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Thank you for the photos!

I hear you on the painting! I’ve been “working” on a bedroom—and I use the term loosely—for a week or so. It’s wall board, so all the strips have to be taken down and the cracks mudded. Got the strips down—got the mud and tape and paint. Got no ambition! Temp has been in the high 90’s here for a week or so, and even in the ac it’s miserable!

Good luck and don’t work too hard!

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June 10, 2008

Loving Our Grown-Up Children

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READ: 1 Corinthians 13

Now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. —1 Corinthians 13:13

Comedian Henny Youngman used to say, “I’ve got two wonderful children—and two out of five isn’t bad.”

When children reach adulthood, most parents have an opinion about how their offspring have “turned out.” Some are proud of everything their kids have done, while other parents express misgivings or disappointment about the choices their children have made. How can we continue a positive parenting role after the birds have left our nest?

In 1 Corinthians 13, often called “the love chapter” of the Bible, Paul writes that the greatest gifts of speaking, understanding, and sacrificial service are worthless without love (vv.1-3). Love itself is the foundation of winsome behavior, and its influence never ends. “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails” (vv.4-8).

When our children no longer seek our advice, they still value our love. In every stage of parenting, it’s not only what we say but what we do that counts.

May God in mercy grant to us
A home where Christ holds sway,
Where peace and joy from heaven above
Abide from day to day. —Crane

A parent’s love never ends.

Bible in One Year: 2 Kings 24–25; Proverbs 24:13-22

Got no ambition!

LOL. I hear ya'.

Over the past year and a half I have completed the half bath, the utility room, the guest room and the office. My mom lives with us and, bless her heart, is at the stage in life where she really doesn't like her routine disrupted (by having to move into the freshly painted, newly decorated and very comfortable guest room for a few nights), but on the other hand, she wants her bedroom painted. I am trying to do this job quickly and get out of her way, but, I am at the stage in my life where I don't do much of anything quickly. So, there is the problem.

I told my husband that, no doubt, she would be perfectly happy to sleep in a "different" bed for entire week.......if it were aboard a cruise ship. ;-)

Good luck, gardengirl, with your painting project. I hope you find that ambition, wherever it is lurking.