Mud: Part 1

I like to play in the mud!  In fact, I've always liked to play in mud.  I didn't do it often as a kid because I didn't want the swats that I knew would follow if I did! ;)  I did get permission to play in the mud once when I was 10-ish.  That is the one time I remember my Mommy mentioning "the Mother's curse" with regards to me.  "May you have many children, and may they all be just like you."  Well, it took! =)  My kids LOVE to play in the mud.  Unfortunately, they don't seem to dread the swats that inevitably follow... so maybe they're not JUST like me! ;)

When I was 14, my Daddy introduced me to a sanctioned form of "playing in the mud".  He taught me to tape and float for some sheetrock work we were doing in our house that summer.  I followed his instructions really well, so it quickly became my part of the construction process.  We were consistently doing some kind of remodel work on the houses we lived in for the next 4 years that I lived at home.  I got to the point that I dreaded parts of it, and especially Daddy's perfectionism.  I was a teenager, after all! =)

I've been reminiscing the last few weeks as I've been doing remodel work on my own house.  It's been really funny.  I don't dread the parts I used to.  And now I'm fighting MY OWN perfectionism! =?  The thought I've had most often, is how thankful I am that the Lord was preparing me for much of what would be happening the first 11 years of my marriage.  I had no idea when I first picked up that trowel, that I would be doing SO MUCH playing in the mud-- but God did.  He knew that Shorty & I would buy a fixer-upper, and be squeaking by on one income as He added 4 more little people to our family. =)

Now I know that this is a purely physical/temporal example, but the principle applies that God will always thoroughly equip us for whatever path He sets before us.

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:14-17