Walnut Trees

Value Service: One day, we found out there was a neighbor giving away walnuts from the trees in her yard. We decided to take 4 of our grand-children, so we loaded the them into our vehicle and headed down the street. As we went to the door, Natalie came out and we were told again that we could pick or knock down what we wanted out of the tree. The trees were huge and the bottom branches on the first tree were over 10 feet above the ground. The second tree had lower branches. Not seeing any walnuts on the ground, we were discouraged and decided to allow the eldest to try climbing the tree to see what he could do, but the remaining walnuts were far out of his reach. In spite of being disheartened, we enlisted everyone's help to provide a service by filling their bags with leaves that had been knocked off the tree by previous harvesters. As the six of us started picking up the leaves, we found walnuts lying under them. They had been pressed into the lawn by other visitors and were temporarily hidden from our view. “I found one,” came a cry from one of the children. “Here is another,” someone called out. So, we learned the value of service and the blessings that come from that service. We returned home with more than 2 quarts of walnuts, stories of climbing trees, picking leaves and visiting with the owner and of course, our stop for an Oreo McFlurry. We were able to experience the physical rewards, as well as the reward of feeling good in our hearts for doing a service.

Listening to the Spirit

Value Listening to the Spirit: On Friday morning, I packed the car with a skirt and a jacket for our day trip and an evening area reunion, the thought came into my mind to take my rolling brief case. For this trip my case carried my medicine, my IPad, my Dell laptop, address lists, note pad, word search book and extra pens. Often, my husband and I were known to carry the most unusual things with us, “just in case.” “No, not that heavy thing,” I thought. The thought came again and it was so strong, I followed the prompting and put the case in the car. After a full day running errands and visiting family, we finally arrived at our potluck supper reunion and were having a wonderful time laughing and talking with old friends. Then, out of the blue, a young man approached and asked if I had some Benadryl. A young adult had just ingested something that had given him an allergic reaction. I had what was needed, not an EpiPen, but an antihistamine that could help with a minor reaction. I value conscious listening to the positive promptings of guidance to do good things in our lives.