cherry trees and a lilac hedge

This is my idea of late.  We recently tore down our garage in hopes of creating a backyard, and our backyard still has its challenges, between our dogs keeping the mud muddy and the various empty beer cans, cigarette packs and God only know what else scattered as litter as the wind blows it to and fro.  Our backyard would possibly be a challenge to a green thumb, and our thumbs are not green.
At first I thought I would grow blueberry bushes as a hedge, and I was uber excited about having enough blueberries to supply our family and the apartments behind our house.  But there was this thing that I learned about growing blueberry bushes:  the soil needed to be quite acidic, with a PH around 4 or 5.  So I did a PH test of our soil that I learned over the internet which was, 1.  collect a sample of said soil in two cups.  2.  pour vinegar in one cup and baking soda mixed with water in another cup.  3.  If the vinegar cup bubbles you have alkeline soil, and if the baking soda cup bubbles you have acidic soil.  Eventually, the vinegar cup bubbled.  So scrap the blueberry hedge.
When I went to college, there was a lilac bush outside of the library and smelling that bush was one of the best smells ever for me, and the more I read about lilacs, the more I wanted a hedge.  So now my idea is to plant two cherry trees as "fenceposts" on the ends and then along the fence to plant four or five lilac bushes.
Will this idea work?  I do not know, especially because in our house we love love love BING cherries, although I am not a fan of the bing web browser.  So will our bing cherries and our tartanian mix well and grow well and get enough water and not get to cold?  Maybe you can tell me.

Shutting my mouth as a parent

In the words of Maria from The Sound of Music, "I'm far too outspoken, it is one of my worst faults."  In my relationships with my kids I open my mouth quickly and shut it slowly.  I almost always react to my kids disrespect, anger, quarrels, etc.  Lord, show me how to keep a tight reign on my mouth. 

"Jesus, when you stood before Pontius Pilate, with so so much you could have said to the man you created in the greatest moment of history and yet you chose to keep your mouth closed - teach me the wisdom in shutting my mouth, and the peace of shutting my mouth, and the joy in shutting my mouth, and the control of shutting my mouth.  Would you Jesus be my mouth's guard and make the words that come out to only be the words you have specifically chosen.  Much damage can be done by one careless destructive word, and yet such good can be done by one careful creative word.  Be my words Lord.  May the Word be so in me that the only words that come out of my mouth are for you.  Amen, so let it be."

a life expectancy quiz

a life expectancy quiz

Are you a human being?  Yes, give yourself 90 years  No, this quiz is not for you.

Are you a male? Yes, take off 10 years.  

How many cigarettes did you smoke yesterday?  Take off that many years.

Do you have diabetes?  Yes, take off 5 years.

Do you drink coffee? Yes or no – take away 1 year

Are any of your grandparents still alive?  Add one year for each living grandparent.

Are you a pessimist?  Take off 5 years.  Are you an optimist?  Add 1 year.

How many heart attacks have you had?  Take off 5 years for each heart attack

How many days a week do you exercise for 30 or more minutes?  Add that many years.

Do you work at a desk?  Yes, take away 3 years

Do you work in a kitchen?  Yes, take away one year.

Do you work hard manual labor?  Yes, add one year.

Are you good at math?  Yes, take away the number of years of the days left in this week times pi, including today.  No, take away 5 years.

What is your life expectancy?

Moses also does some obituary math in Psalm 90,

^NLT Psalm 90:1 Lord, through all the generations you have been our home!  ² Before the mountains were born, before you gave birth to the earth and the world, from beginning to end, you are God.  ³ You turn people back to dust, saying, "Return to dust, you mortals!"  ⁴ For you, a thousand years are as a passing day, as brief as a few night hours.  ⁵ You sweep people away like dreams that disappear. They are like grass that springs up in the morning.  ⁶ In the morning it blooms and flourishes, but by evening it is dry and withered.  ⁷ We wither beneath your anger; we are overwhelmed by your fury.  ⁸ You spread out our sins before you-- our secret sins-- and you see them all.  ⁹ We live our lives beneath your wrath, ending our years with a groan.  ¹⁰ Seventy years are given to us! Some even live to eighty. But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble; soon they disappear, and we fly away.  ¹¹ Who can comprehend the power of your anger? Your wrath is as awesome as the fear you deserve.  ¹² Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.  ¹³ O LORD, come back to us! How long will you delay? Take pity on your servants!  ¹⁴ Satisfy us each morning with your unfailing love, so we may sing for joy to the end of our lives.  ¹⁵ Give us gladness in proportion to our former misery! Replace the evil years with good.  ¹⁶ Let us, your servants, see you work again; let our children see your glory.  ¹⁷ And may the Lord our God show us his approval and make our efforts successful. Yes, make our efforts successful!

“teach us to realize the brevity of life” (12)

In God’s eyes 1000 years are like a day, like a night watch(4).  A night was divided into four watches of  three hours each.  So 1000 years were like a day, or like 3 hours.

Enoch had a son named Methusaelh in the book of Genesis who lived for 969 years.  If Enoch would have asked God, how long will little baby Methusaleh life for?  God could have said, “to me, not quite a day, or not quite 3 hours.”

Moses(1), who lived 120 years, spoke of the common life of then, which is fairly the same as now, 70 to 80 years(10).  But what is that 70 to 80 years? Besides toil and trouble. . .

If 1000 years is like a day, or three hours, what is 70 or 80 years?

Here is my math:  70 years like 1 hour 40 minutes or like 12 minutes 40 seconds.

80 years like 1 hour 55 minutes or like 14 minutes 20 seconds.

The analogy of grass that sprouts in the morning only to wither in the evening(5-6) does not make sense to me because our grass is usually good for the whole year, but of course I did not spend my whole life in the African desert as Moses did.

So I ask myself, “what analogy would help us understand our fleeting life?”

What is something in our life that is short, less than 2 hours, or less than 15 minutes?

A cup of coffee.  How big is your coffee cup?

My life is, in the eyes of God, as lasting as a cup of coffee.  Personally I really enjoy my coffee, although I have had bad cups before, and yet it is gone so fast.  If you want to see your life the way God sees it, think of yourself drinking that one cup of coffee.  Maybe your cup is bigger than mine and you will live to 105, and so you get a 24 ounce cup of coffee, but it is still gone so fast.  Our life is so quick that, one moment, here we are, and the next moment God says, “Return to dust.”(3) And the cup is empty.

Our life is like a cup of coffee to God.

Moses asks God “Return, O Lord, how long?”(13)  But how can God return to us when we are to him like a cup of coffee?  God did end up answering this prayer of Moses.

God became a cup of coffee, a very small cup as Jesus died at 33 years old, so that he could take us beyond our little coffee cups into a much different kind of time, a time the Bible calls eternity.

So as you drink your coffee this morning, think of how short your life is in the eyes of God, and how God came into your coffee cup existence so that He could give you something more.