Sweet Spot

I love the term "sweet spot." I remember it first from tennis - how the ball sailed just perfectly if you hit it on the sweet spot of the racket. I read it in terms of life a couple years ago in the book, Cure for the Common Life: Living in Your Sweet Spot by Max Lucado. He talked about finding the sweet spot where God meant for us to live. I love it.

Today was a sweet spot day. Great time in the Word this morning, reading Hosea for my new class. Came upon this phrase in the New Living Translation:

I will return her vineyards to her and transform

the Valley of Trouble into a gateway of hope.

Hosea 2:14 NLT

That verse really REALLY lifted my spirits. Bye bye emotional storm clouds. My Valley of Trouble will be transformed into a gateway of hope. God loves me THAT much, and He is THAT capable and THAT reliable. I am waiting and soon I will see.

Anyhow, after transferring that and other verses onto index cards and scrap booking them a bit (more on that later) I went into my day with a much needed attitude adjustment.

The rest of the day was spent digging dirt and compost into the garden, planting beauty into our front entry way, dealing with the yard of mulch and half yard of stone delivered at noon, and generally enjoying the outdoors and some physical labor. That is a VERY sweet spot. Don't you just feel better stretching and sweating and really and truly working your body? Mine gets so soft and flabby in the winter. And yes, right now my 46 year old muscles ACHE and my bones are creaking, but you know what? My body feels alive.

The front courtyard was my focus today, and if I do say so myself, it's looking spectacular. This is our second spring here, and it is so gratifying to see the perennials thriving. Last year I planted a smallish bleeding heart, and this year it is GINORMOUS. I'll take photos tomorrow. The secret is the very *fragrant* (smelly) compost that we bring home free from the dump. The yardwaste we bring in is transformed into dirty gold - it is PRICELESS to the garden when dug in each spring.

After about 6 hours of non stop physical labor I re-showered, and sweet Sue arrived for grilled burgers and margaritas. Let the summer roll. After she left I got into my jammies (a definite sweet spot) and wrote a long overdue email. A sister needed encouragement and I wrote to her of how God ministers to me when I'm in the dumps. And now, here I am...writing again.

My life has some really big challenges. And I'm figuring out that I have to fight the emotional train wrecks that my mother fought. Thankfully I have my father's base personality and emotions, but I have a monstrous dose of female hormones added to that as well as my mother's propensity for the blues. It's a constant battle for me.

And so...my sweet spot. Time in the garden sweating and creating beauty. And marveling, after two years here, that God gave us this home. Some of you may think I'm bragging, but I'm not. I'm marveling. I longed for a different home for years and years and years, and thought it would never happen. But in God's PERFECT timing my husband relented and at THAT time this house went on the market. Any earlier and we wouldn't be HERE...in the home God had planned just for us. (my husband totally agrees that it is right for us -we're within a one minute walk of his parents which is SO handy for them) It's a rather modest ranch home, especially by today's standards, and yet every nook and cranny screams "grace." The yard, the woods, the birds, the opportunity for sweat and toil, and the beauty all around - it just feeds me, comforts me, and draws me back into the blessings of life from the funks that seem ever present.

And so, I am in my sweet spot. Sweet spots come and go...but...when you find one, it's time to CELEBRATE it, and MAXIMIZE its potential for good in your life! And of course, attribute it to the ONE who can take our valleys of trouble and turn them into gateways of hope. YEAH GOD.

Good night. Now it's time for Sweet (spot) Dreams.