Salty Zebra

  If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown out like a branch and dries up; and such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire and are burned up.   John 15:6  Today’s verse seems scary, but it doesn’t have to be. As a gardener, a vine-dresser, or a plant mom, there are things that must be done to maintain the health of our charges. We looked earlier at verse 2 of this chapter that talks about pruning. A plant has a limited amount of energy, and if it sends it all to branches that are just making pretty leaves, there won’t be enough left for others to bear fruit. Our Heavenly Father, our perfect gardener, knows this. That’s why He prunes out of our lives those things that are not bearing fruit, so that others may bear fully. Zooming out from an individual’s life, God is also concerned with the life of His church.   If a branch breaks off a tree, even if it still looks green, it is dead already. If it does not remain connected to the tree it cannot sur...

 My family will tell you this is one of the most anticipated dates (I call it a holiday 😂) of the year for me! It's usually on my calendar in such a way that I avoid overlapping with any other events. This might confuse you if you know me well because, frankly, I'm not a big shopper. My daughter will tell you it's like pulling teeth to get me to a store with her. What I do love though is finding a good deal! And this day (ok, it's become days now) is one of the best times of the year to score deals. I try to accomplish all of my Christmas and birthday shopping for the year during this event. Imagine getting close to a holiday and not having to stress about gifts because they're already covered! That's the beauty of Prime Day!  The thing is, Prime Day is sort of an exclusive thing. Not everyone  can participate. You've got to be a part of a special club, Amazon Prime Members. Here's the good news, though: You can join the club too! In fact, it doesn'...

  I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me – and I in him – bears much fruit, because apart from me you can accomplish nothing.  John 15:5  Another passage in the Bible ( Romans 11:11-31 ) talks about how we (Gentiles or Non-Jewish people) are grafted into the family of God by Jesus’ sacrifice for us. Grafting is a type of plant propagation or multiplication. Plants reproduce in two ways: sexually and asexually.   Sexual plant reproduction involves the pollen from one flower being transported and coming into contact with the stigma of another flower on the same plant or another plant of its species. This is typically done by pollinators like bees and hummingbirds but can be accomplished by gardeners as well (I had to do this by hand with a Q-Tip when we grew a giant pumpkin). The result of this pollination is some sort of fruit (perhaps just a seed pod) with seeds. The seeds can then be replanted to create more plants.   Asexual plant...

  You are clean already because of the word that I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.   John 15:3-4  Well, we’re a full week into this study and I think it’s high time I finally break down what it means to “Abide in Jesus.” I realize that there is so much more to learn, otherwise there wouldn’t be five more weeks of content, but I wanted to highlight what, exactly, it is that we are learning. I spent some time this morning reading dictionaries and theological posts on this in an attempt to ascertain precisely what it means to “Abide.”   Some of it surprised me, though it shouldn’t have. I have always seen the instruction given by Jesus to “Abide in me,” as a clarion call to go forth and do something. I thought this was a directive for what I was to accomplish. Turns out, it’s something He’s already accomplished! As ...

   One of the first things we did after my husband was laid off last month, was to sit down and take a good, hard look at our budget. For years, if not decades, we've set it up so that it was in tiers recognizing that one day we would not have the income we did then. These tiers were set up to indicate which things were more of a luxury and which were more of a necessity. Some of the first things on the chopping block were streaming services and restaurants, but not everything I originally thought we'd have to lose ended up going after all. While every little bit adds up, these things really were little bits, so next we needed to see where we could make some big cuts. Finally, the part of our budget that has always been more discretionary is the groceries. We had to find ways to get that spending down!   Just in case you're thinking, "Uh-oh, the Salty Zebra's memory really is getting bad! She wrote this post a few weeks ago already." Don't worry. Let'...

  Did you know that you could pay for a cruise with bank points? No, they don't transfer to a cruise line's program, but that didn't stop me!  Ok, if you couldn't tell, I'm pretty excited about this! With the changes in my husband's job situation, our budget has seen some significant changes and I was concerned that I wouldn't get to go on cruises anymore. But thanks to Katie's Travel Tricks , I've learned a great work-around. This won't fund everything  I want to do, but it's a great start and I have hopes to learn and earn more options!  So, as I've mentioned before, you can pretty much always convert your points to cash or use them to pay off charges on your card at a $0.01 per point rate. That's not nothing, and if you've got a million points, that might be a good way to go for you. But I wanted to do more with my points, I want them to work for  me. Enter the Chase Aeroplan card. I had learned about this card over the spring...

  If we say we have fellowship with him and yet keep on walking in the darkness, we are lying and not practicing the truth.   1 John 1:6 Relationships are funny things. You can go through some pretty big stuff together and be ok, but then it’s the little things building up between you that can tear you apart. I’ve struggled over my life with friendships. I haven’t had many, just a few really deep ones. Oftentimes I will have a friend during a really rough season or a tragic occurrence in one or both of our lives and we will be so pivotal for each other in dealing with it. It seems to strengthen our bond and our friendship. But then, for some reason, things change. Little things here and there. It builds up I guess, and before I know it, the relationship changes. With one exception, I can’t tell you when each of my close friendships ended, and with that one, I couldn’t say I understood it in the moment or even saw it coming.   I can tell you for certain that I have car...