Shade Tree Wisdom 7/22/11

Some places had as much as two inches, so the area benefited from rain, though spotty, wet here, dry next door. Appreciated very much thanks to the Lord. So the walking was in rain-washed air with a slight breeze to make it just fine.

I read a Chinese proverb that says,
“If you are patient in one moment of anger,
You will escape one hundred days of sorrow.”

There’s just a lot of wisdom in those words. What is it we often say,
“Do it in haste,
Repent at leisure”.
And it reminds me again of our loving God. He planned our life so we could be free from having to repent of deeds or words spoken in haste or anger.

So the Lord gave us the Ten Commandments, not to fence us in, but to keep us from making stupid mistakes. For these ten cover nearly every phase of life, do they not?

In the spring when cattle were first left out to pasture, they tended to find holes in the pasture fence and get at green alfalfa and founder. So our first duty was to make sure the pasture fence had withstood the forces of winter cold and frost and was tight. Because cattle seemed to have a genius for finding any holes.

Our problem exactly, we are always trying to find loopholes, reasons why this does not apply for this situation, after all, is the word, we are living in 2011, not in the Victorian age any longer.

We forget that life is messy at best, not easy or simple, and we need help on finding the best way. That help is what the Lord offers us in the Ten Commandments. These Ten words cover every situation and offer us guides and direction for every situation.

Temptations lie all around and offers us many opportunities to do the wrong thing. A small example, the temptation to eat an apple while shopping for our groceries and not mentioning the fact at the checkout counter. We think, after all, the store has lots of apples and won’t miss just one.
“In vain we all old notions fudge,
And bend our conscience to our dealing.
The Ten Commandments will not budge,
And stealing will continue stealing”

The Commandments are not there to “spoil our fun”, but to allow us to live with a clear conscience and sleep as God’s Child.

So be patient in a moment of anger,and spare yourself one hundred days of sorrow.

GPD 7/22/11