Well, spring is here.  The time has come for that spring yard clean-up.  The
branches and twigs laying all over the yard amongst all the leaves that fell
late last fall--too late to get picked up before last winter set in.  Quite
a chore!--the first cleanup of spring.  This year, I thought I would try to
find an easier way, so I bought one of those leaf blowers.  This thing
creates a wind of 200 mph according to the advertising!  I thought, "Wow!
That's like the force of a strong F3 tornado!  Those leaves don't stand a
chance!"

And so I went, armed with my "tornado", into the battle.  Those leaves were
flying everywhere!  All I had to do was point my blower at them and in an
instant they were blown away.  But then I noticed a few leaves that weren't
moving.  How dare they!?  So I aimed at them again and hit them with another
blast of my tornadic force--yet they still would not budge!  With greater
determination, I moved closer, and with the nozzle right in front of them,
almost touching them, I blasted those stubborn leaves with all the force my
blower could muster!  Then, as the last of the single leaves cleared away, I
saw why these particular leaves seemed to have the strength to resist my
most determined attack--these few leaves were not alone.  They were still
attached to a branch, and the branch is what gave these few leaves their
stability and strength to resist by holding them together as a group.

We, as Christians, are much like those leaves, aren't we?  If we spend time
everyday in prayer to our Heavenly Father--if we will regularly and
continually spend time in the study of His Word--then we will remain
connected to the vine, as those "strong" leaves did.  And no matter how
powerful a wind force (temptation) the enemy aims at us, we will have the
stability and strength to resist.  We become weak, as those single detached
leaves, when we start to stray and try to go it alone.  We become so busy
and engrossed in matters and cares of this world, we begin to miss a prayer
time, or our Bible study time becomes shorter and less frequent.  Before we
know it, we have fallen away so far that we have become detached from the
vine.  And the enemy knows the exact moment when that occurs--it's exactly
what he's been waiting for!  That's when he comes at us full-force to blow
us away.  [Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking
for someone to devour. -1 Peter 5:8].

Brothers and sisters, nothing is more important than keeping our connection
to our heavenly Father fresh and alive!  We do that by not compromising our
Bible study time and prayer life.  Time spent with Father God each and every
day should be our number-one priority, and never compromised, no matter what
this world throws at us.  I pray that we may keep our priorities straight,
and remain as one of those strong and stubborn leaves, still attached to the
vine, so that we may hold fast and not budge when our adversary comes to try
to blow us away!

Robert Williquette