When Someone Throws You the Ball

One night a few weeks ago just before retiring for the night, as I sat on my bed exhausted, I picked up this little book,

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff.

I opened it up and a bookmark was at this section:
   "If Someone Throws You the Ball, You Don't Have to Catch It."

I have to say that  this section was incredibly helpful to me, so I'm sharing it.
It said,
"Often our inner struggles come from our tendency to jump on board someone else's problem; someone throws you a concern and you assume you must catch it, and respond. For example, suppose you're really busy when a friend calls in a frantic tone and says, "My mother is driving me crazy. What should I do?" Rather than saying, "I'm really sorry but I don't know what to suggest," you automatically catch the ball and try to solve the problem. Then later, you feel stressed or resentful that you are behind schedule and that everyone seems to be making demands on you. It's easy to lose sight of your willing participation in the dramas of your own life.

Remembering that you don't have to catch the ball is a very effective way to reduce the stress in your life. When your friend calls, you can drop the ball, meaning you don't have to participate simply because he or she is attempting to lure you in. If you don't take the bait, the person will probably call someone else to see if they will become involved.

This doesn't mean you never catch the ball, only that it's your choice to do so. Neither does this mean that you don't care about your friend, or that you're crass or unhelpful. Developing a more tranquil outlook on life requires that we know our own limits and that we take responsibility for our part in the process. Most of us get balls thrown at us many times each day--at work, from our children, friends, neighbors, salespeople, even strangers...The key is to know when we're catching another ball so that we won't feel victimized, resentful, or overwhelmed.

 "Even something terribly simple like answering your phone when you're really too busy to talk is a form of catching the ball. By answering the phone, you are willingly taking part in an interaction that you may not have the time, energy, or mind-set for at the present time. By simply not answering the phone you are taking responsibility for your own peace of mind.

"The same idea applies to being insulted or criticized. When someone throws an idea or comment in your direction, you can catch it and feel hurt, or you can drop it and go on with your day.

"The idea of 'not catching the ball' simply because it's thrown to you is a powerful tool to explore. I hope you'll experiment with this one. You may find that you catch the ball a lot more than you think you do."

 Maybe most people out there are just so mature they don't need to be reminded of things like this.
Imagine being criticized and just calmly going about your day!
Imagine having someone insult you and just acting like nothing happened
instead of letting it ruin your life.
Just imagine!

New Western District of God's Missionary Church Created

Last weekend our church was blessed to have one of the funnest delegations of church folk ever to come to our church. 

There was friendliness, cheer, no end of laughter, and just a wonderful, wholesome good time

right along with the business that had to be handled. 

Our gifted pastor's wife had decorated our church with a lighthouse and sea theme

which everyone enjoyed so much.

Our church organist, Katherine Gafford, has been so good at decorating in different themes through the years, and I've always loved her style. 

But she's getting a much-deserved break now as our pastor's wife is able to help with fresh ideas for decorating. 

I loved these wooden anchors on the wall. 

They remind me of conference president Harry Plank, who has been an anchor in the God's Missionary Conference for many years.

Just because he has a clerical collar doesn't make him holier than thou

or some high and mighty person.

He is one of the funnest preachers we have ever heard.

(Our pastor, Steve Kearney, is on the left up there, next to Jacob Martin.)

We really didn't know Bro. Harry Plank much personally till a year and a half ago when he preached a revival at our church. That was the funnest revival I've ever been to.

Instead of beating you over the head, he told funny stories (often from his farm experiences as a youth) and got truth across in simple, fun ways. 

And if he did stop and glare at you till you were sure he was talking about you, 

you could handle it because pretty soon he was saying something ridiculous that had you laughing fit to bust.

We heard that one reason the God's Missionary Conference has stayed together as well as it has is that whenever some ministers or board members will start getting heated up about issues, 

President Plank will suddenly get up and bark at them, 

"Oh, you all just sound like a bunch of my banty roosters!"

And everyone will laugh and forget all about what they were arguing about. 

His use of humor defuses many otherwise tense situations. 

You need someone like him around. 

He teased from the platform Sunday morning, "Nobody likes valedictorians!"

And he barks it out so soberly, without even a twinkle in his eye.

Until little lowly Jonathan Lucas sitting in the third row that morning when the church was so crowded called out, low, "Wrong!"

and squeezed his wife's shoulders tight...

and made the Reverend Harry Scary Plank do a double take about what he was saying about valedictorians!

It turned out there must have been at least six valedictorians in the congregation that morning, including Janet Albertson!

The Reverend came around later to let me know that not even carnal people come around so fast to complain about something as Jonathan did after service that morning

to collar the top man in the conference and let him know that

"My sweetheart was a valedictorian and I like her!"

This time there was a twinkle in the reverend's eye. 

He mourned that in his class, there were 87 students ahead of him.

So now we know why he has to tease about nobody liking valedictorians!

He is just jealous!!!!!!!!! :)  :)

Well, anyway, the Reverend's banter was so refreshing because it kept even the long business meeting fun. Crystal and Sam attended, along with their dad who was a church delegate, along with all the licensed ministers of the district.

Here is a picture of the delegates and licensed ministers of our western district, along with general board members from the east who are in the front row.

We ladies especially were happy that all the general board members from back east brought their wives along. 

As Rowen Albertson commented, "It was like they brought a community with them instead of just a board." 

The wives contributed music in song and instruments, besides friendliness to all us ladies.

Here Sis. Rhoda Martin is playing

Even our children declared that they liked Rhoda Martin!

So did I!

Her sweet, quiet, feminine ways were a great complement to her energetic, boisterous but fun, and earnest husband who had an amazing message about outreach Sunday night, 

and stories of people God has reached and saved through their church's ministry in Sunbury, PA. 

They have a large church and a children's church.

And I wish I could tell about the incident Sunday night right after church where a young man off the street came to ask for water to fill his big jug,

and Jonathan and I invited him to come to church, and then Jacob Martin reached out and laid his hand on this young man's shoulder and prayed for him and his expectant wife/girlfriend (? You never know nowadays.)

I reached out to the young lady and joined in. It was a precious time.

One thing Jacob Martin mentioned in his message was that you do not have to have 100% of the vote to be used of God.

If you think you have to have a unanimous vote before you can minister somewhere, you are limiting yourself and God. 

That spoke to me. 

Opposition is to be expected in the work of God, 

and it can be healthy for a preacher--and certainly a way to stay humble.

Not having 100% of the vote--i.e. others' approval, support or acceptance--

is something all of us have to deal with at times.

There is no one who is liked by absolutely everybody.

Even David had his Saul.

But opposition makes us stronger, humbler, better if we let it.

It was great to have almost every pew filled Sunday morning!

Our younger adult class had fifteen adults in it Sunday morning, and it was great!

Here are Alan and Anita Walter, pastors of the largest God's Missionary church

in Lebanon, PA. They have an incredible bus ministry.

Alan and Anita Walter's son Andrew graduated from our Air Force Academy here about 7 years ago.

Here's another picture of the delegates and ministers (two-Jonathan and Ward French--are hidden behind others in this photo, sorry) and of the five board members from the east on the right. 

                                                                                

Ken and Eileen Gordon (another God's Missionary pastor back east, who had moved from here 25 years ago) had heard good things of what is happening out here, and had come to be in on everything last weekend. Ken was thrilled and just beaming almost all the time. 

We were thankful for the help in the kitchen that his wife gave.

Of course, our own Donald and Audrey Lefever are always such a help in doing dishes after the meals.

Jonathan's mom brought this colorful jello with rings of pineapple with mraschino cherries in the middle.

Our pastor's wife has decorated so prettily with a fountain and lots of flowers all around the parsonage.

She's really inspired me to use more potted flowers since we struggle out here with wind, hail, sweeping rain, goats, steers, chickens and all sorts of other flower decimators.

I loved this overturned barrel with flowers planted inside.

The eastern delegation of the God's Missionary Church left us with the flowers of

acceptance, friendliness, and cheer.

Three Thousand Angry Ladies

When my brother-in-law Kenn needed to split his hive of bees from somewhere near Pueblo, he and Timmy did a trade and Timmy offered to keep and care for the new hive.

Kenn told us that he was bringing

"three thousand angry ladies."

It was a drizzly, chilly day when he brought them, but that was perfect

because the bees were not quite as mad as they would have been on a hot, sunny day.

Timmy was willing to raise bees, and when a hive is split, they have to be moved at least three miles away from their first hive till the new swarm gets established. 

The first morning after we got the bees, it snowed, and our steer stuck his head through the fence and knocked the lid off the hive. 

Amazingly, the swarm not only survived but thrived.

Timmy has to feed them a quart of sugar water a day for a while till the hive is established.

Many mornings, he will sit for a while watching the bees coming in from gathering pollen.

He and Jonathan coaxed me into taking some time from my busy morning hours

to go out one morning for a few minutes and sit and watch the bees.

One by one, or two by two, or three by three, they come buzzing in with tiny, round, bright red or orange balls of pollen stuck to both hind legs.

Timmy says he has seen red, orange, purple, bright green, and blue pollen on those bees' legs. 

It's absolutely fascinating watching those bees.

Most of them, worker bees, are flying back and forth bringing in pollen and crawling in under this opening at the bottom of the hive.

Sometimes there will be bees just sitting there fanning when it gets a bit too hot inside.

Kenn wasn't expecting this swarm to have to be split again for a year.

He was dead wrong.

In two weeks Timmy discovered a huge swarm of them one afternoon gathered on the wood pile.

When thousands of bees swarm like that, you have anywhere from an hour or so to a couple of days

to collect them into a new hive before they take off somewhere beyond the reef of space and you never see them again. 

If you can catch them, and provide a new hive for them, you have yourself a new batch of bees to start a new hive.

There they were, buzzing and crawling all over each other on our scrap wood pile.

Some of the family rushed to Big R to purchase another bee hive. 

Timmy was not prepared for this so soon and he had no bee equipment or screened clothing.

So he and Jonathan just dressed up in winter coat and hood, boots, and leather gloves. Timmy got a flat stick to start carefully scraping the bees into a dustpan from which he carefully dumped the bees into a new hive.

He got as many as he could, and in the whole episode, only got two stings. He ran off once, discouraged with the stings, but put a bit of black mud on them and got right back to work. 

He was one brave trooper. 

A friend Steve, who was here doing mechanic work, joined the family to watch this amazing scene. 

Jonathan got a bee in his bonnet.

What we discovered was that actually, there ended up being two swarms besides the main one.

We had to get or build two more hives rather than just one. 

There was the swarm on the woodpile, and this one right in front of the first hive. 

Apparently the bees had made for themselves not just one new queen bee, but two. 

When the hive gets too crowded, God has a built-in instinct for the bees to make another queen and take off for another spot.

Bee keepers do not fight the bees' instincts to reproduce, split from the main hive, and begin new swarms and hives.

If they did, they would lose their honey. 

Instead, beekeepers provide a new, safe home and plenty of space. 

 So as soon as Timmy got the swarm safely tucked into a new hive, we took that hive several miles away to some friends who were willing to keep the hive for a week or so till the swarm got established. 

Bees know what it means to "leave and cleave,"

and

it's all about more honey.

So Timmy sets up his second bee hive and manages to not get stung.

Jonathan felt that God truly blessed this little enterprise--multiplying and dividing and creating three hives instead of just one.  

Timmy checked on them a couple days later to make sure everything was going okay.

 Our sweet Hannah clutches a pretty bouquet of wild flowers for 

her mommy, the queen of the 

Jonathan Lucas Busy Beehive.

And Carrie transplants several more flowers around the mailbox--

lots of flowers for lots of bees...

buzzing happily from flower to flower

contentedly gathering of the pollen of God's grace and love

and making honey in their lovely new hives

for His glory. 

Under God's Rainbows of Promise

Who needs Pennsylvania flowers when you can have Colorado rainbows nearly every day?

And a handsome Colorado cowboy just come home from work?

God sees "the other side of the storm,"

sang the Fullers at our church last week.

All we can see is the dark clouds, all we can hear is the wind,

and all we can feel is the cold, wet rain and pounding waves.

But on the other side of the storm

is His rainbow.

After the squalls--and the rain,

after the prayers, and the pain,

comes the bright shining of the sunshine and beautiful Colorado blue sky!

After years of drought comes a month with rain almost every day and suddenly

there is thick green grass in our front yard.

And our parched souls are watered with His abundant grace and love.

What a blessing to look out and see a full pond, green grass,

aspen leaves that survived the hail,

and neighbor horses grazing peacefully.

And okay, let's not spiritualize this one--

just a sweet picture of me and my sweetie

under the rainbow! :)

                        New storms brew over the horizon,   but we can rest, unafraid,

    drinking deeply of His grace and love, rejoicing that even though the clouds are dark, He is Master of the storm, and He will take care of us.