The Importance of Teamwork!

 

A big windstorm came through Springville recently, knocking over a Crepe Myrtle tree and breaking limbs on a couple of other trees on our property. It wasn’t anything like the damage done at the River Island golf course though, where about forty trees come down. Even so, Al and I spent hours cleaning up all of the debris. Actually, he did most of the work; but I agreed to wade out in the pond and pull out the branches which had blown down from the old weathered Weeping Willow Tree.

      

Al climbed up on the tripod ladder to saw a large branch which had cracked high up in the tree, while I prayed and tried not to watch!  Then he cut up the branch with his chain saw while I waded out in the water and began raking out long thin willow sticks.

    

 It wasn’t a bad job for a hot day, just wet and muddy! The pond is 12 feet deep out in the middle. I wasn’t quite sure where it started really dropping off and had to be careful where I stepped. In some places the mud was pretty thick, sucking my shoes down, but not enough to suck me down too. No quicksand, thankfully!

      

 Together we loaded the small trailer attached to Al’s riding mower. He made many trips out to the brush pile until all of the willow branches were removed and the path around the pond was clean.

     

 Later, I discovered a deep crack between the two main branches of a maple tree inside the dog run out in the back yard. Al and his friend, Joe, looked the situation over and then decided to cut off the smaller of the two branches. The trunk was still cracked however, giving the men some doubt as to whether the weakened tree would be able to bear the weight of its remaining limbs.

     

 Well, the tree held up for several hours, but while Al and I were eating dinner that evening there was a huge crash in the dog run. We ran outside, worried about the dogs. One of them was standing by his doghouse underneath the roof of the shed, with sawdust on his back. The other one had been lying out in the yard and came running through the mass of leaves when I called his name. Praise the Lord that they were both fine.

      

 We worked until 9:00 that evening cutting up the wood and removing debris from the dog run. Al finished the job the next morning, with the “help” of the two dogs who dragged sticks away from the pile and scattered them around their yard.       

        

 One of the blessings of our marriage is working together as a team, supporting and encouraging one another even when it involves getting dirty! There is a cute commercial on TV of an elderly couple who are talking about their marriage of 44 years. He does the laundry and she cleans.

       

 “Not so bad,” he says. “How much dirt can two people generate?”

       

 Then they get a special mop and discover dirt which had been accumulating over the years in hidden places around the house. They sound shocked… “We didn’t know!” They agree that with the help of the mop they’re good for 44 more years!

      

 Now I’m not comparing the Lord to a mop! However, He has been the center and the foundation of our marriage since the very beginning. Hopefully with our team of three—the Lord, Al and me—we will be “good” for many more years!

     

 “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work; if one falls down, his friend can help him up…A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” Ecclesiastes 4:9, 10, 12b NIV

published in the Porterville Recorder, 8-31-13