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"it is a wretched taste to be gratified with mediocrity when the excellent lies before us."

I was poised between our kitchen island and the pantry, trying to cut up an apple. I finished cutting the apple, and took a bite of the brightest slice. I was expecting crisp and tart, but got soft and bland. Ugh. What disappointment.

"Too bad this apple is bad," I said to Scott "cause you can't go back nine months and start over."

That sounded like a truth that might apply to more than just apples.

I wondered when the apple grower realized he would be picking a bunch of apples to sell that weren't really that good. Was it the week before harvest? Was it the year before harvest because every other year had been just as bad, but he just found someone different to sell them to?

Was it the growers fault? Was he playing Xbox instead of pollinating or fertilizing? Or did he work as hard as he could, and this was just a bad year?

Of course, I couldn't help but think of my boys. Was I doing my best—working my hardest—to turn out good apples? Or had Scott and I just planted the trees hoping everything would work out in the end?

Michael Pearl, preacher and father of many children says this: "The success of a tree or a man is measured by the fruit that is borne. The fruit of a man or woman is their children; everything else is falling leaves."
I never want to be folding clothes or talking on the phone when I should be pruning and preaching to the four little trees growing in my house.
"...[She who loves [her son] is careful to discipline him. (Proverbs 13:24 - my edit)

I never want to say "Too bad this apple is bad, 'cause you can't go back eighteen years and start over."

"Today's Little Lift" from Jim Bullington

Mercy and not Sacrifice (Sept. 30, 2010)