Bob and I married in 1981. We are enjoying our twenty first year. Both retired, we enjoy the grandkids, movies and our life in Arkansas.
My interests are music, nutrition, gardening and writing.
I am posting some of my writing to share with you.
Hope you enjoy visiting my home page.
by
Ruth Mullen
I enjoy gardening and usually have flowers blooming from spring through fall. This year, however, after the spring flowers died, unusual summer heat hurt the later flowers. Only a few, widely scattered blooms appeared. I watered and mulched but the efforts were barely enough to keep the plants alive. We needed rain.
Finally rain came. For two night a slow, steady downpour soaked the dry ground. In a matter of days green fuzz of new grass covered our brown lawn and the flower garden lost its wilted look. Blossoms began to appear .
One morning, I noticed a beautiful new bloom on a heat-stunted zinnia bush. The flower, pink shading into pale pink and then gold, had row after row of perfect petals, forming a rounded mound of beauty. It looked just the way zinnias were created to look.
Right next to it, on the same plant, grew a hot-weather bloom. It had only a few rows of faded petals and a large brown undeveloped center. The contrast was striking. The effects of the rain had made the difference between being barely alive and being abundantly alive.
Jesus said, �I have come that you might have life - life in all its fullness." Those two flowers, growing on the same bush, were a visual reminder of the difference that Jesus can make in a life. In Jer. 17:13, He is called "the Lord, the spring of living water.� In John 4:14, Jesus declares, "..whoever drinks of the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give will become in him a spring of water..� Then in John 7:37, He gives this invitation, �if anyone is thirsty , let him come to Me and drink.� Only the Living Water can bring the abundant life of complete development into what we were created to be.
by Ruth Mullen
The hot, dry summer had browned the lawn and dried up most of the flowers in front of the house.
A few small, pale blooms appeared but the bright yellows, oranges and reds of summer flowers never grew.
Disappointed, I gave up on this year's garden and looked hopefully to next year.
Then, late in August, heavy thunderstorms drenched our area for two weeks. When the rain
stopped, grass and trees turned green again and the dying flowers miraculously revived. The flower bed
became a mass of vivid colors, prettier than ever.
One morning, I sat down outside just to enjoy the delayed blessing of the beautiful flowers. I
had thought the thunderstorms, which were scary at the time, signaled the coming of autumn and the end
of the garden. But they had brought the moisture that revived a thirsty, dying garden. They made it
possible for me to have my beautiful summer flowers after all.
In that moment, I understood that God had used the "thunderstorm" of the terrorist attack to
revive America. That which was frightening became the source of the blossoming of American unity and
pride. Some people may have given up on this ever happening as I had given up on the summer garden.
But God had His "season" for reviving us. Who could have dreamed that the whole country could be, would
be, drawn together so quickly, so completely in support of a common cause? The miracle of America's
renewal is of a breadth and depth that no one could have imagined. Only God could accomplish a change
of this magnitude.
The prophet Joel wrote: " For the Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding
in love and He relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a
blessing." Joe12:13-14
