Porch Sittin’

The Front Porch   

            

When I was growing up in the 1940’s in a tiny town in the middle of the United States, a lot of summer life was spent porch sittin’ and it was done for various reasons.

In the first place, we didn’t have air conditioning back then and the porch was the coolest place to be on a hot summer day.

Then there was the opportunity to call out a hello to neighbors and friends as they passed our house going to the grocery store and the post office.  This was the most common way to get the current news. Only a handful of people in our town had a telephone and most of those were for business.  People went to the store and post office to collect the daily news as much as for milk or mail.  If we had news in our family to pass along, the birth of a baby, the illness of a family member, a lost pet, new puppies that would be weaned in 6-8 weeks, all of it got passed along and when the neighbor got to the store everyone in earshot heard the latest happenings at our house – – – and told their own which got brought back to us as the neighbor went back home.

There were chores, sometimes, that we carried out on the front porch.  We sat there to snap beans or shell peas and anyone who happened along would cheerfully pick up a few beans or peas and snap or shell with us while the news got told.

After supper, sittin’ on the porch took on a whole different feel. That is when we watched the first fire-flies (though we called them lightening bugs) and listened to the crickets tuning up.  It is where I was introduced to the Milky Way, the Big Dipper,  and the Evening Star. And this is where I introduced my kids to them.

Oh those wonderful days when Mom would stir up the makings of ice cream and pour it into the ice cream freezer and we kids would take turns turning the crank until the mixture froze into ice cream. Oh the goodness of fresh ice cream on the front porch on a hot summer night!

It was such a tiny town,  and very few owned an automobile, we would often count the cars that went by in a certain period of time and lay bets of our labor on the outcome. “If more than ten come by I’ll do dishes for you tomorrow night.”  That sort of thing.

This particular time of the year brings swarms of porch sittin’ memories to mind as I see four o’clocks begin to bloom (Mom always had them on either side of the front sidewalk) see lightening bugs blinking on and off at dusk, or get to longing for homemade ice cream at the end of a busy day.  

And oh, the porch I got to sit on!  It was, and is, a dream of a porch just made for sittin’! The picture at the bottom of this article is the house I grew up in and that porch was just exactly right.

Did you ever do any porch sittin’?

The Face of Love

We are all familiar with the very well-known and well-loved Bible verses which describe love.  But let’s put a face on love.

There are so many different faces of love that I’m barely going to be able to get started here, but here I go.

Even though the faces of love all look different they are still easy to recognize if you are really watching.

The face of love can be seen telling a child to brush his teeth, not to talk with his mouth full, or not to chew with the mouth open. That face of love will teach things like standing up straight and looking folks in the eye when talking to them.

There is the face of love that denies a child the candy on Halloween or Easter because the child is diabetic, or makes the tough decision to put the child through a horrible surgery and recovery period to correct hip dysplasia so eventually the child can be better. It looks a lot like hard-heartedness but is definitely love.  Or, how about the face of love that watches as doctors dump toxic waste into a beloved child who has cancer and prays that God will bless the chemo and cure the child? Yes, I call that love.

This may not seem like a whole lot until the day your heart aches because you see a tired mother trying to corral her preschoolers, packages, and purse and you look into her eyes and smile in understanding because you remember your mom doing the same. So you help the mother get it all across the street and to her car and go on with her thanks in your ears and a lift to your spirit while mentally thanking your own mom for raising you right.

If you turned out to be a loving, giving, useful human who is striving to make this world a better place, thank your mom.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8Amplified Bible (AMP)

⁴ Love endures with patience and serenity, love is kind and thoughtful, and is not jealous or envious; love does not brag and is not proud or arrogant. ⁵ It is not rude; it is not self-seeking, it is not provoked [nor overly sensitive and easily angered]; it does not take into account a wrong endured. ⁶ It does not rejoice at injustice, but rejoices with the truth [when right and truth prevail]. ⁷ Love bears all things [regardless of what comes], believes all things [looking for the best in each one], hopes all things [remaining steadfast during difficult times], endures all things [without weakening].

⁸ Love never fails 

Don’t forget to hug your mom and tell her,

“Thanks!”

How Big is Your But?

Do you find yourself using the phrase, “But I” very often?

For example, do you catch yourself saying, “I need to work out… BUT I am so tired.”

I want to get healthy… BUT I love dumplings!

I know patience is a virtue … BUT I just feel so frustrated all the time.

My family is great even though we need to talk about a few issues… BUT I don’t like confrontation.

Each time I use the BUT I phrase it seems pretty big to me. That’s why I’m learning to follow every “but I” with a “But God” statement of truth instead.  When I catch myself saying “but I”… I try to use it as a trigger to redirect my discouraged heart with a “But God” truth.

When we follow up statements with “But God” the BUT becomes smaller and smaller. And let’s face it girlfriends, we all want a smaller but!

Here are a few “But God” verses and there are lots more in the Bible.

Genesis 8:1

But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.

Genesis 31:42

If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands, and last night he rebuked you.

Genesis 50:20

You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

1 Samuel 23:14
David stayed in the desert strongholds and in the hills of the Desert of Ziph. Day after day Saul searched for him, but God did not give David into his hands.

1 Kings 5:4
But now the LORD my God has given me rest on every side, and there is no adversary or disaster.

Nehemiah 9:17
They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them.

Psalm 49:15
But God will redeem my life from the grave; he will surely take me to himself.

Psalm 73:26

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Isaiah 40:8

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.

Jonah 2:6

To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you brought my life up from the pit, O LORD my God.

Matthew 19:26

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

John 1:18

No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.

Acts 2:24

But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.

Acts 3:15

You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.

Romans 5:8

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

1 Corinthians 1:27

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

2 Timothy 2:9

for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained.

Yes, I try, but sometimes those “But I” thoughts will slip in despite my best intentions. How about you, do you need help making your but excuses smaller? Then join me in turning those “But I” moments into “But God” miracles.