Blog – Page 2 – Barbara Lynn Seibel

March 5, 2023March 5, 2023

Are You Gardening with God?

Spring has sprung where I live.

Aside from dealing with the allergens that tackle my respiratory system, I love getting my container gardening started each spring.

I used to only want to plant vegetables so that there would be a harvest to enjoy. But when my husband and I moved into our current abode, there was simply too much shade for vegetables.

This challenged me to research shade gardening and develop a greater appreciation of ornamental plants.

A couple of years ago, a tree was removed from the backyard, which has enabled more sun on our postage stamp of a yard.

This year a neighbor gifted us with her extra lettuce seedlings, and I already have some sugar snap peas poking up through the dirt. In addition, there is rosemary, sage, parsley, and some lavender that has held on since last year.

I also potted up some pansies and petunias for their joyful colors this growing season.

For the spot that still does not get enough sun for vegetables, I planted some ferns, astilbe, and dicentra.

What does all my gardening talk have to do with God?

February 26, 2023February 25, 2023

A Book Review: Discipleship That Fits

Confession time. I love books!

Since childhood I have enjoyed reading. In fact, the reason my mother and sister thought I would be either a teacher or a writer someday stemmed from me always reading a book and sharing what it was about with others.

Once year, my goal was to read through the entire library of my home town. I do not remember my age at the time.

The first week of this goal, I picked five books from the shelf of children’s books containing authors whose last name began with A.

To my surprise, when I came back to the library the next week there were more books on that same shelf. And again the following week.

Sadly, I gave up my goal, deeming it impossible to achieve!

Last year I participated in a reading challenge at Goodreads.com. I successfully completed my goal of reading 12 books in 2022. A much more reasonable goal.

I signed up again for a reading challenge at Goodreads.com for 2023.

This year my goal is to read 15 books and share with you my reviews and progress. I think this is still a reasonable goal.

Why am I doing this?

February 19, 2023February 19, 2023

Too Dim to See Part One

Recently, my husband and I spent some time with extended family members taking a tour of the cave at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri. During the cave tour, there was a point when the guide turned out all the lights so we could experience what the first explorers had.

When the guide turned the lights back on, one of the younger tour members asked in a frantic voice, “Are you going to do that again?”

The guide assured the young tour member that she would not be turning the lights out again.

We all understood the concern experienced by this youngster about not being able to see.

Unlike being in a cave with no light, many of us experience a gradual loss of physical sight as we age.

This forces us to rely on others and use our other senses to process our interactions with others in this world.

Genesis 27:1 starts by telling us Isaac was old and his eyes had grown too dim to see.

February 12, 2023February 11, 2023

Why You Want But Don’t Receive

If I am remembering correctly, my sister was in high school on a morning we quarreled over a magazine.

I am four years younger than her, so I would have been somewhere between the 5th-8th grade at the time of this argument.

Our fight eventually engaged our mother as a referee between us.

Interestingly, when my mother handed me the magazine I had been fighting so hard for, I recall feeling strangely disappointed.

Why did reading James 4:1-6 prompt this memory?

February 5, 2023February 4, 2023

Responding to Another’s Weakness

Recently, my husband and I were leaving a parking lot when another driver caught our attention significantly.

The driver appeared to wave their left hand in a motion that seemed to show they wanted us to hurry past them.

But after we took that action and were waiting to make a left turn from the lane we had chosen, we noticed the same driver appeared in the adjacent lane, still waving their left hand in what we now realized was a display of panic.

As we waited for the traffic light to change to green, we could hear the other driver yelling in an agitated manner. In addition, they kept attempting to go into the intersection to turn left, in front of us, even though the light was red and cars were traveling through.

The driver never looked at us to ask for a courtesy for them to take their obviously intended action. Instead, they were anxiously self-focused.

Aside from the practical tactics of waiting after the light turned green to allow this frantic drive to go ahead of us and maintaining a safe distance from them, how can scripture guide us in responding to this scenario?

January 29, 2023January 24, 2023

After Our Weaknesses Are Revealed

Physically, I know how to recover from a joint injury. The acronym RICE is the standard protocol for sprains to more serious injuries: rest, ice, compression, and elevation.

Some injuries take a longer time to heal than expected, though.

Case in point, I tore my right ankle ligament back in 2018. Thankfully, the tear did not require surgery.

Yet, even now, in 2023, I still struggle with pain and mild swelling if I attempt to do over fifteen minutes of walking consecutively.

My goal for 2023 is to shore up this weakness in my ankle so that I can walk for thirty minutes consecutively by the time 2024 has dawned.

But how do we recover from other weaknesses, like selfishness?

January 22, 2023January 21, 2023

When Our Weaknesses Are Revealed

A couple of years ago, my primary doctor was looking over my medical history and made the comment, “your primary issues are clearly orthopedic.”

We both laughed because, in the short time that she has known me, I have sprained an ankle or both frequently, torn an ankle ligament, sprained a thumb, pulled muscles in my low back, neck, and hip, and was currently being referred to a specialist for a shoulder injury. She even has in my history that I struggle with plantar fasciitis.

I wish I could say these are my only weaknesses. But, along with all other humans on this planet, I share the same weakness.

What is this shared weakness we are all prone towards?

January 15, 2023January 14, 2023

Are you a doer?

In the fourth grade, I learned my schoolteacher had bicycled across the United States.

Ever since then, I have dreamed about doing the same thing someday.

In high school, I took a biking trip with a small group from St. Francis, Kansas, to Estes Park, Colorado, and back.

I trained for this trip by riding ten miles every day for months, leading up to our departure.

My best day on the trip was the day we did a century ride.

Naturally, the day after, I was exhausted.

When I heard a companion from behind me say she wished our leader would let us stop and rest for a bit, that’s what I did. I stopped and got off my bike with tears of exhaustion streaming down my face.

Thankfully, there was a park ranger with a pickup that our leader talked into taking our four-person group up the mountain to our campsite for that night.

How did James 1:19–27 remind me of this experience?

January 8, 2023January 7, 2023

From Crippled Feet to the Love of God

Several years ago, I developed plantar fasciitis.

I had been pushing myself with lots of walking prior to going on a cruise trip with my husband’s family.

On the last full day of the cruise, my husband and I walked over ten miles in one day.

When I stood up after the evening meal, I could not put any weight on my left foot.

I was still limping the next day when we had to navigate getting off the ship and through the airports to return home.

Once we were finally home and I elevated my feet, I realized both feet were in pain.

For the next three years, I lived in tennis shoes because of this injury. Going barefoot was excruciating.

Thankfully, over time and with a commitment to wearing good shoes and plenty of stretching exercises, I have only occasional flare-ups.

Are you wondering why I’m talking about my crippled feet on a Bible study blog?

January 1, 2023December 31, 2022

To-Do vs Not-To-Do

Welcome to 2023!

My prep for this post took some interesting delays.

First, there was a cat sitting on my computer completely blocking my screen view.

Has anyone ever heard of writer’s block? This was Tink’s block. Giggling.

Second, when I opened my bible study software, it crashed with no hope of resurrection. I have been expecting this to happen eventually since the company that created it went out of business at least five years ago.

After encouragement from my husband, I pulled the trigger to purchase a new study software.

Third, while awaiting the software to download, I took a break to dish up a bowl of soup my husband had prepared. In the process, a small piece of celery landed on the side of my thumb, scalding it badly.

So now I had my hand wrapped in ice, also making it difficult to work on this post.

What is the point of this list of irritations making writing this post a challenge?