Gigi's Blog » Tales of the Mortician's Wife

  “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord,
forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
1 Corinthians 15:58

How are we to work for the Lord?
Always abounding.
The Greek word abounding means ‘to be excessive’;
over the top, going beyond what is necessary … super abundant.
That sounds like a fun way to live, doesn’t it?
Are you living this way in your home?
It’s very easy to live boringly.
It’s so sad when we live in our homes in a boring manner …
you don’t have to be like that.
It all depends on our attitude.
Ladies, we have the power to make our homes what we want them to be …
Dear precious mother, if you want a joyful home,
make a joyful home!
If you want an exciting home, make it exciting!
Think of exciting things to do!
If you want a home filled with peace, be a peacemaker.
We make the environment that we want to have.
It’s interesting – everything in God is not normal –
it’s over the top … more than is necessary. Super abundant.
Get out of the normal, the boring and the status quo –
spend a little time thinking,
‘ Now Jesus, what can I do tomorrow that will make my home more exciting?'”
-Above Rubies, Nancy Campbell

“Girls, let’s plant a LOT of sunflowers this year,” I said one morning as I dished out eight bowls of hot cinnamon-and-butter oatmeal. “How many should we plant?”

The young ladies [and two little boys] around the breakfast table chattered away with excitement, throwing out suggestions of how many sunflowers would be good for our garden, wondering where we should plant them and so forth. Somehow, in our wild, unplanned conversation, the number ‘200’ was brought forth.

“Two hundred sunflowers? Sure, let’s do it!” was my reply. Into the big ol’ family van we tumbled after breakfast and headed to the local  tractor supply store to purchase enough seeds and trays for our Big Sunflower Project. I felt a little silly at the store counter as the cashier rang up the sunflower seeds and little brown pots for the seedlings. I’ll just call it a school project, I thought … 

“Do you plant seeds?” I asked the cashier lady, as she rang up the bill. She shrugged, stuffing the seed packages into a plastic bag, and replied she didn’t have the time to care for seeds. Well, perhaps we can bring her a sunflower after it grows a little. I tucked that thought in the back of my head and made a note to remember in a few weeks…

That afternoon, Lyla, with some small helpers at her side, was given the task to start planting two hundred sunflowers in little peat moss trays. Every day, she was to water them, turn them so their receive proper amount of light and carry out the trays if the day is warm enough and sunny enough for the seedlings to have some fresh outdoor air.

[Carrying 200 seedlings up and down her staircase from her bedroom is a small workout, no doubt. One does not think of that when we planted 200 little seeds; we are grateful for all the little sisters’ help in transporting the seedlings from sunny room to sunny locations.]

Now, it is a few weeks later and Lyla is very proud of her growing sunflowers.  We love to watch the seedlings literally turning to the light every day, searching out the golden sunrays that may come its way.

“We have to turn them,” I explained to the girls, as they helped carry the little green stems, full of promise and hope, outside for an afternoon of sunshine. “They need to grow straight and tall and strong …”

Just like ourselves … often times, stuck in darkness, waiting for the promise of a brighter day, turning to our Light, I thought, as we gently watered each 200 seedling, examining the tender plants for growth …

… I need to reach for the Sonshine that will bring me through the any darkness and help our family grow strong and tall in a dark world … we all have painful trials, time of winter when we need some sunshine in our lives – let these sunflowers, as they grow this summer, be a reminder to me that we can turn to the Light and renew our strength.

“Like a seedling in the clay
When the sun’s first golden ray,
Marks the breaking of the day,
I am turning to the light.

I am turning to the light
I am reaching toward the sun,
I have journeyed through the night
And the battle now is won,
There’s a new song in my heart,
There’s a new day dawning bright;
Oh, I’m turning to the light.”

{Lovelyn, with her sunflower, two summers ago}

We cannot wait to plant them outdoors in the soil – although we are still not sure where or how to plant them … in a group in the garden for a stunning arrival as you pull up the driveway? Or along the fenceline behind where the children have their swings? Perhaps in a room-shape, where you can enter between sunflowers and find yourself in a sunshiney-happy-sunflower-lined room?

In any case, we are all looking forward to watching them grow and seeing their beautiful happy flower faces appear in later summer.