Scatter the flowers

  "Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear  Duunnn-Dunnn...Duuuunnnn-Duun...Dun-Dun... Happy Birthday to you." 🦈  It's so simple really.  Just don't let any sharks on the boat. Wise advice given by my grandsons that had built a fort on the bunk beds and were fighting to keep all the sharks off the boat.  🦈 Why can't everything be that simple?  Just keep all the sharks and piranhas and killer whales out of your life.  What are your sharks?  What are the things that slowly and methodically want to take you off your game, or even drown you?  Distractions? Busyness?  Cramped social calendar? Spiritual Pride?  Harboring grudges? Low self-esteem? High self-esteem?  Laziness? Work?   🦈  All lies from the master of lies.  Duunnn-dun.  If the sharks are attacking you,  "you're gonna need a bigger boat!" (~Police Chief Brody, Jaws).  Newsflash! You already have a bigger boat....

  "You are the salt of the earth.  But remember that salt is useful when in association, but useless in isolation."  ~Israelmore Ayivor, Christian author 👀 "Every breath you take, every move you make, every bond you break, every step you take, I'll be watching you."   What a great song by  The Police , though a bit strong.  But do you  ever feel like you're being watched?  Like you are being judged because you profess to be a Christian, so people are evaluating your responses, your actions, your intentions?   As Jesus says in the book of Matthew 5 , we are to be the  ' salt of the earth' (Matt 5:13).  What does that mean, as a follower of Christ? 👀  And what if  sometimes we're more like pepper - spicy, with appearances of soil, and we make people respond with a sneeze - they just want to get us out of their system?  Are we kicked out for letting God down? (Why did I choose a cat for this one?) What does s...

  Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery "She's been a blessing to us, and there never was a luckier mistake than what Mrs. Spencer made- if it WAS luck.  I don't believe it was any such thing.  It was PROVIDENCE, because the Almighty saw we needed her, I reckon." Marilla, upon Anne's mistaken arrival to Green Gables. You've probably heard the name Anne of Green Gables- she was a vibrant uneducated orphan, lacking in social graces, who showed up 'by mistake' for Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert (who were expecting a young boy to help with the farm).  This classic has won our hearts over through the years as the unexpected turns into a beautiful story of acceptance and love, attributed to the Providence of God. While Anne was fictional, this story is not-  -jealously loathed by his brothers (bad) because he told the truth (good) about dreams he had, he was thrown into a cistern and left to die, then sold into slavery (definitely bad).  As a slave he was prom...