Are You Wearing the Right Underwear?

While I never examined sunflowers closely, I’ve admired their beauty from a distance and enjoyed eating and feeding their seeds to my feathered friends.  Last spring I planted some.  It was exciting to watch them go through each stage as they developed their huge heads.  While studying about when and how to harvest sunflower seeds, I learned of the flower’s many marvelous traits.  There is one, however, that, to me, is simply astonishing; this sun-seeker literally turns its face toward the sun as it moves across the sky throughout the day and then drops its head at the end of the day as the sun sets!  I continue to be awed by the Creator’s work!

I’ve always considered myself a “son-seeker”.  I worked carefully at following what I believed to be the movement of the One whom I worship and I labored for years to worship according to the acceptable rules.  However, there were often these irritating questions in the back of my mind:  

·        Why do I feel guilty if I don’t do it? 

·        Why do I felt inadequate when the results aren’t what I expect? 

·        Why does it often seem contrived, even in my most sincere efforts? 

·        There’s no doubt of my willingness to surrender my life for the purpose of offering life to others; however what is it about how I go about doing so that just doesn’t seem right?

In time, Father helped me to understand the importance of these questions.  He brought me to a point of realizing that I had been taught to worship as though I was still under the Law.  Under the Law, even the minutest details regarding worship were laid out by God and no variation was tolerated.  Even the kind of underwear that was to be worn during worship was explicitly commanded (Leviticus 16:4).  While the ancient and fearful rites, if performed incorrectly resulted in judgment and death (Leviticus 10:1, 2 Samuel 6:6), the followers of Jesus need not have such fears.

You may not even realize that you are trapped in such constraining legalism; therefore, I challenge you to consider:

1)      Why are you bowing your head, kneeling and singing praises when your “spiritual leader” tells you to?  Try not doing it when everyone else is.

2)      Why do you go to worship in a place where you are surrounded by all the “spiritual” trappings to worship?  Simply stay home this month.

3)      Why do you wear certain clothes when you go to this “place of worship”?  Next week, why don’t you wear your chore clothes?

4)      Why do you read the Bible and “pray” daily?  Set it aside for a week.

I’ll check in next week to see how it went.

Whole-Heartedly,

Bonnie

P.S.  Please feel free to contact me with questions, thoughts, topics you’d like to ponder or to read past articles at: http://whole-heartedlife.blogspot.com/.  You may also contact me at:

             Bonnie Jaeckle

             In Search of the Whole-Hearted Life

             Diagonal Progress

             505 Jefferson St.

             Diagonal, IA 50845

Martin House Pie

My sister-in-law, Marcia bakes the best pie in the Midwest.  People come from all around and stand in line just to buy a slice of her pie.  She doesn’t sell her pie, but has a suggested donation of $1.00 to help recoup some of her expenses.  Needless to say, she’s losing money!  Why, you can’t buy a slice of store-bought, junk-filled pie for less than $3.00!  We’ve tried to encourage her to increase her suggested donation, but so far she hasn’t budged.  Sadly, most people want something for nothing so it never dawns on them that paying only a $1.00 is ultimately taking advantage of Marica’s generous heart.  It is a rare customer who offers her more.  Seeing that her expenses are increasing annually, Marcia conceded to letting me make a little sign to help people understand, in a fun-loving way, how much goes into a slice of pie.  I titled it,

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IT’S WORTH?

Customer: How much is your pie, ma’am?

Martin House Baker: Well…. Let me see:

·       We hand-picked each piece of fruit in the hot scorching sun.

·       We washed, pitted and peeled each fruit by hand.

·       We hand-mixed all the filling ingredients.

·       We rolled each layer of pie crust until it’s paper thin.

·       We chopped and hauled loads of wood for the oven in the frigid cold.

·       We baked 80+ pies, in the heat of the day, over a wood burning oven.

·       We hand-carried water to wash the baked-on stickiness of pie plates.

·       And… we emptied nearly every ounce of love that is in us into each and every mouth-watering slice of pie!

Why, I don’t know….what would you say it’s worth?

While her customers may still not get the message, Marcia’s greatest reward is the fun that she has baking for others and watching them enjoy her labor of love!  She’ll quietly and humbly serve you a slice of her labor and never think to ask, “What would you say it’s worth?”

Whole-Heartedly,

Bonnie

P.S.  Please feel free to contact me with questions, thoughts, topics you’d like to ponder or to read past articles at: http://whole-heartedlife.blogspot.com/.  You may also contact me at:

             Bonnie Jaeckle

             In Search of the Whole-Hearted Life

             Diagonal Progress

             505 Jefferson St.

             Diagonal, IA 50845

The Martin House

It’s a great feeling to see the end result of something that you’ve invested a lot of blood, sweat and tears into.  That’s what we are experiencing today here at Marigold Meadows.  We are putting the finishing touches to our newest addition, the Martin House.

My sister-in-law, Marcia loves to bake pies.  In fact, she’s known as the “pie lady” in our neck of the woods.  We don’t live in the west, so I guess you’d say, “Her pies are the best in the midwest!”  During the festivals that we hold at Marigold Meadows, she bakes pies in a wood burning oven and sells them by the slice.  While the rest of us might like to think that people attend our festivals to watch demonstrations of age-old skills of sustainability and/or to listen to our music, I’m thinking that a good number of them come just for her pie!

Previously, Marcia baked pies in a wood-burning oven that holds only four pies at once.  Needless to say, it took a while to bake the 80+ pies that she bakes in one day!  Additionally, the little log cabin that she worked in over the past seven years is really too small for her and her helpers to work efficiently.  In order to make her work easier and quicker, brother Art spent most of this past winter building her an oven that will bake 16 pies at one time and designing a larger cabin!

Last spring, Art, Gary & I went to Sandridge, a nearby forest to cut pine trees for building Marcia a larger cabin.  What an experience!  I’ve helped to down trees before, but never in a forest!  For several days, “our” little corner of Sandridge was humming with chain saws, winches, a little Ferguson tractor, pondering out loud, grunts, groans and sounds of frustration, as well as, a lot of laughter and cheering.  While it was exciting, it was also hard work and downright dangerous!

While we hoped to use our draft horses for pulling the logs out of the woods, our Spring was so wet that we had to keep putting off getting into the forest.  Running out of time in order to get the cabin done before our fall festival, we decided to use Art’s trusty ol’ Ferguson for that purpose.

One of our music companions, Gene Martin lives near to Sandridge.  Gene, who is in his 80s, was so excited about what we were doing and wanted to help in some way.  As it turned out, Gene had a type of lift that was perfect for loading the logs onto the trailer.  So, whenever we were ready to haul more logs home, Gene faithfully showed up at our worksite.

Once we transported the forty-some, seventy-five foot trees the thirty miles to our property, we began to prepare lumber for the new cabin.  Using his mill, Art sawed while Gary & I cleared away the slab wood, carried lumber to the building site, etc.  For the last three weeks, the saws have been buzzing and the hammers ringing at Marigold Meadows.  It didn’t take long for the word to get out about what these three “crazy” people were up to.  Before we knew it, there were car-loads of people showing up to see the progress!

While Marcia isn’t too verbal about her appreciation and excitement, she shows-up every couple of days to see the progress and to take pictures.  The smile on her face tells it all!

• She now has more floor space for herself and her helpers to move about.
• They’ll all be cooler while they work.  With the new oven having been built into the wall, its heat stays in the wood room behind the kitchen.
• They’ll be able to serve pie not only over the counter inside the cabin, but through a serving window to the outside, as well.
• They no longer have to carry the dirtied pie plates to the old washtubs outside the cabin.  While there is no running water, the new cabin is complete with three sinks and a drain!
• With lots of countertop space, she and her helpers will no longer be bumping elbows while they work!
• And when the work is done and it is time to store everything away, with all the cupboard space that she now has, Marcia will never wonder where it is all gonna go!

I think Marcia is more than pleased and we’re anxious for Gene to see the end result.  Won’t he be surprised when he sees that we’ve named the new cabin in his honor, “The Martin House?”

Whole-Heartedly,

Bonnie

P.S.  Please feel free to contact me with questions, thoughts, topics you’d like to ponder or to read past articles at: http://whole-heartedlife.blogspot.com/.  You may also contact me at:

             Bonnie Jaeckle

             In Search of the Whole-Hearted Life

             Diagonal Progress

             505 Jefferson St.

             Diagonal, IA 50845

The Logo

This week my writing time has been spent on designing and sketching.  I’m working on a logo for our Lloyd Loar’s Hometown Bluegrass Festival.  I wanted my design to be unique and descriptive of Lloyd Loar, yet clear enough to use on letterhead, t-shirts etc.  While color and highlights, etc. will greatly change its appearance, I thought it’d be fun to explain how I developed my design and show you what it looks like, so far:

1)      Considering that Loar was the genius behind the acoustics of many instruments, I needed to include an instrument in my design.  Since Loar is best known for his engineering of Gibson’s F5 Mandolin, I chose to sketch an outline of it.

2)      The original F5 has “The Gibson” written on the head; I wrote “Lloyd Loar” on the head of my design, instead.

3)      Our festival is located in Loar’s hometown, Lewistown, IL.  I took advantage of the space on the fingerboard (neck) of the mandolin and placed the word “Hometown” there and “Lewistown, IL” just under it.

4)      The F5 has two sound holes, one on each side of the body’s front.  I scrolled the word “Bluegrass” to fit the shape of one sound hole and the word “Festival” to fit the other.

5)      I liked what I had designed so far, but something was missing.  My design looked somewhat “empty”.  Obviously, I didn’t have strings on my mandolin, but I was concerned that they’d be too much.  I wasn’t sure how to incorporate them and still use the neck space for wording.  Studying my design, I began to see that the strings could be drawn so that they appear as though they are extensions of the letters in the word “Hometown”!  I gave it a try and I really like the effect!

While the logo is still evolving and the scan doesn’t show the strings real well, here it is so far!  What do ya think?

 Loar%20Logo.rtf

Whole-Heartedly,

Bonnie

P.S.  Please feel free to contact me with questions, thoughts, topics you’d like to ponder or to read past articles at: http://whole-heartedlife.blogspot.com/.  You may also contact me at:

             Bonnie Jaeckle

             In Search of the Whole-Hearted Life

             Diagonal Progress

             505 Jefferson St.

             Diagonal, IA 50845

The Power of a Little Wren

It is human tendency to give ourselves far more credit than we deserve.  We habitually see ourselves as more powerful and wise than we really are.  I often wonder what it will take for us to truly understand that:

None are so empty as those who are full of themselves.

~ Benjamin Whichcote

When we are attentive enough to recognize it, Father often demonstrates, through His creation, our weak position and need for wisdom.  He used the power of a little wren to teach my brother, Art such a lesson!

Art loves nature and has a tender heart toward God’s creatures.  One day while weed-whacking around the clothes-line pole, he noted a wren’s nest, full of babies, on the ground!  Uncertain why they had fallen to the ground, Art assumed that momma wren had cleverly crafted this little home in the hollow of the pole.  Concerned for their well-being, leaving them in the nest, Art ever so gently returned the little ones to their secret place.  The next day, his curiosity got the best of him.  He wanted to see if the little family was doing ok.  Grabbing it with both hands, he pulled himself up to eye-level with the pole.  As if peering through a telescope, he closed one eye and positioned the other to the end of the bar.  In defense of her little family, Momma wren darted out of the nest and nailed the perceived predator right in the eye!  The power behind that tiny, protective momma was so forceful that it knocked Art to the ground.  Holy Smokes!  When Art shared this story, my heart went out to him.  How startling and painful that must have been!  Yet, what keeps coming back to my mind time and again is this: a strong, grown man was forced to the ground by a tiny wren!  I can’t think of many better examples of being knocked-down to size!

Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall

(Proverbs 16:18).

Being humbled, no matter the tool used, is always painful, but the lessons in dying to ourselves are necessary.  Why?  Because “…with humility comes wisdom” (Proverbs 11:2) and according to Proverbs 8:11, “wisdom is more precious than rubies”.  In fact, wisdom is so invaluable that in finding it, we find life and favor from our Lord (Proverbs 8:36)!

So…, how do we find this wisdom?  What is it that we are to be looking for and how do we know when we have found it:?

1)      The Lord gives wisdom when we search for it as if searching for a treasure (Proverbs 2:4-6).

2)      The wisdom given by the Lord is not “wisdom” in this world’s estimation.  The wisdom of God is coming to an understanding of the fear of the Lord and finding the knowledge of God (Proverbs 2:5-6, 9:10).

3)      We know that we have found it when we come to understand who God is and who we are not!

Wisdom is standing before God, with all pretenses removed, and humbly admitting that in His presence, we are nothing!  Wisdom is being in that place where we can say with genuine humility, “What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him (Psalm 8:4).”  Pride simply does not exist in this place!  Nothing compares to this wisdom!  That is why we are instructed to seek it above all else!  In fact, Father’s hatred toward pride and arrogance is so fierce and His desire for us to find wisdom is so passionate that if we don’t get it the first time, His next tool just might be a pileated woodpecker!

Whole-Heartedly,

Bonnie

P.S.  Please feel free to contact me with questions, thoughts, topics you’d like to ponder or to read past articles at: http://whole-heartedlife.blogspot.com/.  You may also contact me at:

             Bonnie Jaeckle

             In Search of the Whole-Hearted Life

             Diagonal Progress

             505 Jefferson St.

             Diagonal, IA 50845

Hide And Go Seek With God

One of our turkey hens has been sitting on 11 eggs for a few weeks now.  On August 15^th, Gary’s and my wedding anniversary, she gifted us with two poults.  The next day, she hatched two more.  She now has quite a job on her hands.  She desires to stay sitting on the remaining eggs, yet is trying to keep an eye on four active little ones!  Yesterday, when we went out to see if there were any new arrivals, the babies had found their way through a hole in the coop and were playing in the grass!  They marched in and out of the coop, trying to decide, “Is the grass truly greener on the other side?”  In the meantime, momma paced nervously from the eggs remaining in the nest to the edge of the coop where she could see her babies.

Just a few days ago, I saw a beautiful, but likely hungry hawk in the woods near the barn.  Last spring, villainous coons destroyed our entire chicken flock, except one!  While it was fun to watch the baby turkeys playing, Momma turkey is obviously aware of the dangers that her babies face when they are away from her protection.  I knew that we needed to do something quickly to make sure that the babies remained under her wing.

As I pondered the situation, I was reminded of the many times in my life that I had one foot on each side of the fence; playing in the green grass, yet staying near enough to my Protector to be assured that He was still there.  Not unlike the turkey poults, I really had no clue of the dangers lurking around the corner, just waiting for the right moment:

Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8).

As much as she may have felt compelled to do so, momma hen could not venture into the dangerous territory to rescue her babies.  She was penned-in.  Consequently, her babies were able to get out of her sight and were a predator to come; momma peering through the coop would have been no help at all!  Our Creator, on the other hand, is so powerful and sovereign that there is comfort in knowing that we can’t get out of His sight.  We cannot go any place where He is not present.

Where can I go from Your Spirit?  Where can I flee from your presence?  If I go up to the heavens, You are there.  If I make my bed in the depths, You are there.  If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast (Psalm 139:7-10).

We can be assured that when we wander off into the enticing tall grass,

He knows where we are.

But, like a “game” of Hide and Go Seek,

He will come “looking” for; and “find” us.

And I, the Son of Man, have come to seek and save those who are lost (Luke 19:10).

And He will provide protection from the predators who are watching and waiting while we play.

Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence.  He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart (Psalm 91:3-4).

A “game”?  How dare I call it a “game”?  Are you retorting, “Playing where the predator can snatch us is not a game”? 

While it may not be a game in the way in which we understand games, if there is no person, nor power which shall ever be able to overturn those whom God has chosen, isn’t evil only a pawn in God’s hand?

 (John 10:27-29).

I’m not saying that we should all go out and purposefully “play” in evil territory; however,

I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8: 38-39).

Whole-Heartedly,

Bonnie

P.S.  Please feel free to contact me with questions, thoughts, topics you’d like to ponder or to read past articles at: http://whole-heartedlife.blogspot.com/.  You may also contact me at:

             Bonnie Jaeckle

             In Search of the Whole-Hearted Life

             Diagonal Progress

             505 Jefferson St.

             Diagonal, IA 50845

The Power of a Loose Tongue

We’ve all been disappointed when others have failed to live up to our expectations.  Our tendency is to be angry, resentful and condemning.  Oh, but what opportunities to reflect the love of Jesus!

I was made aware of a situation where some family members were upset with others because they had failed to attend their annual family reunion.  In situations like this,

We have two choices when it comes to how we portray someone to others:

to shed the best light possible on the person we are talking about

or

to make their life, with details that we do not know or understand,

our business and shed a bad light on them in the face of others.

In this situation those two options would look something like this:

·        lovingly and positively putting them in a good light:  “I haven’t talked to them so I don’t know why they are not here.  But, I’m sure that they have reasons that are important to them.”

·        hatefully and arrogantly putting them in a bad light:  “I guess they think that what they are doing is more important than family.  We don’t need them here anyway.  We’re the ones who are doing the right thing by being here!”

Unfortunately, the latter option was chosen in this situation:  One family member was so upset that he blurted out something hurtful about the missing members in front of the entire crowd and immediately wished he hadn’t said it.  Another family member took it upon himself to get on the phone to find out why the missing members weren’t there and then proceeded to share with those in attendance the “poor excuse” that the black sheep had for not being there!

I’m not writing about family reunions, necessarily.  Instead, I’m writing about the power of a loose tongue.  I hope that my response to being made aware of this situation can be helpful to those who find themselves in any situation where they have an option to build up or to destroy another person.  Here was my response:

While I’ve missed a lot of family reunions, I have been at some.  At those reunions there were other family members who were not there.  It never dawned on me to be upset with them because of that.  Why would I be upset?  I don’t get that!  It never dawned on me to call them and ask them where they were.  While I may have missed seeing them, I never considered it my business to know  where they were or why they weren’t there.

We are all at different places in our lives as a result of the various experiences that we’ve had, how our personalities deal with things, what’s important to us, etc.  Because of this, we all respond to situations differently (attending or not attending family reunions is the example at hand) and we deserve that right.  No matter what our reasons are and whether others agree or not, those reasons are important to that individual.

·        Maybe they weren’t there because there is something/someone at the reunion that troubles them and they are not ready to deal with it yet.  Isn’t that ok?

·        Maybe they weren’t there because physically or emotionally it is too much for them.  Isn’t that ok?

·        Maybe they weren’t there because they woke up that morning and said, “You know what?  I don’t feel like doing this today.”  Isn’t that ok?

Whatever their reasons, those reasons are ok in my eyes.  In fact, their reasons for not being there may be healthier than why some people feel a need to be there!  Regardless, according to His Word, it is our responsibility, as God’s children to cover what we perceive as another’s offense:

Whoever covers an offense seeks love,

but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.

Proverbs 17:9

Shedding the best light on others in every situation helps to build them up and prevents division not only between you and them, but between them and others.  Shedding a negative light on others breeds destruction first and foremost in our relationship with our Creator (Isaiah 59:2 & Matthew 5:23).  In addition, it breeds destruction of not only that person, but between you and them and between them and their relationship with others. 

“The tongue has the power of life and death and those who love it will eats it fruit!”

Proverbs 18:21

Whole-Heartedly,

Bonnie

P.S.  Please feel free to contact me with questions, thoughts, topics you’d like to ponder or to read past articles at: http://whole-heartedlife.blogspot.com/.  You may also contact me at:

             Bonnie Jaeckle

             In Search of the Whole-Hearted Life

             Diagonal Progress

             505 Jefferson St.

             Diagonal, IA 50845