Manure or Fertilizer

Recently Mike and I were chatting about our life including the great times and the challenging times. It has not been all boat rides, beach days and diamonds! No one's is. We were saying how the challenging times were often, in the end, the great times. We were 24 and 26 when we got married and that seems so young! We finished growing up together. Then we raised kids together. We started a business and sold a business. We survived parenting teenagers. We've put kids through college and grad school. We have dealt with things I would have never dreamed we would deal with. We have buried parents and thought we might be burying each other. There have been some tough times.

While it may have seemed like a bunch of manure along the way, I know better now! According to Webster, fertilizer is a substance (such as manure or a chemical mixture) used to make soil more fertile. I remember my Dad had a compost pile when I was growing up. Whenever he planted flowers he would always mix in mulch. I can remember some people would use manure for their gardens. These were both forms of fertilizer to give the ground more abundant possibilities for growth. Dad always had the most beautiful flowers with the most blooms!!

Isn't that how it is with the manure in our lives? It looks like manure and feels like manure. But after a while we see that through those times we have more abundant possibilities for growth! 1 Peter 4: 12-13, "Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. He will give us the strength we need to get through them."

What we are going through makes no sense to us. Why do we have to go through this? Proverbs 3: 5-6, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." During these times we have to trust Him because He knows what He is doing and He will make things better than we could imagine. Romans 8: 28, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." This is my favorite verse because He will bring good from bad. Remember, He wants what is best for us! Jeremiah 29: 11, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'"

Next time you have a day that stinks, think about it as fertilizer! Eartha Kitt said, "I have used all the manure that has been thrown on me as fertilizer to make me stronger."