Teachable Tuesday: Do you ever have a poopie day?

Scooping ManureWell, I do-LITERALLY. Really-everyday. I muck stalls for 4 horses and clean the cat litter for 2 cats. We now live next to the family farm-but the farmhouse where we used to live sat a top what once was a cattle farm for probably 100+ years, so when it rained, water leaked ever so rapidly into our farmhouse cellar/basement/portal to the Abyss, and left behind the most beautiful smell known to the nasal breezeway. This water was mixed with all number of sediment from the old cattle farm which was full of, well, dung. Fecal matter. Caw Caw. Doodie. Poo. Poo. OH Yes-the soil that is great for my garden was not so great when it would leak into the cellar. Our trees and shrubbery were strangely the largest I’ve seen anywhere this side of the Mississippi. And the boxwoods were (still are!) as  big as a 1 story building (I’m NOT kidding-note the normal sized chair next to said boxwood). Boxwood as big as a house

And many a day, our dog rolled in some raccoon poop and then daughter #1 let him into the already fragrant house. Would I be mad? Yes! Was I ready to throw in the towel? Yes! (Mind you-it was usually by 9:30 a.m.) Was I grateful I lived in that farmhouse? You know, I did not give it that thought in ‘the moment’.  Oh-it was always something: one Labor Day holiday weekend, the water pumps decided to stop working and we were without water for 4 days, our ‘Abyss-ment’ leaked poop water, and I had to fill our tub with water from my aunt’s pool just to use to flush the toilets……the cat litter box was conveniently located next to our bedroom which also meant we got to walk through a trail of cat litter remnants just about every trip to the bathroom, and the closets were no bigger than your smallest cabinets, and on and on……

Isn’t it easy to make a ‘list’ of all the things that go wrong in our day and that are wrong with our life? It seems that the bad things just stick out like a paint smudge or a missing tooth. It seems that we many times just gloss over the really significant, wonderful things that are the real blessings in life.

I am grateful that I live in a country where we can call the plumber and they can come rather quickly. I am grateful to have a roof over my head. I am grateful I have a nose that can even smell and I am grateful that three of my favorite people shared those little spaces with me everyday. The good book tells us to “Give thanks IN ALL things/circumstances”(1 Thess. 5:18). It doesn’t necessarily mean you give thanks FOR the “THING”. I don’t think you give thanks for cancer! I don’t think you give thanks for divorce. I don’t even think you give thanks for aches and pains that come plague us many a day. BUT-we can give thanks IN the thing-whatever it is. We can set our hearts to be grateful or un-grateful. We can set our minds to think on the blessings behind the pain. We can remember, too, that Romans 8:28 promises that the good Lord will work out all those circumstances for good.

So-I have had to repent for my not so nice attitudes many a day and realize I am blessed to even be able to scoop poop – whether it is from a 2,000 lb. animal or a little 8 lb. feline. I am blessed to even have had a house (which had a million dollar view BTW). So-girls-you don’t have to always give thanks FOR the thing, just practice giving thanks IN the thing. And see how your mind and spirit look up and how your heart will open to the better, not the bitter.