I just pitted two pounds of fresh cherries. I knew there was a reason I liked blueberries better.
Even with a handy-dandy little cherry pitter, it is still quite a chore. You have to do them one at a time, well over a hundred, and sometimes the pit does not come out the first try. You have to fiddle with the cherry until you get it in there just right—so the little plunger will go right through the center. Then there is the clean-up as some of those wayward pits bounce across the counter and floor, staining everything cherry red.
Not worth it you say? You have obviously never had a cherry pie made with anything but canned cherry pie filling! Some things are worth the trouble. Like children. Like marriage. Like living according to God’s rules.
Satan will do everything in his power to make it seem otherwise. He will tell you his reward here and now is greater, like a ready-made store-bought pie. He will tell you that God’s reward is mediocre, like a pie you can have in the oven in 10 minutes with canned filling and refrigerated pie crust. He will tell you God’s reward does not even exist, that there is no such thing as a pie with a homemade crust and fresh cherries—it’s all an illusion. Everyone knows pies come in a box in the freezer case!
But God’s reward is real; it is better than anything this life and that Enemy have to offer. It takes some effort. Sometimes we fail and have to try again. Sometimes people make fun of us. Sometimes we work till our backs ache and our fingers cramp up, but when you put God’s reward on the window sill to cool, everyone knows it was worth it. Even the ones who won’t get to taste it.
Blessed are you when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake. Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, great is your reward in Heaven.
So that men shall say, “Truly there is a reward for the righteous; truly there is a God who judges the earth.” Luke 6:22,23; Psa 58:11
Dene Ward
Even with a handy-dandy little cherry pitter, it is still quite a chore. You have to do them one at a time, well over a hundred, and sometimes the pit does not come out the first try. You have to fiddle with the cherry until you get it in there just right—so the little plunger will go right through the center. Then there is the clean-up as some of those wayward pits bounce across the counter and floor, staining everything cherry red.
Not worth it you say? You have obviously never had a cherry pie made with anything but canned cherry pie filling! Some things are worth the trouble. Like children. Like marriage. Like living according to God’s rules.
Satan will do everything in his power to make it seem otherwise. He will tell you his reward here and now is greater, like a ready-made store-bought pie. He will tell you that God’s reward is mediocre, like a pie you can have in the oven in 10 minutes with canned filling and refrigerated pie crust. He will tell you God’s reward does not even exist, that there is no such thing as a pie with a homemade crust and fresh cherries—it’s all an illusion. Everyone knows pies come in a box in the freezer case!
But God’s reward is real; it is better than anything this life and that Enemy have to offer. It takes some effort. Sometimes we fail and have to try again. Sometimes people make fun of us. Sometimes we work till our backs ache and our fingers cramp up, but when you put God’s reward on the window sill to cool, everyone knows it was worth it. Even the ones who won’t get to taste it.
Blessed are you when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake. Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, great is your reward in Heaven.
So that men shall say, “Truly there is a reward for the righteous; truly there is a God who judges the earth.” Luke 6:22,23; Psa 58:11
Dene Ward
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