{too, too long...}

Yes, it has been too long. But I shall not dwell on that and bore you to tears. You're welcome. So, the other day I was thinking, imagine that, and I realized I don't have to write long blog posts. I can write short ones. What's going on in my world, ponderous thoughts, the creative highs and lows of life, the spiritual highs and lows. In other words, a person doesn't have to write a whole article for it to be cerebral. With that in mind I have a recent personal spiritual lesson.

Last month I painted my grandmother's kitchen and dining room. Goodbye brown, hello sage green! Once I was finished with that she had a border she wanted me to put up. I have a preference for as few seams as possible when it comes to wallpaper so I thought I'd put up the full 15' length of the border. By myself. After I had fought with this long, long strip of wet paper and got it folded over to book I was still feeling fairly confident. Booking time done I climbed up the step ladder and began the ordeal. Do you know how quickly things can go south when you are overly confident and under prepared? Fast. It wasn't long and that border was obviously not going to do what it was made to do: stick. So, before a bad situation turned worse I laid out the border on the floor to dry. I could at least salvage it later. I then turned my heart to God and prayed, "Okay, yes, I get the message. I got in over my head because of course I *knew* what I was doing. Help me through the rest of this because I'm going to need it. You are strong when I am weak and 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me' " God had baked up a nice humble pie and had a thick slice steaming and ready for me. A person doesn't like to think of themselves as proud, but guess what, even if we are not in general a prideful individual there are areas of our life or skills that we think we're pretty good at. And we sure might be. But how noxious of a weed is pride? How soon before it invades other aspects of our life? After that experience I was glad God baked humble pie that day. It was tasty! But I think anytime our Heavenly Father frees us from some sin or burden there is that sweet taste of freedom. "Good and upright is the Lord; Therefore He instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in justice, and He teaches the humble His way. All the paths of the Lord are lovingkindness and truth to those who keep His covenant and His testimonies." - Psalm 25:8-10 By the way, the wallpapering became much easier when I took it in manageable wall sized chunks and better preparation. Lesson of the day - humility is a beautiful thing.