Scary Sight and a Super Sunday!

Okay, look very closely at the picture above. Morgan had put the girls' teeter-totter up on the swingset so he could mow easier. Now, look at the green seat part on the left. Do you see the big huge blob of brown stuff all around it? Can you tell what that is?

It's bees! About 20,000 bees!! Imagine walking outside, hearing a strange noise, looking up above your head, and seeing a cloud of 20,000 bees swarming all around your children's swingset! That's exactly what happened to Morgan yesterday! I could not believe how many bees were in our backyard! Then, they all calmed down and bunched up on this part of the swingset. We called a beekeeper and he came and put them all in a box and said they were actually very gentle bees. Gentle or not, I am glad to see them gone!

Now, here's the bad news. We have been seeing bees crawling through this tiny crack up into the roof that is over our back porch. The beekeeper said that what he got was about 20,000 bees and probably only about a third of what is in the hive. The hive is up in our porch roof! He said they will not swarm like that for probably another 10 days. They come out and swarm because they simply run out of room when the queen is laying eggs. Lucklily, he did catch the queen. He will be back on Tuesday to get the hive and take care of it so they won't come back. I can't wait to see what they've made up in there! He couldn't get the hive yesterday, because it was about to rain and he said the bees get very aggravated when it rains. Needless to say, that was very scary yesterday and I just kept thanking God that my girls weren't out there and that Morgan did not get attacked by them!!!!

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Madison had a sleepover last night and had a great time! The rest of us went to church this morning, then we picked up Madison and went out to eat for lunch. Now, I'm just sitting here enjoying my free Starbucks pumpkin spice latte that I got yesterday. Veronica told me I should try the white chocolate mocha drink that they have, so yesterday I ordered that. I was feeling kind of guilty because they're so expensive (I usually just get plain coffee because it's cheapest). So, I got up to the window and the guy is like, "Would you like a free pumpkin spice latte?" And like a dummy, I say "How come?" Then I think to myself, you don't question the guy who wants to give you a free Starbucks drink! LOL!! So, of course I said, "Sure" and thanked him very much for my free drink! God is SO good to me! Even the simplest things in life, He wants to do for us. Here I was, feeling bad about spending the money on that drink, so he just gives me 2 for 1! And it just happened to be my fave right now! For the record, I did drive over to my best friend's house and was going to give it to her, but she wasn't home. So, I put it in the fridge and now I'm enjoying it today :)
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Our message today at church was continuing in the series "One Month to Live" and was on loving completely. We talked about how sometimes relationships are like mountains to climb. There are mountains of misunderstanding, "me first" mentality, mistakes, and we can know that these will happen and overcome them, or we can quit when they happen. What we have to do is accept others. Acceptance is like the rope we use to climb the mountain. We have to stop trying to change people and start cherishing them. We can gain traction while climbing those mountains with loving actions like consideration, cooperation, and commitment. Loving people is a choice......again, it's what we're talking about in our small group about how love is a verb, not a noun. Love is not something you fall in and out of; love is a choice and Jesus taught us to love one another by serving one another. The greatest demonstration of love was when Jesus gave His life for us on the cross and that's how we should love each other.

All of this is tethered by forgiveness. We will never be asked to forgive more than we've been forgiven. "Get along with each other, and forgive each other. If someone does wrong to you, forgive that person because the Lord forgave you." Col 3:13

Our Pastor shared a story with us about how he was working on his laptop on the patio of Starbucks this week, when he was approached by a man asking him for money. He gave the whole story of how he was out of a job, with a wife and crying baby in the car, so our Pastor looked up online of a local shelter that could help him out and gave him the information. He said he looked in his wallet, hoping there were some $1's in there, but only a $10 bill (LOL!!), so he gave it to the man. Well, what does this man do? He gets in his car, swings around and parks, and goes in and buys a giant $5 coffee drink and brings it out to his wife. Then, he goes back in and brings out a giant muffin! All this is happening as our Pastor sits on the patio preparing his "forgiveness" sermon! God really has a sense of humor, doesn't He?!

So, the lesson he learned that day is that God does not ask us only to bless those who are worthy. He commands us to love even the unlovable, even those who don't deserve it. Our Pastor did what God wants us to do and what that man chose to do with his money was not the best use of that money, but that is really for God to sort out. It reminds me so much of the biggest lesson I learned from Denver Moore from the books "Same Kind of Different as Me" and "What Difference do it Make?" He says, "When you give a person a gift, you is also givin that person the freedom to do whatever they want with it".........."what you really saying is, "I see you. You ain't invisible. You is a person." I tells folks to look at what's written on all that money they be givin away: it says "In God We Trust." You just be the blessin. Let God worry about the rest."

I'm telling you..........that Denver Moore is one of the wisest men I've ever come across. Y'all are going to get tired of me telling you to go get those books, but I'm going to keep bugging you about it until you've all read them!!! LOL!!