Choosing Thankfulness!

Today I was faced with a job most horrid. I had been building up to it for several days, and today was the day. It was the second time in a week I was giving the chicken coop a good scrub. Last weeks scrub wasn't enough. A tactical six days on it was time to do it again. You see, my poor 'girls' are living with red mite, horrid minuscule blood sucking mites. They're not going to kill them, (unless they really get out of control) but they make life pretty irritating. Anyway, red mite eggs hatch after six-seven days, so to try and take control you have to do the cleaning again after that period. Having done a bit of reading since last week I realised I probably wasn't thorough enough last week either, not going into every nook and cranny; so really today's effort counts as clean number one, rather than two, ho hum. And this one had to be a whole lot more up close and personal with those red mites than last week.

So, I spent the best part of the afternoon with my head practically in the hen house, and scrubbed places never scrubbed before, right up in the rafters where the spiders and earwigs live in amongst a forest of cobwebs, and a zillion tiny red mite, some fat and bloated from last nights dinner and some pale and grey, hungry. As I brushed and cleaned they fell all over me, and soon I'm feeling as itchy as an itchy thing. Cleaning out chicken poo I can deal with, but the itchiness and those little things running all over me, is another matter. I'm not happy. This is not a pleasant Saturday afternoon activity.

The new chooks, Sarah, Felicity and Jeekin

Realising that grumpiness was not going to make the job any quicker, I decided to try and think of things to be thankful about instead. After all, we are supposed to be thankful in all circumstances, (1 Thess 5v 18) so it seemed a more godly response to the current situation. So, I started to be thankful. Thankful for the Vicar's boiler suit I was wearing, protecting most of me ( I had thought about wearing my pink shower cap as well, which to be honest would have helped a lot, but I just couldn't run the risk of an unexpected visitor, it does happen you know). I was thankful for my hand pump pressure washer ( it probably has a proper name, but can't remember what it is!), I was thankful to have the time to do the job ( the kind Vicar had taken the girls out for a milkshake, and the boy was having his forty winks). I was thankful for being able to have chickens, because I really rather like it, and I was thankful in faith for the abundance of eggs I'm going to be getting soon. I was thankful for chicken poo because it makes great manure, and I was thankful that it stinks because then I know whether I have some on my shoe. I was thankful for Vaseline, which is my new secret weapon in the fight, (smear it on the ends of the perches and they get stuck, he he he!  (thank you lady at Farm and Country for the tip)). Oh, there was much to be thankful for! While doing this, by oldest poppet asked me why God had made flies, we couldn't think of any sort of benefit to them and I have to say the creation of red mite rather baffles me as well. I didn't quite get around to being thankful for them!

While I was waiting for the hen house to dry I started to dig up the potatoes, something else on my 'to do' list. They were small but beautiful and not as worm eaten as last year, which were disastrous. Everything else in the veg plot, bar a few raspberries plants have been a complete write off. The slugs got everything right at the beginning. It was unwise of them to eat everything so early really, if they had let it grow a bit they would have had a lot more to eat. Oh well, they obviously haven't thought through the principle of delayed gratification. Actually, much of the time, neither have I.

So, the hen house is dried, diatom and Vaseline applied in abundance. The chooks have been drinking garlic water for days (the red mite don't like the taste of garlic chicken, not sure what they think of lemon...), and have been dusted with anti mite powder. Now we wait and see. It is one woman against half a million red mite, fighting on behalf of four chickens. Having done all that, I imagine my new chooks just lining up to roost in their sparkling home. But no, dusk arrives and they are not interested at all. I physically put them in, but they back out and jump back on the roof of their other shelter, not proper chicken behaviour at all. They remind me a lot of my middle poppet, who also jumps right out whenever she is tucked in. Sleep training is obviously not a strong point for me, we'll try again tomorrow.

Anyway, I was pleased to have taken the time to be thankful. It was rather more fun than being grumpy, and there was much to be thankful for that I could have missed. I guess the ways of our Heavenly Father are the wisest, even when they don't come to us most naturally.

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus" 1 Thess 5v 16-18

Making Space for Jesus

This week I have begun a good old clear out, something I love to do! However this time it comes with a spiritual dimension, which has added to my joy in throwing out, giving away, recycling and freecycling. For a while now my mental space has been growing smaller, you know, that space where you get to dream and pray and get excited about something, and pray and plan and dream some more, and then perhaps even put it all into action. I used to do that a lot, all the time. But somehow the mundane but important has begun to take up all my dreaming space, my hearing from God space. We all have to do it, shop, cook, tidy,  clean (well, I think about that more than actually do it!), fill out forms for school, tidy, help with homework, iron school uniform, tidy, find shoes, its endless, endless, and somehow I struggle to think of much else. I know there is another world out there, but I just can't seem to reach it!

Anyway, I finally got around to asking the Lord what I should do about it, if He had any wisdom on this matter for me. And yes, straight away He began to remind me about not storing up for ourselves treasures on earth (Matt 6v19-21). Oh, how I have stored up stuff! I might not have considered it treasure, but how I have sorted it out, tidied it, looked for it when it was missing, bid for it, hidden it away in places until it was needed, kept it 'just in case', moved it all again, shopped for it, imagined times when I would have plenty of time to use it and so kept it for that special day. Suddenly I realised just how much my stuff has stolen from me, my time mainly, but also my energy, money and sometimes my patience ("Am I the only one that actually puts things away around here, grrrr, grrrr, grrrr"). Whenever I see something in the wrong place (all the time!), or a bit missing to a game it (very often!) it occupies some of my mental space and robs me of some of my energy. 

Later in the passage, v 21, it says 'For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also'. I had always thought 'heart' meant strong desire towards something, something I really love. And I didn't think I really loved my stuff in that way. However, I have learnt that 'heart' can also mean 'mind'. Yes, I realise that my mind is on my stuff a lot, I don't want it to be, because I don't really love most of it, but just by the sheer volume of stuff we have it requires far too much of my attention, attention that I would rather be giving to 'seeking first the kingdom of God', in whatever form that takes for me. 

So, this time its serious. A lot of stuff is going. And a new attitude is arriving. An attempt to flow against the consumerist tide that we swim in. Already my head feels a little clearer, already Jesus has begun to plant a new dream in me, just for me. It feels so much better!