Back in the Saddle by Mark

With a title like "Back in the Saddle" you might think this is going to be about a horse, but I am only going to mention the horse a little bit. After being away from Refuge Ranch for a month and even longer from blogging, everything I have to say is about getting back into a routine.
While we (The Marshalls) were in the United States last month several people commented that we had not blogged for a long time. Thank you for noticing. I always wondered if anyone really reads these, but now I know so you may get a lot more ramblings from me now. The reason for the title of this rambling is that as I was coming inside to write, Joanna was leading Sonya (the horse) with Fatima riding. It is pretty cool to see the kids interacting with each other and the horse. But that is not what this is about.
The most exciting thing we have done since we got home happened last night. We have all gotten back into the routine of life here at Refuge Ranch. Aaron and Joanna working on schoolwork, Lucy teaching school, and me getting the cars and trucks back in shape and ready for the EMMC next week. But last night we got back into doing youth group with the oldest kids here. In July, Lolis turned 14 years old so we welcomed her into the group for her first meeting. One of my favorite games to play with a group is called "This is the salt." It is especially fun when you play it in more than one language. If you are not familiar with the game, everybody stands or sits in a circle and one person starts with a salt shaker and a pepper shaker. Passing the salt to the right and the pepper to the left he says, "this is the salt" to the right and "this is the pepper" to the left. Each person responds "The what?" and he says, "The salt" to the right and "the pepper" to the left. The salt and pepper go around the circle and each time it is passed the questions and answers are repeated all the way back to the person who started them. It gets challenging when they meet in the middle and pass each other. And it was even funnier to listen to last night because we played in two languages. Most of us were switching back and forth from English to Spanish or Spanish to English. We laughed a lot too during the whole game.
As we moved into the Bible study part of our meeting, I showed some pictures of fires and fire damage. We talked about the fact that fire can be either good (used to cook, heat, light or power) or bad (extremely damaging).
Then we related the fire to ourselves and how what we say can be like fire, either destructive or helpful and encouraging. There a many times when we don't realize the power of our words. But if we think about how it feels when people speak nicely to us versus when some one is harsh, we begin to realize the importance of what we say and how we say it. We all remember times when we were hurt by something somebody said, as well as times someone's words were great encouragement.



I tried to get the kids to look into their mouths and down their throats with a mirror so they could see from where their words come, but nobody would open their mouth for the mirror. They were all smart enough to know that what we say comes from the attitude of our heart and they did not want to look goofy trying to see down their throats. We can learn a lot about people simply by listening to what they say and how they say it. The same goes for how people can know what we are truly like.

The challenge for the week is based on Ephesians 4:29:

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

Our challenge is to say something nice to everyone at Refuge Ranch everyday this week. Join us if you are up to the challenge.

Do it God's way - Watch what you say!