150th post...not what I intended it to be, but turning out to be a pretty good post after all.

I found the digital camera Ian won when he test-drove a car a couple years ago. I also finally found the box it comes in. So I took some snaps of the spring flowers and trees and had this wonderful post all written in my head. I was going to premiere photos (my own photos, that is) on my blog. I was going to talk about how delightful spring has been here in the South, and how the dogwoods are all blooming now, and most of the redbuds are still holding on, while the cherry blossoms are mostly done, and the pears are totally done blooming but still inspiring happiness because the bright fresh greenness of the leaves is so...so...ahhhh. The whole of spring just makes you go ahhhh, while filling your eyes and mind and memory with every day's effort and showing forth the very best of Spring.


However, when I uploaded my photos, this is what I saw:

(From left to right: view from the window where I sit and blog (those white fluffs are the neighbor's dogwoods); view from the top half of that same window; purply purple iris ; tulips (the only two around).)
Hm. [That's the sound of disappointment.]


So that terrible foe, covetousness mixed with jealousy, reared its ugly head and is threatening to ruin my day.


Here's an antidote to that insidious enemy, sin:

"I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me...You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything else that is your neighbor's." --Deuteronomy 20:2-3, 17 ESV*

And as more antidotes, I'll share some verses that hit me yesterday during church services. Read the footnotes for explanations.

"My mouth with speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever." --Psalm 145:21 ESV **

"Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." --Ephesians 4:31-32 ESV ***

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*This command means I cannot covet others' blogs, layouts, ways with words...I cannot covet their personalities, their descriptive ability, their readership, their skill and ability. I won't covet because covetousness reflects a heart of discontent with the resources that God has given me. And after all, he has given me good gifts: the best of all, that he rescued me out of the land of slavery. I will not put any gods before the Lord, no matter how subtle.


**Caught my attention because after the psalm lists all sorts of reasons to commit to praise, the psalmist verbalizes a commitment to praise the Lord.


***Caught my attention because though I memorized Ephesians 4:32 when I was in 1st grade (we sang a song to memorize it...yay for Scripture memory for kiddoes!), I'm reading it again, seeing that in context, it's even more meaningful. The preceding verse gives the inverse of the positive command: "Don't do terrible things x and y; instead, replace that trash in your life with the good qualities a and b."