{"id":18339,"date":"2023-07-13T04:47:27","date_gmt":"2023-07-13T09:47:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=18339"},"modified":"2023-07-13T04:47:31","modified_gmt":"2023-07-13T09:47:31","slug":"the-ugly-creepy-and-yucky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=18339","title":{"rendered":"The Ugly, Creepy, and Yucky"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As a child, I enjoyed playing with doodle bugs aka roly-polies. They were harmless, but, here where I live, they are annoying. They are found creeping along in our breezeways and even carpeted areas. I saw our community\u2019s housekeeper sweeping them into her dustpan, saying \u201cYuck!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Annoyances. Aggravations. Those little bugs are trying to take over our space. I don\u2019t know why they come in because they are \u201cdirt\u201d bugs! But a few days ago, one of our residents gave us an eye-opening lesson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The actual name of those creatures is Oniscidae. We may find them under a brick or a damp object (and our floors). We may have felt disgusted and wondered why God even created such a nuisance. But He always has a reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Oniscidae is a subgroup of isopod crustaceans whose function is to remove harmful heavy metals from the earth such as mercury, cadmium, and lead. They contribute to the cleansing of soil and groundwater. Don’t damage them by spraying pesticides! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless of their creepy crawly characteristics, the roly-poly is guaranteed to help “purify” your garden soil if you let them.<\/p>\n\n\n

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You\u2019re welcome! It makes perfect sense — especially when we consider the wonder of all of God\u2019s creation as being good. That\u2019s what is said in the Book of Genesis. On each day of creation \u201cGod saw that it was good\u201d (Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25). And then, on the sixth day of creation when He created humanity, He saw that it was VERY GOOD!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if it is all good, why is so much of it just so\u2026 gross? It\u2019s easy to find God in the beautiful parts of creation, but I\u2019ve learned that even the gross things like bugs and creepy-crawly creatures can teach us about God. What is gross to us, could be the very thing that opens our eyes to beauty \u2013 like the gross caterpillar that turns into a butterfly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The saying \u201cBeauty is in the eyes of the beholder\u201d must be how God sees us. He sees beauty and usefulness in us!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The moms whose seniors just graduated and are leaving home to go to college may feel that her usefulness is over. And, speaking of \u201cseniors\u201d — those of us in our \u201csenior\u201d years, may feel the best of our lives are over, too!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But DON\u2019T GO THERE! As long as there is breath in our bodies, we have purpose. We are packed full of promise and possibilities! We have a wealth of knowledge. I\u2019m OK with aging, but I refuse to act old. I will laugh\u2026.a lot! I will be thankful for life still on this side of heaven. I refuse grumpydom!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Psalm 92:14 says \u201cThey will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green!\u201d I\u2019m counting on that!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Funny thing, I\u2019m discovering that when I look up close to what I see as ugly in my life, and I examine the fabric \u2013 the loose ends, the tangled fringe, the discolored areas, and torn threads \u2013 I see beautiful! Like the dead flowers left too long in a vase, I remember the precious gift from my friend. Even when I see my laundry basket overflowing, I remember the rich full family weekend. The ugly changes to beautiful!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can\u2019t help but wonder \u201cDoes the ugly in my life look beautiful to God?\u201d Is that why God stays so close to us? Lord, help us to be so close to You, that we are your BEAUTIFUL hands and feet on this earth \u2013 being difference makers in our world! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a child, I enjoyed playing with doodle bugs aka roly-polies. They were harmless, but, here where I live, they are annoying. They are found creeping along in our breezeways and even carpeted areas. I saw our community\u2019s housekeeper sweeping them into her dustpan, saying \u201cYuck!\u201d Annoyances. Aggravations. Those little bugs are trying to take…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27313,27310,27311,27312,1],"tags":[27308,13648,11987,12051,18495,1210,27309,1769,27279,27285,27281,18172,40,27283,27282,27278,19519,27280],"class_list":["post-18339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annoyances","category-bugs","category-doodle-bugs","category-roly-polies","category-uncategorized","tag-aggravations","tag-annoyances","tag-annoying","tag-beautiful","tag-beauty-in-the-eyes-of-the-beholder","tag-blog","tag-bugs","tag-christian","tag-creepy","tag-crustacean","tag-doodle-bugs","tag-genesis","tag-inspiration","tag-oniscidae","tag-roly-polies","tag-ugly","tag-very-good","tag-yucky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18339"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18354,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18339\/revisions\/18354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}