Monday, June 29, 2015

Manic Monday II


This week, in light of certain recent political happenings, I’m afraid it has been a lot harder for me to be thankful or look on the bright side of anything. I thought about skipping this week’s post at first, and doing it every other week instead. But simply giving up so easily? Right after I’ve started? And this week more than ever is a time to try to find the Light in the darkness. It just means I had to look a little deeper.

Readers: Sometimes it really makes me sad how many children today hate reading. It’s something I can’t really wrap my head around. I’m like Liesel in The Book Thief. When life goes wrong, I look for a book. Words are everything. They’re away to visit places you’ll never actually see. I’ve felt convicted about encouraging the love of words in children who are just beginning to find them. This weekend I let a couple children from church into my library to borrow any book they wanted. When the young boy saw my piles of mysteries and his eyes started to light up, I knew I had found a reader. And it just about made my day.

Good Movie Adaptations: I have a rule, but it’s a rule I am willing to break very rarely. If I read the book, and loved the book, I will not watch the movie afterward. I’ve been disappointed too badly, too many times, mainly because I may or may not take things too seriously. (*cough* Harry potter *cough*). This week I decided to break my rule for “The Book Thief.” The more time that went by after reading it, the more potent the story seemed. It really stuck with me for some reason. With much trepidation, I picked up the film. I am delighted to say I loved it. In the whole film, there was only one change that really bothered me, and overall it was just excellent. One I will rewatch, and maybe even buy.

Healthy Tomatoes: I hate when my plants die. I love gardening, but when a plant dies I tend to get depressed about it. Unfortunately in this drought, it’s now a normal fact of life. I could see one of my tomatoes days away from drying up and cremating itself, and didn’t know what to do about it. And then I had a ‘facepalm’ moment. The ground was so dry that all the water was running off. I built up wall of dirt around the roots of tomato to hold the water while it soaked in, and suddenly my tomato is back! I learned my lesson, the only drawback being I felt like an idiot for days.

Comfort: Sometimes when life goes really wrong, it can be almost impossible to feel optimistic. The last few days have been like that. But instead of turning to ‘words,’ the only thing that’s been helping me at all has been ‘The Word.’ So often we are given the exact Word we need to be comforted, and reminded that “God’s in his heaven, and all is right.” Mine was Isaiah 60:2 (emphasis added).

For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,

And deep darkness the people;

But the Lord will arise over you,

And His glory will be seen upon you.

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