Finding the Fruit

Merry Sabbath Day!

I hope yours has been a wonderful one.  I understand that some are starting to return to worship services as we have done.  Today was our second Sunday of meetings since March 12, 2020.  It was interesting to be able to compare the two.  

Our first meeting happened to fall on a holiday weekend, yet we still had a fairly good attendance.  Today, we had a few stalwart families attend, but many new faces, and our attendance was almost the same.  Some decided to go back to home worship, while others felt it was OK to join if no one else had died from the first meeting.  We will see what happens next month.  Unfortuneatly, the number of cases seem to be rising not falling and many are pushing for us to retreat to smaller groups of gathering.  It has been on my mind a great deal as of late, which leads me perfectly into my pondering this week.

Galatians 5:22-23

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,"

"Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."

Where do we find these feelings?  I hope and pray we are each able to have these feelings in our homes, as places of refuge from the world around us.  Yet I truly feel the absence of such fruits when I watch the news, read the never ending battles on social media, and when I venture beyond the walls of my homely fortress.

My thoughts have been on how to nurture and grow places were we can bask in the fruits of the Spirit.  I wonder if I am becoming lax in fortifying these fruits in my own home.  It is so easy to become idle, waiting for the climate to change, the environment to become more suitable, or be told exactly what needs to be done to make such changes.  It is then that I realize that I need to remove the "idle" part of the equation and start doing before I will be given the direction I seek.

These thoughts have been extremely powerful this week as I have pondered pioneer heritage of so many around the world.  Were they idle?  When confronted with adversity, did they stop and wait for the world to around them to change or did they adapt and keep moving forward?

I wonder if I have the strength to move forward as they did.  In the past I have wondered how I would fair if I had been born in another time period.  And now, I know that this is my chance to prove that I can, like them, face adversity head on and do something.  

What about you?

Our week -

The Queen and I started the week celebrating 32 years of bliss.  It was a fun day.  We found ourselves roam the streets on a scavenger hunt and while knocking down a few pins some where in the middle.  We popped some corn, guzzled some soda, and gnawed on some vines.  It wonderful to be together.

When we were not celebrating, the Queen found herself picking several shifts for co-workers, which was much better than waiting for possible routes to drive.  She endured long days and restful nights.

The Professor continues to hope that Walt and his group will change their minds about SoCal, but it hasn't happened yet.  She spent her week reviewing her notes, shopping, taking Gus-Gus to puppy class and more.

Shout out to our little Lego.  The year has flown by.  It is growing like a weed and teaching us something new he has learned every day.  We had a wonderful celebration with him, but did not have much time to catch up with Tall Man and Ehl-Bo.  All seems to be well in their court.

Puddin and Lady Hawkins joined the celebration, but were extremely tired and sore.  It has been a long week of pushing the limits for them.  We are glad they joined us.

SnackPack dropped in several times this week to catch us up on things, as he had prior commitments for the weekend.  Life is busy.  Goals are being set and achieved.