Having a happy, cool summer
Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/wrvn/News/4108/
Happy summer to us all ! It’s definitely here - heat index, humidity and mold from the afternoon rainstorms (which I am still thankful for in view of many past summers of drought. )
The rains have brought their share of lightning and thunder. Each new occasion gives the puppies and kitties an opportunity to show how alert and responsive they can be. If I’m in bed or sitting down, the cats curl up on either side, as if to guard me from the pouring moisture and rumbling skies. That is, until the first CLAP ! of lightning. It’s as if a magic wand had been waved across the household: not a cat to be seen. They are now protecting the underside of the bed, the couch, and the floor vents. Later, they’ll return to cuddle in for the duration of the slow, steady, mesmerizing rainfall.
The dogs, herders that they are, “ dog” my steps throughout the house whenever a storm begins to approach. One fluffy companion on either side (luckily we have a wide hallway. )
“ We’ll protect you, We’ll protect you ! ” as they skitter up and down the hall, around the room, into the bathroom, the laundry room and sigh with relief as we settle in a chair, one very warm furry footstool for my left foot, one for my right.
Jeff is on his own when it storms as far as they are concerned.
Actually, he’s usually outside calling. “ Come look at this ! ”
The Corgis are valiant and brave, ears perked up to every rumble coming closer and each downpour which hits the roof. A lightning strike ? Ha-Ha, we laugh at those. After we scrabble the floor with all our many toenails, of course, and sheepishly look up to see if we need to panic or not ? Oh, ok, not. A big sigh and we’re off to sleep, having done our duty once more.
The lightning strikes, I’m sure, have not contributed to our
electrical and wiring problems with our cooling units this year. We are looking at replacement of the 30-year old air and heat system after some continuous humming noises. And we endured some of the hotter days of the last few weeks without our attic fan until it could be repaired.
I grew up in a tree-shaded house in one of the hottest, most humid areas of Arkansas. There was no airconditioning when it was built in the 1800 s with its large, cross ventilating windows, shutters and shades. When I was little we had an attic fan installed and most of the evenings we had to sleep under light blankets because it cooled the huge house so thoroughly.
Here are some suggested steps to cooling one’s house for the summer:
Live in a house with windows in all directions, which open and close, have screens, and (my personal favorite ) are double hung to adjust for catching lower or upper breezes.
Let your house grow up on a tree-shaded piece of property and do everything you can to avoid losing those trees.
If you get to construct your own house, place your windows and doors opposite from each other for natural cross-breezes. This is a phenomenon that happens when the windows and doors are open. Also, install an attic fan. Yes, this means you can’t just blow in your attic insulation; it will have to be sealed. But believe me, it’s a small price to pay for the savings on electricity bills you would receive for central air.
Of course, there are some maintenance tasks a homeowner may encounter:
In a mild summer, when air conditioning will not be needed, locate and clean all free standing fans, from the personal models which hang around your neck (need new batteries ) to the new columnar fan (find its remote control which is not in the handy-dandy slot on top of the fan. )
Run them through their paces and relegate the ones which chatter and turn into bobble-heads when they oscillate to the “ only use in emergency” category. Place the others strategically around reading chairs, kitchen counters, and beds. This may take some family negotiating. Who gets to use the remote control ?
Check windows. Screens - do they exist or have the nylon-net-eating grasshoppers turned them into lace ? Replace screens. Ha, ha. Just try to find the screen spline (much less pronounce it ) and screen spline tool.
This is not, by all means, an exhaustive list (yep, that’s the word I was looking for - exhaustive. ) But one final fan caution. Be sure you take the inside covering off the attic fan vent. Otherwise, the first time you turn it on all you get is a muffled sucking sound and no air circulation. Also, be certain your cats or other crawling varmints haven’t found their way into the attic space. Get them out of the attic, seal it up, then turn on the fan. In other words, count all your cats before you flip that switch.
If the heat becomes intolerable or illness hits your family members, don’t hesitate to employ an air conditioner. Switching between it and your fans can actually be done if someone doesn’t need to turn your house into a freezer.
But once again there are the maintenance tasks. Uncover and clean all floor vents. This means moving furniture from the cold weather room design to the hot weather arrangement. Includes the piano. And possibly rewiring the stereo speakers. You may not have this problem if you’ve gone wireless. That is far in the future for us. Now... When exactly did we build the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves over the vents ?
What a great day we have today. The weather has been so nice and flowers are blooming in everyone’s yards. God is so good, and he is good to us all the time. I have been studying patience.
Be patient with everyone. Do not give place to revenge and give thanks for all things.
God never wants his people to operate with short fuses -- anger, irritability, a cantankerous unforgiving spirit are not the attitudes we as Christians are to display one toward another.
Never repay evil for evil. Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, tells us how turn the other cheek. Jesus intends for us to use control in our responses. A response of discipline. A response that comes from love and understanding. Vengeance is not ours
Paul put it this way in Romans 12: 19: Do not take revenge, but leave room for God’s wrath.
Vengeance in not ours. Revenge, retaliation, retribution is in God’s court and He will repay -- that’s in the Bible.
Early Christians counted it a joy to be privileged to suffer for the cause of Christ. This is the attitude that allowed Paul and Silas to sing at midnight while in a Philippian jail.
Count it all joy when you fall into various trials. Rejoice in the Lord always. I say again, rejoice. A Christian’s life includes prayer. Spirit of God is pictured as tongues of fire in Acts 2. Paul is saying, don’t put out the Spirit... don’t inhibit God’s Spirit working in your life.
Now, I don’t even pretend to know all that Paul may be speaking of here, but I have some ideas, some possibilities I want to share with you. Think with me about what the mission, and the work of the Holy Spirit is.
Jesus said, He will lead us into all truth.
All Scripture is inspired of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, so that the man of God might be thoroughly, completely furnished unto very good work. Paul is saying to the church at Thessalonica and to us: Let the Holy Spirit speak. Don’t quench the word of God. Don’t fail to do right when you know what right is.
James tells us that to know what the Spirit wants us to do and not doing it is sin. The Spirit convicts us of sin.
Well, He will if we will let Him speak to us. If we will agree with Him on what sin is in our lives. Don’t quench the Spirit. Admit our guilt, acknowledge our sins, confess our faults.
Peter said when we don’t quench the Spirit in this way, He is just and will forgive our sins.
Jesus taught His disciples to pray, “ Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. ” Is this our prayer ? Are we willing to allow the Word and God to lead us out of temptation and sin, or will we quench the Spirit ?
Paul in Romans 8: 26 seems to indicate that the Holy Spirit even assists us in our prayer life with utterances we do not understand.
Again, I don’t understand this verse, I don’t have to understand it to believe it or to accept the benefits of its truths. Don’t quince this operation of the Holy Spirit by denying the possibilities.
The Holy Spirit glorifies the Son, glorifies Jesus.
Are we allowing Him to glorify Jesus in our daily walk ?
Paul told us to have the mind of Christ.
We also hear him say, it is not me, but Christ who lives in me. We are to allow Jesus to be formed in us.
Are we glorifying Jesus by allowing the Holy Spirit to work in our lives or do we fight Him all the way ? Do not quench the Spirit. Let Him glorify Christ -- in us, through us, by us.
Paul is saying our responsibility to the word is to hear it, to believe it, to obey it and to tell it to others.
If the direct object of our religion is pointing others to Jesus.
Then we will shun even the appearance of evil. Correct ?
Are you a member of His family ? You can be by faith, repentance and baptism, immersion in water for the forgiveness of your sins.
As a baptized believer, you can become a member of His family.
Walk in love.
------Sue Shipp Ministries, phone 479-502-4509, sueshipp _ outreachministries @ yahoo. com
Pray without ceasing. This doesn’t mean we go around mumbling a prayer. What it does mean is that we have a constant awareness of our fellowship with God.
Have you even been where you felt uncomfortable to pray ? That’s not a good position for a Christian to be in.
A Christian can always find something to be thankful for. Some bad things will happen to us, individually and as a family. We can still be thankful.
Paul is not saying, be thankful for all things, but be thankful in all things.
Quench is usually a word that deals with fire. The Holy