Tip of the Day 8/23/12

99 Days of Summer: August is a great month for bargains, from clothes to beach equipment, but we often forget to check out the plant section in the store. We are looking at end of the season bedraggled plants in our yard that have weathered the heat and drought and don't realize we can still perk it up. When we bought our house there was an above ground pool in the yard. We did not want it and gave it to some friends. So, for a couple of summers we had a large round sandy spot in the backyard that we named the UFO landing pad. We were busy working on other areas and felt it would be too expensive to do the plantings for that area for a while. In August, a couple of years later, we were at Home Depot in the garden section and saw the clearance section filled with perennial plants marked down to 50 cents for quart sized pots. This seemed like the time to plant that bed. We figured at that price we didn't have anything to lose. We bought 10 plants and 5 years later we have had to divide them several times and they continue to blossoms and bring beauty. Only one died that first winter. So, check out the clearance section and put some life back into those bedraggled flower beds. You will be glad you did.

Word for Today, Him: Over the last couple of days several friends and family have welcomed new babies into the world. The love between a parent and child can feel like it is overwhelming your heart. No matter the circumstances by which the child comes into your life, birth, adoption, surrogate, they are yours, and the love is beyond what you ever imagined possible. As a parent we discover there is nothing, and I mean NOTHING, our child can do that will stop us from loving them. The struggles or heartbreak we may experience cause us to love them more. We even make statements that we would lay down our life for our children. Why is this love between parent and child so fierce? Because the One that gave us life, our Creator, is our Abba Father (daddy) and loved us first with this kind of love. He will always be waiting for us to turn around and run back into His arms. I am ministered to by these words to yet another Rich Mullins song, Grow

ing Young. "We are children no more, we have sinned and grown old. But our Father still waits and He watches down that road to see the crying [boys] come running back to His arms. And when I thought that I was all alone, it was Your voice I heard calling me back home. And I wonder now, Lord, what it was that made me wait so long. And what kept You waiting for me all that time. Was Your love stronger than my foolish pride. Will You take me back now, take me back and let me be your child." It is never too late, a parent will wait for their child no matter how long it takes. God is waiting. "I have loved you with an everlasting love." "...neither height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus."