Can’t deny fall is on the way. Today was just lovely for sitting out on the porch, a beautiful blue sky, bleached white clouds, the touch of a breeze too weak to ping the wind chime pipes but strong enough to keep the porch pleasant. I perched in the swing eating my breakfast bagel, slapping the flies away, watching the birds and butterflies and squirrels frolic all over the yard. Maybe if I didn’t feed the birds so much they might eat a few flies for me. Been noticing the butterflies seem much bigger this year than usual. I love to watch their slender black legs dance lightly on the brightly colored zinnias, while their watercolored wings open and close in the warmth of the sun. Perfectly beautiful to watch them travel in a lyrical pattern from bloom to bloom in a flower garden. You can hear the musical note of each zinnia if you listen closely as the butterflies land on the blossoms.

My flower garden is looking sad with all the dead sunflowers but the birds are enjoying the seeds, especially the little flock of purple finches. A flock of finches is called a charm but these girls and boys do not have charming manners. The males are so handsome with their dark raspberry crown of feathers but they squabble all day over the bird feeder perches. Lots of juvenile male cardinals on the feeders, the young men dressed in their tapestry quilt vests of orange and yellows and reds, growing their adult plumage, reminding me of Dolly Parton’s coat of many colors. The little downy woodpeckers look like they dressed straight from the dry cleaners with their crisply starched white shirts and immaculate black and white checkered sport coats. They’re beautiful birds.

Looking over at my garden I thought of a quote I read yesterday. “Every flower must go through dirt,” Laurie Jeana Sennett. You think about life and realize we all struggle through the earth’s soil, finding our place to put down roots and grow as we travel through life. Our path is not always clean and sometimes it’s littered with dirt clods but with God’s help we persevere and continue on our path. He knows the direction we just have to have enough faith to follow him through the treacherous parts of life. He’ll never take us in the wrong direction. We may think he’s wrong and leading us astray but through our prayers and thanksgiving we realize he chooses the correct path. I know from experience, sometimes his path is a struggle, and it’s usually not the easiest to walk.

“A stumbling block to the pessimist is a stepping-stone to the optimist.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

And old English proverb states, “A stumble may prevent a fall.” We all walk with Jesus and when we stumble, we are able to get up with the Lord’s help. He lifts us to our feet as we take his hand in faith. Psalms 37:23-24 reads, “The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand.” Every Christian stumbles in their faith but we’re stumbling toward’s God’s grace.

In the Bible a stumbling block is defined as “any person or thing by which one is drawn into error or sin.” We need to live our lives as examples of Christian faith drawing others to Jesus through our words and actions. We need to walk a path of righteousness in our relationship with God and others so when we stumble God will reach out and steady our path. Through prayers and thanksgiving we can turn the rocks in our roads to stepping stones. Obstacles will always be on our paths giving us opportunities to fall. God’s faithfulness will catch us when life knocks us off balance.

“There will always be rocks in the road ahead of us. They will be stumbling blocks or stepping stones; it all depends on how you use them.” — Friedrich Nietzsche