Tools of the Trade

Last week, I had a conversation with Windsor’s teachers about her progress in math. She was getting ready to start carrying and borrowing, and I didn’t know how this was going to work for her. She has gotten great at adding and subtracting two-digit numbers, but how do blind kids learn to carry??

This week, we started working on carrying and borrowing using an abacus! I had no idea people still used an abacus for math. I thought that was just a tool for Iron Age people or something! It turns out that there are a lot of different tools to help you, but you many never think about them otherwise! We can probably all think of tools we use to make tasks easier – shoe horns, phone alarms, lists, or step stools. Tools are just as meaningful in our spiritual lives. When we start a reading plan, put book tabs in our Bibles, make prayer lists, and build relationships to help us stay accountable, we are putting into practice the same skills that help us be more successful in other parts of our lives. Paul specifically talks about how some of the people in our lives are there to help us grow.

He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
Ephesians 4:11-13

Tiny Droplets

When I walked outside, it didn’t look like it was raining. It didn’t feel like it was raining at first. But those invisible tiny droplets by the millions swiftly saturated my hair and shirt before I even made it across the parking lot.

We can be like that too. Some of the good things we do may not even be noticed.
But slowly or quickly the big and small actions and words and thoughts can saturate the soul.

Every action we do in service to others, whether big or small, unseen or applauded, saturates the world around us in goodness.
Just as the rain nurtures the earth, grows the flowers, and washes away the dust, our kind deeds do the same. May you cause a smile to bloom this week!

“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
Matthew 5:44-45