Z ~ Zealous

    Yesterday afternoon the definition of zealous would have quite accurately described Steven.  (eager; earnest; actively enthusiastic)
    He was busy getting something ready to entertain the entire family later that night. He wanted to keep it as a surprise and worked tirelessly to have everything ready.
     He was so excited as we ate supper that he could hardly hold still as he ate. He helped clean up afterwards, but there was nothing he could do to make the sun set faster, and he needed it to be dark before he could continue with his plans.
     Finally it grew dark and he gave each of us a ticket and instructed us to sit on the stairs. He thoughtfully provided us with popcorn and then turned out the lights.
      Standing a few steps above us on the stairs he shone a light on the wall and passed pictures in front of it to create shadows and pictures on the wall. He had a short story to go with each picture. After he was done he turned the lights back on, pleased that all his effort had paid off and he had been able to have entertained us all.    

Y ~ Yoke

    Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.    Matthew 11:29-30
     Those were two verses quoted often in the Amish church I grew up in.
     The yoke was viewed as obeying all the church rules, but those kept changing and being added to regularly.
      If someone complained they were viewed as being in rebellion to the yoke of Christ, if they would only submit and humble themselves the yoke would be easy and the burden of all those rules wouldn't feel heavy they were told.
     Seeing so many struggling under the weight of what is expected of them, and never being able to get it right I wish they could see that, that is not at all what Jesus was teaching. Truly His yoke is easy, and His burden is light.
   

X ~ X Marks the Spot No More

     Coming up with a topic for "x" can be more than a little challenging given the limited amount of words in the English language beginning with that letter.

     So I've decided to share a little something we saw recently.

      LV had planned a little 20th anniversary/40th birthday getaway for the two of us.

       The first morning of our trip when we opened our hotel door to go get breakfast we were surprised to see a man walking nonchalantly across the parking lot with a big road sign, post and all balanced on his right shoulder. 

      He marched up the steps and wrangled the thing into the room next to ours.

      It was all so bizarre that LV and I just stared at each other and burst out laughing.

       Somewhere out there is a missing  Center Lane Turn Only sign ... or for the sake of this blog post ... x no longer marks the spot.

W ~ Wink Wave and Whistle

     As a school girl, my least favorite part of the school day was recess.

      Having to go outside to play was a form of torture for me the majority of the time.

       Then one year we were introduced to a new game called "Wink, Wave, and Whistle" it combined all sorts of things I disliked about recess games. There was running and hiding and a poor hapless person who was it. 

        I don't remember all the rules to the game, but I do remember winking, waving, and whistling were all a part of freeing and catching the players. 

       To add another level of stress to the game was the fact that my family didn't approve of winking.

       I found a solution to the problem of playing the game. I participated, but chose a hiding place no one ever thought to look in to find me; the back of the coal bin in the basement of the school house. 

       I spent my recess crouched there  in the back of that dirty dark bin and was relieved when the bell rang and I could return to the pleasure of books, lessons, and learning. That was better than Wink, Wave, and Whistle any day.

V ~ Voice Mail

    In our area the Amish have phones in little phone shanties. Several families will share the use of one shanty.
     The rule is the phone has to be far enough away from the house that you can't hear the phone ring. They also aren't allowed to have answering machines, but since they still want to be able to get in contact with whomever tried calling them they are allowed to have voice mail. They then call in to check their messages, often early in the morning.
     The reason I know they call early in the morning is because our phone number is only one digit different than their voice mail number, and I can't even begin guessing how often our phone rings because one of the Amish people wanted to check their voice mail.
     It's annoying, but I'd still rather have those wrong number calls than all the spam calls. It would be nice though if they could wait to check their voice mail until after the sun is up at least.