Friday, February 7, 2014

Lessons- From Squirrels?

This squirrel was jumping and climbing........

 They move so fast......gathering nuts in the late summer and fall......flitting here and there other times of the year, whether building a nest or looking for food or just to entertain themselves.

They like to chew on the patio furniture and they leave many tooth marks from their chewing....

We gather and put out hedge apples around our foundation in the fall- it helps to repel spiders and it really seems to work.......BUT the squirrels LOVE them and shred them all over the yard, making a big mess.



The Jump............................


It was amazing to see him in mid-air - not hanging on to anything. What a feat!



Afterwards, he perched on this cut off branch for a while and just watched.

I do enjoy the squirrels and their antics......they are amazing climbers and acrobats..............but they also like to steal my tomatoes. chew on our plastic benches and chew on Christmas lights that we put on the deck; therefore, we have great problems. So, all summer we chase them out of the yard as well as other times of the year when they are being destructive........but they seem to like to come back...........and I take pictures.......


 See this tomato thief? They take many of the tomatoes - green and red......sometimes right on the day they are ripe enough for me to pick and feed to my family. One day, I checked the big tomato in the late morning and it looked SO good, but the sun was out, so I decided to leave it for about 3 more hours to ripen a bit more in the wonderful heat of the sun.....and 3 hours later, the squirrel had beat me to it!

 
They are just doing what squirrels are meant to do.....and they take no care for how their actions affect those around them.....so, we learn to live with their quirks and deal with them - like trying to keep them from taking my tomatoes! I know of other people who struggle with them getting into an attic and doing great damage or chewing wires, causing house fires. So, although they look fun and cute......they need to be blocked out of certain areas to prevent damage. They need to be controlled.

I sometimes see people who remind me of the squirrels - so busy, happy, scampering about and having fun, but not caring about the damage they leave behind them with those who have to deal with the hurt from sarcastic comments, jobs left undone, careless behavior and more. They can be the life of the party and be admired, but how sad if they are uncaring and hurtful also.

I want to be careful to be busy and industrious in my days, but I do not want to be careless and self centered. I want to use words that help, heal, minister and lift up others, not those words that tear down and I do not want to focus so much on me that I cease to care about those around me. I want to be remembered for the ways that I am like Christ, for the ways I show His love and kindness.......not for ugly actions and attitudes. Lord, help us to remember to be cheerful and hardworking, but also to care about others even more than ourselves.

I hope you are having a great day..........


 
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My Sunday Photo


25 comments:

  1. Thank you. The Lord gives so many good reminders for me to learn the lessons I need to learn. Have a great day. :)

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  2. Beautiful photography! Your perspective on squirrels is fresh and interesting-to me they are usually just pesky.Your connection to being hardworking and not self-centered worked well! Visiting you from the Weekend Brew!

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    1. Thank you for the kind and encouraging words....there are so many things to learn from God's creation all around us. Thank you for visiting. :)

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  3. Hi! I'm a new follower of your blog. I love your squirrel pictures. I love your story and lesson from God. :)

    Blessings,
    Lynn
    Living Free in Christ

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    1. I'm so glad you visited today....thank you for being an encouragement to me. :)

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  4. What a great lesson to be learned.
    I guess there's a lot we can learn from God's animals.

    I hope your having a good week..

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    1. There is so much to learn from God's creation.... and I am having a good week... thank you so much for visiting and for being an encouragement. :)

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  5. It was not until I moved to the country that I really had a chance to observe the squirrels in action. They are very entertaining to watch, followed you here from Teach Me Tuesday.

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    1. They can be funny.... but they can also be a nuisance. :) It is nice that you were able to move to the country! Thank you for visiting. ... nice to have you.

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  6. What a great lesson! I love how we can learn from all of God's creation. Great photos, by the way :) Thanks for sharing - hugs!

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    1. He does give lessons in so many ways. Thank you for the encouragement - I appreciate it. :)

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  7. great way to show how we can be rude when we put ourselves as #1 instead of Christ

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  8. Great photos! They can be very entertaining, but I am not crazy about squirrels, they have chewed through outside lines and disrupted my internet service, not once, but twice!
    Have a wonderful weekend.

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    1. I agree..... I am not either... they can be quite damaging and a bit nuisance... but I still take pictures of them. :) Thank you for visiting... I hope you also have a great weekend. :)

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  9. What a great post, thanks for the reminder and encouragement to be careful with how we treat people and to be hardworking. We don't have squirrels in Australia but we do have possums and they can cause damage too, but we don't get many where we live. Thanks for sharing this post at Good Morning Mondays. Blessings

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    1. Thank you ... it is so nice to hear from you.... we have possums also, but not too many, thankfully because they are not very pleasant animals... but squirrles? We have WAY too many... and I am already seeing them working on nests in the bare trees. sigh. So glad you stopped by. :)

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  10. Very beautiful. I like to see Squirrels through my windows and think that they'll make a good photo. I'd wish I could open my window and snap a photo before they run away. I liked reading the lesson you've learnt from the squirrel's way of life. We can learn so much from all God's creatures.

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    1. Yes, we can learn from God's creatures... so many lessons...... the squirrles are quick.. and hard to photograph. Thank you for visiting...and for your comment. :)

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  11. I love the picture of the tomato thief! So cute!

    Thanks for linking up with Green Thumb Thursday! I'd love it if you'd stop by and link up with us again this week!

    ~Lisa

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    1. Thank you... that year, I was not at all happy with those guys!!! They took green ones and red ones...and really reduced out harvest... but I loved the pictures. :) Thank you for stopping by.

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  12. I could watch squirrels all day long

    Thank you for linking up

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    1. They are quite entertaining! :) Thank you for the party. :)

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  13. Amazing photos, outs never sit still long enough to take a photo

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    1. I encounter that also... and I have lots of out of focus pictures that didn't turn out because the squirrel moved so quickly. Some of the many turned out well, though, and that was fun. :)

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