It's dusk in my Kentucky backyard and it's mosquito free--quite a feat during summer around here. I attribute our mosquito-free haven to a grove of nearby trees that have incredible lawn-mower tire piercing thorns. When we moved here 4 years ago I waged war on the fast growing iron-wooded thorny hedgeapple trees with a borrowed chainsaw until a good friend suggested that they may have a natural repellant for mosquitos and spiders.
So, I 'googled' hedgeapples and found all kinds of interesting ideas about what hedgeapples might do and magical properties that make buying the fruit irrestible to web shoppers. I'm not totally convinced about buying hedgeapple fruit online, but I am sure that we rarely have mosquitoes in our back yard even though there are two creeks bordering our property. Makes me wonder.....
And, I narrowed my attack on the orange wooded trees to lopping off the low hanging branches and trees that were encroaching on trees that we love like a giant Cedar. And, we seem to be reaching a place of the 'win-win' between mother nature and my desire to mow the yard without being ripped open by razor sharp thorns and the hedgeapples need to grow and do its mosquito-repellent thing.
Sometimes God provides thorns to protect us from the mosquitos of life. Sometimes He's trying to provide a thorny hedge to help us through a situation that could be a lot more troubling that flattened mower tires. So, when you're facing a thorny situation that slows you down and seems to keep you from the result you were hoping for watch for where God may be on the move to give you something even better! That's just how He is.
Have a Great Day!
Jeff Fuson
p.s. The image in this post came from this website that offers advice about the Osage Orange's insect and spider repellent properties.... http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2187/1924737197_6d2aa6b746_m.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.motherearthsgarden.com/hedge-apples-to-repel-spiders/&h=180&w=240&sz=27&hl=en&start=12&um=1&tbnid=Il8hfF7aPdVhLM:&tbnh=83&tbnw=110&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhedgeapples%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den-us%26sa%3DN
Jeff Fuson serves as Point Leader for Phos Hilaron Church near Louisville Kentucky. Jeff's # 1 passion is being a husband and daddy. A close second is seeing people grow spiritually. Jeff also delivers impacting training events for Entrepreneurs, Credit Unions, and small to medium sized enterprises. He's got one incredible wife and 3 awesome children.
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