Here a chick, there a chick, everywhere a chick, chick...

Good Morning Friends!!!!  Thankfully His Thursday!  Last spring my husband decided to start up the old incubator and hatch eggs….the eggs of course came from my chickens, but oh he was going to make lots of money selling chickens…..OK…..to get lots of money you have to have lots of chickens right….Oh my, I will spare you the gory details of what happens when you end up with a whole bunch of growing chicks and run out of room in the “hatchery.”  Let’s just say it was never the same for my old chickens again….for several weeks he brought the growing chicks down to the house and put them with my chickens…..I never got another egg from my girls….turned out that most of the new chickens were roosters.  Poor hens never had a chance to sit and lay eggs!  Needless to say I was not too quiet about the situation in my chicken coop….so Kim, to save his sanity, caught up the roosters, hauled them to his favorite trader and traded them for a few hens.  However, we did keep one handsome little rooster.  Things were finally settling down in the coop when one day I went out to feed and my handsome little rooster had laid down and died…broke my heart.  Now I know you don’t need a rooster to have eggs, but what’s a chicken coop without one rooster to protect his girls, right?  Well, it just so happened during all the transporting of chicks that one hen decided to live outside the coop.  Never ever would she go in at night with the others, it was the craziest thing; try as I might I could not get her to go, so finally I gave up and let her have her way.  She was always out in the yard during day, but I had no idea where she went at night….one day she showed up with two precious little chicks at her side.  We were pretty proud of her, but figured her little ones would never survive outside the coop.  Well were we ever wrong!  Every day they would come out and hunt and peck with mom and then disappear at night.  When they got just a little bigger she started roosting with them on the pool deck (nice indeed), outside our bedroom window, opposite side of the house from the coop.  One morning a couple of weeks ago, quite early, we heard something odd outside our bedroom…..there it is a again….what is that….Well, for goodness sake it was one of the little chicks trying to crow….too funny!  From then on we have heard him every morning….and Kim finally caught him and put him in the coop so my girls have their….soon to be man again!  Each morning we hear him and make fun of him….his crow is weak and wobbly, so Kim and I have been having a good laugh about his rather pathetic morning wake- up call!  That is until this morning….a light went on in my head…shame on me….that little guy is doing the very best he can!  He is giving it all he has right now and will improve as he matures….Master Rooster is a work in progress.  Wow!  How often do we criticize people, judging the way they do things, maybe even talk about them behind their backs, when in fact they are doing the best they can at the time…..good lesson Master Rooster…..judge not lest you be judged, right?  Isn’t that what our Heavenly Father teaches us!  So from now on, when I am tempted to judge someone, I am going to think of Master Rooster and do my best, to let my thoughts and actions give glory to our Father.  Father, forgive us when we look at others and judge without looking at ourselves.  Help us to always do the very best we can to your glory.

 

Jesus said, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.  For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.  Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?  How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye, ‘l when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.  Matthew 7:1-6.  Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.  Honor one another above yourselves. Romans 12:10.

Love you all!

 

Off with the old, on with the new

Good Morning Friends!  Mighty Marvelous is our God, Monday! If you could see my yard and chicken coop you would think that the poor chickens had been in a major war!  There are feathers everywhere, white ones, black ones, red ones….feathers….Good thing is all the feathers my girls have lost are being replaced by brand new, beautiful feathers.  This whole process is called molting and happens, in a normal year, during the early fall.  It had been a couple of years since my girls had really gone through a good molting, so I had forgotten how bad they look during the process.  Poor things, practically naked while they shed their old feathers and wait their new ones.  Finally, the new feathers are really coming in and most of my girls are looking much better….I am so glad, bless their hearts they just looked pathetic.  Off with the old and on with new………”Father, is that you?”  “Yes, Kathie, it’s Me….I was wondering if you realize the significance of what you just said?”  “What’s that Father?  Off with the old and on with the new?  Yea, so they lose their old feathers, looking quite shabby for a while and then get beautiful new feathers….so, what’s Your point?”  “Well, my child….that’s the way it is with you, all my children, as you grow in faith, you shed your old ways, your worldly ways and replace them with My ways, My love takes over your heart, mind and body as you become My precious child, dearly loved, cherished, forgiven.  Off with the old and on with the new…..through My love and forgiveness you are as beautiful as your hens with new feathers!”  Oh Father, thank you for loving us so much that You make us new through Your love….sin makes us as ugly as these poor hens, but You Father make us beautiful in Your sight.  All honor, glory, and praise to You!

 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.  2 Corinthians 5:17-18.  I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.  Galatians 2:20.  Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off our old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge in the image of its Creator.  Colossians 3:9-10.  Therefore as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Colossians 3:12.

Love you all!