Pumpkin seeds

   While most would consider the care and running of a farm as "Managing"...I have started to use the word (within the safe confines of my brain) "mangling" to describe our attempts at farming!  We've all decided over that past three years that Gentlemen Farmers had the right idea!  Ride about "the back 40," and tell the REAL manager what needs to be done...then go home for coffee.  Despite this painful realization of our shortcomings as farmers, every now and then we see the fruit of our labors.  Usually in an abundance that we simply can't keep up with!  This last spring we planted a pumpkin patch.  I heard the words, I saw the planting...but it wasn't until all was said and done that I heard my husband say gleefully that THESE pumpkins would weigh in at 40 lbs.!  Each!  (At this point the gentleman farmer's wife goes to the kitchen and orders the maid to get ready because the wife will be going on an extended tour of the Continent which will end when the last of the pumpkin has been canned (by the maid).)
   So...what has this to do with marriage?  Well...there's a lot of waste going on at my house these days.  An unconscionable number of pumpkins have frosted and wilted on our front porch.  I have made, count them, two pumpkin pies, 1 pumpkin curry (which was excellent by the way), and roasted three trays of pumpkin seeds.  My problem with pumpkins is how much work they are!  There, I've confessed it!  As I scraped out 3 of the smaller sized ones this weekend, I kept marveling at the bounty represented by these squash.  The verse about God giving us more than we need or ask for kept coming to mind.  These little pumpkins (thank goodness that only a few reached the 40 lb. goal) were FILLED with seeds.  An entire patch could be planted from two small pumpkins.
     But there is nothing easy (unless you are a gentleman farmer's wife) about processing the pumpkin to the point of enjoyment.  There is slime and mess and boiling and baking or roasting.  In the end, after all that work, there is a pie or two that is heavenly...and a tray or two of seeds that disappear in minutes.   That is my modern Milly's way of looking at it.  A whole lot of work...for what?
    However, with my new resolve (see post one...I think)...I knew there was something more amidst the slime of gutting a pumpkin.   It will surprise no one that I did not have any volunteers to help process the pumpkins.  If I had asked (and we do need to do that as well), I would have received help.  But what I want is someone to swoop in, acknowledge the load...and then take over!   I've wanted that in my role as parent...and especially as wife.  Someone tell me what to do...and help me do it!
        Pumpkin seeds are silly compared to the messes we can find ourselves in.  Broken trust, financial terrors, rebellious children, automaton marriages, and the never ending fatigue...These are all messy, slimy facts of most married lives.  They represent hard work, "scraping, boiling and roasting" with sometimes seemingly little to show for it.  EACH pumpkin in my cellar will need to be processed.  EACH day of my marriage needs my attention.  I think of all the opportunities I've wasted because I wasn't willing to do the work!  It is easy for me to see the work my husband needs to do!  It is easy to feel resentment when he doesn't do it!  It's HARD to pick up my own sword, beat it into a plowshare and start the work of tending the garden of my marriage without saying to the Father..."But he's supposed to be here too..."    The labor of figuring out what to do and how to do it...and then DOING it must be worth every minute.  We are not alone.  Christ is present. His Spirit is gentle... but when we keep our inner selves still, He can be heard.  Countless women who surround us or have gone before us are "our great cloud of witnesses" to the value of investing our own selves in our families. 
   Here's a challenge for me...and anyone who may happen upon this blog.  The next time my husband "hovers" over me while I'm trying to get something done, despite ANYTHING that has occurred (over the past 30 years or so...) I'm going to spin around, throw my arms around him and give him a big, sloppy kiss!  I want to fall in love with him, help him, encourage him and even "mother" him now and then.  If, just for today, I can grow in holiness by surprising my husband with my love (which comes from the Father through His Son, whether I'm feeling it or not) perhaps we'll BOTH draw closer to the Sapphire Throne.   Perhaps, now and then, we'll find ourselves working on the garden together!...