The Lesson of the Weedeater

Today's blog comes to you courtesy of my Sweet Hubby...kind of. You'll see what I mean as we go along!

Several weekends ago, our youngest son (Matthew) and I were doing yard work. Matthew was mowing and I was trimming and edging using our Weedeater (model TE-475). No, it's not important that you know the model number. But I know it and just felt like sharing that bit of trivia with you. You're welcome!

Anyway, we were in the back yard - working along at a pretty good clip. I was just about done with my trimming (edging was complete) when all of a sudden, I looked down and just saw a mass of green twine. I stopped the trimmer to check it out. Looked to me like I had come to the end of my twine supply and would need to replenish the spool. Which I do not know how to do. No worries I figured...my Sweet Hubby knows how to do it! But I was close enough to being done to call it done for the day and Matthew had finished up the mowing. So we put everything away for the weekend.

Fast forward to the following weekend and guess what time it is? That's right...So I reminded my Sweet Hubby that I needed to have new twine put on the spool and said that if he would tell me how to take it off the trimmer, I would bring it and the twine in to him. He gave me the instructions - "unscrew this nut, pull that..." So into the garage Matthew and I went. OK, I'm looking at this thing and I'm not really seeing a nut. I take off the safety shield so I can get a better look. Well - there's something that looks like a hex nut at the top of the spool. That must be what he was talking about. But good grief - it was so tight I couldn't unscrew it, even with a pair of vise grips. I finally told Matthew, "We're just gonna take this whole thing in to Dad and he can tell us what we're doing wrong." And that's just what we did.

Only instead of pointing to something obvious that we were doing wrong, my Sweet Hubby says, "Sweetheart, the whole end piece is missing. There's a knob that should be here and it's gone. It must have come off somewhere..." Oh good grief. So now the thing is broken because I lost a stupid piece of it.

No biggie, I think. It can't have gone far. It must have come off around the place where the mass of twine came off the spool, right?? Matthew and I conducted a thorough search outside (didn't we, son?) but we didn't find anything resembling a knob, nut, screw or anything else. I'll admit I was a little deflated...

Our trimming and edging has not been done since and it's been weighing heavily on my mind. I'm trying hard to keep up with the yard and that is a part of it. But I also didn't want to have to buy a new trimmer when this one is only a couple of years old and works beautifully. Except - it doesn't - but you know what I mean! Today, we tracked down replacement parts and ordered them. They would be delivered mid-week or sooner. Sweet!

I went out to mow the lawn and my Sweet Hubby decided he would take a look around outside himself to see if he could spot the missing part. **Confession** I didn't see him slip outside. When I finished mowing, I came in and couldn't find him. I searched the whole house. The garage. Closets. Looked out the windows into the back yard. I went back into the front yard...nope, no sign of him. For 10 minutes I looked for him, calling...Honest to Pete, I started thinking "RAPTURE." Honest. I did. What's worse - I was left behind!!!!! Talk about a racing heart! **Confession over**

I found my Sweet Hubby in the back yard. He had somehow slipped by me when I was mowing the front yard - don't ask me how! And even though he spent 45 minutes searching, he came up empty-handed as well. At that point, he re-entered the house via the garage and decided to take a look at the trimmer (he says for "no apparent reason"). Mmmhmmm...

And here's where God was having a big old HAR-DEE-HAR-HAR...there was nothing missing on the trimmer at all. Never had been. That's right...

My Sweet Hubby believes that his vision was purposely blocked the day he looked at it...so that he would spend time outside today. He has been praying for stamina and feels that this was the Lord's way of giving him a "purpose," a "tasking" and the drive, the motivation to do some physical labor. Even in his weakened state. Be careful what you pray for!

Parts order cancelled, I took my now fully functional trimmer outside and set to work. Only to have it run out of twine after 10 minutes....only in my world!

"On the first day you will have a holy meeting; you may do no sort of field-work." Leviticus 23:7

My Sweet Hubby and I wish you a blessed Sunday!