campground. Paul doesn't usually sit around the campfire, but on both nights he built a fire and we sat there enjoying it, until we could not stand the mosquitoes anymore. They were very tiny and very hungry. They came into the trailer with us, so we couldn't really get away from them inside the trailer, either. Our bodies are covered head to toe with mosquito bites, a reminder of our weekend trip.
The buzzing mosquitoes reminded me of the children's book Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears. We discussed that book a little bit. But then I started watching the lightening bugs coming up out of the ground. There were hundreds of them, and they were beautiful! Which made me wish I could write a book entitled Lightening Bugs Don't Buzz in People's Ears. Who knows, maybe some day I will write such a book, at least for my grandson.
As I sit here trying not to scratch, I wonder why God made mosquitoes. I know that they are food for other insects and for birds. But why do they have to feed on the blood of people and animals, causing insane itching and swelling, and sometimes causing diseases? I know God had a good reason for putting them in the food chain, but I just don't understand. Maybe that is one of the questions I'll ask when I get to heaven. Or maybe I won't care when I get there.
The creation of lightening bugs (or fireflies), on the other hand, I can totally understand. They are beautiful to watch at night. Children through the generations have captured the creatures not knowing that they are harming the lightening bugs. The lightening bugs eat other insects who are pests to us. Do they eat the mosquitoes? That I do not know. They do not sting, bite, or otherwise harm us. In the daytime they are very non-nondescript.But at night, their light that they use to send messages to other lightening bugs makes for a beautiful field.
Their lights kind of remind me of God. He's the light in the darkness around us. He is shining his light to get our attention and to show us the way to Him. We can go to His light and become one of His children, or we can ignore the light, or capture it and put it in a jar until the light is no longer there for us to see. God is always there, but if we ignore Him long enough, He either stops calling to us, or we harden ourselves so much that we don't hear Him and don't see His light calling to us.
As Christians, we are to be like the lightening bugs, shining God's love all over (hundreds and thousands of us) to lead others to Christ. We are not to hide our light under a bushel, nor hide it in a jar where it can go out. But we can be afraid to let it shine, fearful that we will offend someone, or afraid that someone will make fun of us, thinking we are just too weird. Let that light shine! It can change the lives of others, getting rid of the bad in their lives and turning them into followers of Christ.
I may have stretched the comparison a bit, but that is how God spoke to me as I watched those lightening bugs.
AGH! I need to scratch...itch, itch, itch. I can't stand it!
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