Green Acres

Well Good Morning. I started the day off with a short run...two miles. Let me tell you this, they don't call it "Hill Country" for nothing! Oh those inclines.  My husband and I came to the hill country to work on our property but I decided on a short run first.

So after the run we head out.   Yesterday we tried to start our mower so that we could "touch up" around the house and cut some of that tall grass. It was up to my knees. We tried and tried to start that mower and after several hours of trying, we gave up. We moved on to other projects. In the afternoon, we went to the local Walmart and bought a new mower. Today, we tried to put the new mower together and we ran into a glitch so.....travelled all this way to work on the yard and now- no mower!

As a last resort, I went back to the mower we brought with us and tried one more time and you guessed it- it started! I said " Thank You Jesus" and began mowing. I mowed and mowed and mowed. At one point I found myself saying "Neeeew York is where I'd rather stay. I get allergic smelling hay. I just adore the pent house view....darlin I love you but give me Park Avenue."

For those of you that were around then, those are words sung by Zsa Zsa Gabor to the theme song from the series Green Acres.  I was telling myself  "I was not made for this."  All the while, I pushed that mower.  It stopped often but each time, it restarted and again....I said "Thank you Jesus."  Each turn of the blade was a success for me.

I am a city girl at heart.  I love manicures and pedicures, massages and facials.  I don't like dirty nails or course skin.  So you can imagine me in pink rubber boots mowing this "yard"  all of one acre!  While I had a tendency to want to complain, I remember the words of a friend who said that God often calls us out of our comfort zone.  Well that makes sense.  If God kept me in my comfort zone, how would I grow?

This was quite a stretch. In a time when alot of individuals pay to have their lawns manicured, I found this to be hard work.  I often laugh at my sister [the country girl] telling her that I could out do her any day and believe me this day I ate my words.  It was hot, the dust and grass were turning, I had blisters on my hands, scrapes on my legs, sweat in my eyes, matted hair....all for the sake of making this place look decent.  We tore down walls, disinfected rooms, moved furniture...all in three days. 

My husband was doing the hard labor.  I figured I did good to mow so each of us had their own responsibilities equally as difficult.  I don't have to tell you that each night we were hard pressed to stay awake past eight o'clock.  We were tired individuals but oh the reward of seeing the yard look so good.  What a satisfaction of knowing that God gave us this property and that we will use it for His glory.  Even of greater satisfaction that each one of us has a role in God's plan and none of it can be accomplished without each of those responsibilities being fulfilled.  Whether great or small, each one had to be done. 

This morning as we returned to lock it up, we stood side by side, looked around at our accomplishments and thanked God for the blue sky, the bright sun and our Green Acres!

The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each one will be rewarded according to his own labor.  For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.  By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it.  But each one should be careful how he builds.  For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid which is Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 3:8-11