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Old Barns & Friends

Only years of standing in the weather, bearing the storms and scorching sun, only that can produce beautiful barn wood. A stranger came by the house one day with an offer that set me to thinking. He wanted to buy the old barn that sits out by the highway. I told him right off he was crazy. He was a city type, you could tell by his clothes, his car, his hands, and the way he talked. He said he was driving by and saw that beautiful barn sitting out in the tall grass and wanted to know if it was for sale. I told him he had a funny idea of beauty Sure, it was a handsome building in its day. But then, there's been a lot of winters pass with their snow and ice and howling wind.

The summer sun's beat down on that old barn till all the paint's gone, and the wood has turned silver gray. Now the old building leans a good deal, looking kind of tired. Yet, that fellow called it beautiful. That set me to thinking. I walked out to the field and just stood there, gazing at that old barn.

The stranger said he planned to use the lumber to line the walls of his den in a new country home he's building down the road. He said you couldn't get paint that beautiful. Only years of standing in the weather, bearing the storms and scorching sun, only that can produce beautiful barn wood. It came to me then.

We're a lot like that, you and I. Only it's on the inside that the beauty grows with us. Sure we turn silver gray too... and lean a bit more than we did when we were young and full of sap. But the Good Lord knows what He's doing. And as the years pass He's busy using the hard weather of our lives, the dry spells and the stormy seasons to do a job of beautifying our souls that nothing else can produce. And to think how often folks holler because they want life easy! They took the old barn down today and hauled it away to beautify a great man's house. And someday you and I'll be hauled off to Heaven to take on whatever chores the Lord has for us. And I suspect we'll be more beautiful then for the seasons we've been through here and just maybe even add a bit of beauty to our Father's house.

May there be peace within you today.

May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May there be peace within you today.

May the year of 2009 be one of the best years of your life and your blessings be many.  Ernest & Anna


The quote of the month is by Jay Leno:
'With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding,
severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another,
and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, 'Are we sure this is a
good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?'