***if you wanna be great...***

in God's kingdom, learn to be the servant of all...

i remember singing my heart out to that song as a child. what i'm hoping to instill in our children is service isn't always boring! Granny needed her lawn raked and we got to have fun doing it. check this fun serving time out.

who knew you could rake a yard with a leaf blower?

it's camoflaged nicely, but there's a geyser of leaves in front of that nozzle.

almost done!!

this wonderful mound of cottonwood leaves is only about half of what we raked & blowed (is that a word?). a few years ago, we had a pile so high, landing in the middle of it hardly hurt at all!

starting in the mouth of babes...

as i was planting our garden last week, i called in the troops to help with various tasks like getting the shovel, taking weeds to the compost and planting potatoes are just a few of the tastes of work the children experienced.

i'm so thankful for our generous neighbor allowing me to use her seeder. does it ever make planting fast! during one of the reloads of the seeder, one of the budding geniuses asked, "mom, why do you have to put seeds in the dirt?"

"because they have to die before they can live."

w.o.w

********

I tell you the truth, unless

a kernel of wheat falls to the ground

and dies,

it remains only a single seed.

But if it dies,

it produces many seeds.

(John 12:24)

********

Jesus said to her,

     “I am the resurrection and the life.

          Whoever believes in me,

               though he die,

                    yet shall he live...

                         John 11:25

so often our darkest, worst times are when the seeds God has placed in us are germinating and getting ready to produce fruit. *sigh* i wish i could remember that when life is tough.