Day 18 - Answered prayer

Day 18 brought a second day of school to the kids, an interview for Mark and an opporutnity to get together with friends.

It is not ironic that the message in Matthew was the explanation of the parable of the sower. How the farmer sows seeds on various grounds. Some seed is sown on the path, where the birds come and ate it up - this is like someone hearing the word, but not understanding it, so the evil one comes and takes the information away. Some seed is sown on the rocks, where there is not much soil. It springs up quickly, but when the sun comes, it is quickly burned up. This is when someone hears the word and accepts it with joy, but because they do not have roots, when difficulties come they quickly fall away. Other seed falls upon the thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. This is like one who hears the word, but gets trapped by the worries of life, making them unfruitful. Finally, there is the seed that falls among the good soil, it sets down roots and flourishes and produces a crop, yielding 30, 60, or 100 times what was produced.

Each year, our church does a lot with our local fair. We prepare bagged lunches for the fair workers, organize a kids' event on the first night, serve homemade pie and free soda, and prepare a full breakfast buffet on Sunday morning for the workers. It takes a lot of work and energy, but we do it because like the farmer sowing seeks, we are hoping that the seeds planted that weekend will yield results. We also prepare materials for people to take that gives some information about our church and ministries. One of the deacons asked if I would help design the information sheet. The theme of the fair is Poultry in Motion. As a long-time farming community, the theme usually centers around some farm animal or the like. We went searching for fun, free clip art and made up really cute sayings. It was a morning of laughter and fun, and by the end we had seven for the committee to choose from. We met over breakfast, and I indulged in my favorite breakfast - an omelet with chedder cheese, spinach and sundried tomatoes and sundried tomato toast. It is absolutely wonderful - a treat indeed.

I was really sore from the run the previous day, so I didn't really exercise. I've gotten out of my routine and my workout videos and I can tell the difference. My ankles swelled today and I need to drink more water.