September Is Too Late For Any Yard Sale Success
Ed, my neighbor next door, has been getting cranked up for harvesting and bubbling over with impatience about anything and everything. “You should know better than to hold a yard sale in September,†he told me last week. According to my neighbor, September yard sales are a bust, and not only will no one come out but people won’t even take stuff away if it is free. All I could say was that Ed could be right, and he, of course, assured me that he was, and I would learn the hard way. Weather dictates the willingness of yard sale shoppers to come out. I told Ed that those holding September yard sales need to pray and hope.
“Prayer and hope are just as valuable as spit against a tornado,†my neighbor informed me. “Common sense needs to replace prayer, and good planning is better than hope. People cannot expect prayer and hope to make up for poor planning and dumb decisions,†Ed said.
Knowing my neighbor was getting like a dog that will not quit barking, I knew that I had to distract him. “Will you be at our yard sale?†I asked him. “No,†he said. So I quickly added, “Then it doesn’t make any difference when we have a yard sale?†“It will matter to you when no one comes,†my said to get in his last word.
September is often a mixed bag of weather that spoils harvest plans and any last attempts at yard sales. Hope in any month might get focused on, daily events, of what we may hope to accomplish. Prayer stretches from the immediate to the long term. What cannot do today may still get done in a week or two if circumstances change. It is God who changes circumstances for the better and gives to us hope, when our circumstances get worse. That is one of the reasons we pray to God.
My neighbor is not alone in his suspicion, of prayer. God promises that He hears the prayers of those that trust him. We need to trust God to receive from Him. The Bible tells of Jesus helping many because they were sure he could help them. They were sure Jesus had the power and authority to do so. One example was the Roman centurion who came to Jesus for help because his servant was ill and suffering and near death. When Jesus offered to come to his house to heal his servant, the centurion was so confident and trusting in Jesus he said, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.†His servant was healed by Jesus in response to Centurion’s request. We pray in honor and respect of God as our helper able to help us and our neighbor in our physical and spiritual needs.
We easily make our wants and needs known to God, our griefs and sorrows, but we may not pray in thankfulness to God as readily. Do we pray in thanksgiving for the many blessing we receive each day as the use of our five senses; sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste?
