It’s Monday morning, and John, (Certain Man’s Amish Friend) is here to work on the living room that we are in the middle of remodeling. He is pleasant, easy to have in the house, and really good at what he does.
His presence in the house reminds me of a situation that Daniel overheard over a decade ago when he was doing the plumbing for a housing development near Magnolia. The developer was an old Nazarene minister who had fallen from grace, made many, many decisions that caused untold grief in the community, but came back to The Father with all his heart in his later years, deeply regretting the havoc he had wreaked with his foolishness and sin.
Reverend Bailey hired Amish workman whenever possible, and they were comfortable in his presence. (Sometimes he lamented that they didn’t appreciate his generosity and benevolence. He often gave free food, and was prompt in paying them, but, for some reason, the fresh produce from their gardens that he so greatly desired, almost never showed up.)
This particular day, some of his Amish workmen were in a squabble of some sort. It was getting more and more heated. It seems it happened often enough that Rev. Bailey was troubled by their lack of Christian charity towards each other, and finally decided to intervene.
“Come on, now, Brothers,” he said with gentle amiability. “Let’s remember. It takes more than growing whiskers to get to Heaven.”
Delaware Grammy 
You made me chuckle this morning!
Pretty good, pretty good!
You must show us what you have had done in your living room. Major stuff?
))smile((
@Dominie – Pretty major. More major than we had originally planned — everything stripped down to dry wall, all the carpet and tile torn up, new windows and door, new carpet, new curtains. We hadn’t changed anything since we moved in almost 22 years ago, and this old woman would have been happy to keep it that way. I’ve been overruled, and so we are doing a major overhaul. We gave away almost all the furniture and table lamps to a needy family, gave the curtains to our “almost a daughter, Lupe, in Guatemala, and threw away the poor, old, smelly, stained carpet. I have a terrible time with things like this because I hate change, and I don’t know what to do with things. I have a nephew, though, who married a lovely girl who has her degree in interior design and she is helping me make some of the decisions. I will post pictures one of these times.
With a designer’s help you will have a lovely new room! You will love having changed!
can’t wait to see it. I think we are getting a new kitchen. Now I will have to admit, I’m giddy to think about it!
Please post more of this. I largely enjoyed it.