Proverbs our daily routine, along with daily Bible reading, Coconut Castile........ empty stables!

We have been doing daily Bible study since January of last year, we do miss occasional weekend days and some summer days but the for the most part we read every morning at 6.  Yogie usually doesn't make it into the room until 8 to 15 minutes late and usually has to be prodded but we assemble ourselves every morning as a family to share God's word.  Each day the girls take turns reading a chapter of Proverbs the day of the month is the chapter they read.  We have been doing it long enough now that they are remembering the wording they read the previous month or months.  It is sinking in more and more about the good teachings that are in Proverbs.  Our daily Bible reading is a bit slower, so we have not actually made it through the Bible, so the readings of the Bible for the most part are new to them and doesn't always have the impact, that the familiarity that Proverbs is now having on the them.  Belle once told me that one of her adult children had said it was one of the most valuable things that they had done in their childhood.  It was nice to know that the adult child considered the reading of Proverbs so valuable.  Was it the reading and the knowing of what God wanted of them that mattered?  That mom and dad cared enough to instill it in them?  Or was it that God had spoken so dearly to their heart that their life was going to be the richer for having read that daily chapter throughout their childhood?  I think maybe all of the above and more..... God is so Good.

I unmolded the soaps first thing yesterday.  The coconut milk soap ruined the mold, I don't know if it was an extra hot soap to make or just why but going to make more to try and find out.  I am going to use a silicone mold this time, can't afford to ruin molds.  I stopped in to the store to buy soap, I hadn't bought any in years as we only use homemade soap, laundry and shampoo.  I didn't realize how much it now cost to begin with and I wanted to have commercial packaging to show the class the wording they use that gets them around plain talk and what is actually in the soap.  I picked up the castile and found that it is not even made with olive oil now, funny (you know ironic) that because Castile soap is a Spanish soap that was traditionally all olive oil.  I decide that I should now try to make the coco Castile soap as a comparison.  I found from looking on line that coco castile is all coconut oil and depending upon your superfat amounts it can be a super hard laundry bar, that makes wondrous homemade laundry soap and stain removing bars or it can be a luxurious lathering bar for bathing, with no smuzts (the nasties that cling to the tub and float the water, which I have never really seen in homemade soap and only in store bought soaps.).  I cleaned out my soap closet and rearranged.  Removed all the old soaps, I had been making old aged soaps into Sweater soaps on a rope, but now I have the smaller bars left so I am going to cut them up for embedding in soap for some experimental artsy bars.  I may embed them into the lathering bars, as they will be white so it would be pretty. Some I may embed into the soap I am making that will include all the varieties of oils I have.  Okay, only I would find this intersting, so on we go.....

I am a busy person and for the most part try to keep busy but people who know me know I am not the best house keeper.  I have stressed about this a good portion of my life.  I know some of my messiness come from a rebellious nature.  In many ways as a small child my mom was as messy as I am but as I grew my mom became more and more obsessed with being a neat freak and I felt that the cleaner the house was the less time mom shared with us or in ways the less affection she gave to us.  I decided as a teenager my house would never be more important that my kids.  I don't know if that is an excuse or not but I do have time to cuddle.  I once had a convo with my sister, Sister, and she said she never got as much done as I did, but we bought know her house is immaculately clean.  She said she and her daughter in law had both agreed you only have so much time, time to clean or time to create, and their is definitely a trade off of which was more important in your life.  I have feed my kids on my creativity most of my adult life so I can see the trade off in that light, and have embraced it for the most part; but have obsessed about my failures. This morning was Proverbs 14 as the chapter we read, as it is the 14th, but I was stunned by the words of verse 4.  It was like I had never heard them before and have read them many a time.

Proverbs 14:4   4 An empty stable stays clean, but no income comes from an empty stable.

I had always fell short of being the woman Proverbs would want me to be as I had read it my whole life when it came to having a tidy house.  But there it was for me this morning a new revelation.  Okay to most of you, I am nuts, but to me it was a blessing to see it in words that spoke to my heart, I am not a failure, yes, my house is still messy (or politely put cluttered) not really dirty as filthy goes, but messy.  I never thought that an empty stable, a clean spotless house, is not a place where income is made and most of you know my house is a place where income happens.  It did soothe my soul in a way I hadn't thought of... Good is so God to hear my worry and console me.

I pray you are consoled by, and know that you are loved by, the Lord Jesus Christ.  He died for you and rose again so that you might believe and have life everlasting, how wondrous that is.  I hope you know you are loved and accept the love God so wants to give you in the form of salvation... tomorrow.