Thinking on these things . . .

For three minutes it was nothing but a merciless beating and then in the fourth the milky liquid responded and became whipped cream. As a liquid I could not use it until it had been transformed into what I needed. Now it was ready. We have no idea of the purposes God has in mind for us. But He always has a reason. Hold onto that in the midst of your three minutes.

I am not the world's greatest recycler. I blame it on PBS. My kids were very young when this whole recycling thing was reaching its political correctness and every program they watched encouraged them to make things out of trash, consequently I could never throw anything away! Talk about TV giving our kids suggestions we don't want them following! I am amazed though how God recycles things for His own glory. This isn't a new concept and I've seen it most recently in Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life where he says, "God never wastes a hurt! In fact your greatest ministry may come out of your greatest hurt." It's not spiritual rocket science but still... I wrote "He's just not that into you" yesterday out of a heart that's been dealing with disappointment for a week and looking for answers. These have ranged from rationalization - that it's not that big of a deal, to determination - just suck it up, deal with it and move...

At 10:30 on Thursday morning, suddenly the sidewalks were swarming with children. What in the world??? They looked as all schoolchildren do, usually at 3 in the afternoon, but this wasn't then and many of them were carrying an uniquely shaped envelope... ah ha! It was the last day of school, early dismissal and report card distribution. In their hands was an assessment of their performance over the last 9 months. "What a gift. " I thought, although I don't know any children who would agree with me on that. What if we, as adults, were given such a thing - quarterly reports and then an annual grade on how we're doing.... Let's see: Becky Eppley Grade: Grown -up Plays well with others - E (exceeds standards) Cares for materials - S (satisfactory) Turns in assignments in a timely manner - N (needs improvement) Completes all assigned work - NBI (needs BIG improvement) Does not run with scissors - O (Occasionally-if hurrying to complete an assignment in a timely ...