Birthing Woes, Canine Terrorists, and a Potluck Podcast

Hey y’all, have a seat, and let’s chat…

I hope your summer has gotten off to a great start. It hasn’t taken long for things to heat up here in the northeast corner of Louisiana. Ironically, yet true to the life of the farmer, we were super late getting our crops planted because of all the rain—and now, we’re laying poly pipe and watering. So are the days of our lives… I dated myself with that tagline, right? Extra brownie points for anyone who can identify its origin.

In other news, the beloved farmer got a new digital camera for my birthday/Mother’s Day. Far as I can see, the only thing it doesn’t do is turn on and start snapping pics by itself. But, then again, there are so many buttons on it, the smart-alecky thing may do that if I turn my back long enough. If I sound a bit touchy it’s because I’m trying to get up to speed on this thing and it’s rather intimidating. If anyone owns a Sony A73 and you’d like to give me a tutorial, I’m wide open. One of the coolest features to me is its ability to send photos and videos to my smartphone and laptop, wirelessly, so look for more activity on my social accounts, including Youtube as I figure it out. I have high hopes of getting to be best buds with it before the summers over and my speaking season heats back up again.

Speaking of, I’m super excited about one of the first events on the calendar next Fall. This Sept 20-21, 2019, in Monroe, Louisiana, Dr. Joneal Kirby will present Faith + Sexuality + Culture, a Heartfelt Ministries conference. Seriously, you don’t want to miss this one. I’m going to have Dr. Kirby on with us soon to talk about it, but until then, here’s a summary from the conference website—“Encouraging and empowering women of God to love others as themselves with integrity inspired by the grace-filled love of Jesus and the grounding of Biblical truth.” This is a discussion we need to be having, and Dr. Kirby is bringing in some powerful speakers to guide us in it. Will Graham, Shannon Ethridge, and Preston Sprinkle will be with us, along with a host of other inspirational and anointed speakers. Oh, and yours truly will also be emceeing. Go to HeartfeltMinsitries.Org for more information and to grab your tickets. I’ll be looking for you to join us here in northeast Louisiana this coming September!

Here’s some more advance news. My next book will be releasing Jan.28^th, 2020! I’ve put my heart and soul into this one, y’all. Stay close for more details.

Let’s see…as y’all may have figure out by now, this is a potluck type of podcast. I’m not scheduling author interviews throughout the summer, but I plan to drop in occasionally with this conversational style. It occurs to me that it’s also a great time to do some Q & A, so drop me a note at the website allthingssouthern.com or by emailing me at tomtom@allthingssouthern.com. Topics? Well, that’s up to you! I’ll take questions on faith, family, writing, publishing, or balancing it all, to name a few off the top of my head! Regular readers and listeners know I’m pretty much an open book, so just keep it clean, and we’ll address as many as we can. Hang tight and I’ll be right back with a Beaux and Hank story!

The All Things Southern podcast is brought to you by Providence Church in Lake Providence, LA., where they want you to know that YOU ARE LOVED!

Now, about that story I promised y’all. If you’re new around these parts, Hank and Beaux are my two canine terrorists. Joking. Kinda. They’re actually totally harmless two-year-old yellow labs, brothers, with hearts of gold.  By harmless, I mean their intentions are good, but did I mention they are horse size huge, with more energy than any dogs I’ve ever known in my life? No joke. Not only was the entire neighborhood thrilled when we installed an underground fence, corralling the lovable brutes may have just saved the beloved farmer and me a spell in the local jail. Our neighbors had been patient, but the boys had worn their welcome plum out with their enthusiasm about chewing anything and everything.

Which brings me to yesterday evening. I was standing at the kitchen window cutting up potatoes for my potato salad. (pic from the outside looking in)

Sidenote, you do know to put just a tad of white vinegar in your tater salad to make it sing, right? Right. Just checking.

Anyway, I looked up to see a mama turtle had crawled up out of the lake and she was about to lay her eggs near the brick patio. I knew what she was up to because I’ve seen it before. My heart stopped for Mama Turtle, for I also knew that she wasn’t aware of the lurking threat, AKA, the canine terrorists.

Sure enough, y’all. They rounded the corner about then and found her there trying to do her business.  It was on, chicken bone. They began harassing the poor girl like crazy.

Y’all, can we reiterate? While she was in labor. I’ve been there. I mean, I didn’t have dogs yapping at my feet, thank you Jesus, but I’ve been in the child-bearing moment and that would have been the last and final straw.

Are you picking up what I’m putting down? I hollered to the beloved farmer for backup. He was in his office trying to catch up on paperwork and he wasn’t immediately up for the rescue. At least not until I explained my sympathy for the birthing mama’s situation. Sweet fellow that he is, the farmer helped me lock up the criminals. Then we retrieved a shovel and took Mama snapping turtle back down to the lake bank, while I explained to her that this was not a good turtle habitat and she needed to crawl up someone else’s lake bank before she got back to business.

Y’all, here’s the thing. The old girl was a mess. Phil put her in the water’s edge and she commenced to running in circles. Seriously. We’ve got video. I was slow to turn my phone on and capture it, but you can at least see her make her last two circles before she finally got her bearings and waddled away.  I do not blame her. Bless it.

If y’all see a Mama turtle with a bite mark out of her shell, (yes, yes, they did), give her my best. But, keep your distance. If she wasn’t a snapping turtle before, she is now.

Southern Comfort

And now, let’s open the word together before we go. John 3:16 is one of the most familiar verses in all of God’s word, but we can’t afford to let the familiarity of it rob us of its beauty and worth.  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Friends, when you feel cold and God seems distant, learn the secret of preaching the gospel to yourself.

Remind yourself that you were lost, alone, and without hope in this world with no way back to the Father until He drew you home, forgave you in Christ Jesus His Son, and sealed you forever by His Spirit. Remind yourself, often and always, that you didn’t earn such lavish affection by any effort of your own and you can’t keep yourself in such gracious unmerited favor by any way of thinking, speaking, acting, or living. You’re here — redeemed, restored, accepted and adored — so breathe in and listen. Listen for His heart beating in yours and fix your eyes on Jesus, God’s gracious revelation. Listen to His Word and aim to live what you hear in actionable audible gratitude.
And then, once you’ve learned the powerful secret of preaching the gospel to yourself, and have owned your need to hear it over and over again, share and share alike, tell as many hungry hearts as you can where true feasting is found.

That’s it for now. That’s it for this week folks. If you’re enjoying the podcast, would you be so kind as to give it a review and share it with your friends and family? Many THX!  Until next time, may the Good Lord bless you and keep you, make His face to shine upon you, and give you peace. This is Shellie with hugs for all~

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