Today I want to share an email letter I received from one of my dear friends. Her heart for God and His creation is apparent. The timing of this letter is perfect as Tuesday was Earth Day. Be Blessed, Lynn

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth... God saw all that he had made, and it was very good." (Genesis 1:1, 31)

What better way than to begin my letter to you, my friends about an important Day and time in our Earth’s life. For several years I have made conscience efforts to change the way my family and I treat our Earth. After all it is the only longest living evidence of what our Lord our God has made for his children to inhabit. Knowing this day when we acknowledge and make ourselves aware of the value of our Earth, I have been thinking of what I would write to my children and to you about this year’s Earth Day. Therefore, this year I did something different.

I sat quietly and listened. I listened to the winds that have been blowing, to sounds of the leaves on the trees in my back yard, to water draining down the drains of my lawn, to the birds chirping to one another, to dogs barking at the wind and ultimately I believe in the wind I heard our Creator’s voice. His voice was showing me everything he had created and that yes indeed it was all good!

"If you follow my statutes and keep my commandments and observe them faithfully, I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit." (Leviticus 26:3-4)

So what can I do? Is what I am already doing enough? I hope we are asking ourselves these questions. I hope what I model to my children by the way I live and take care of our own little parcel of Earth they will learn to carry on these habits. Habits which I hope will help save the Earth for future generations.

Gradually over the last three years, I have switched all the lights in my house to CFLs – thank goodness CFLS come in all sizes and shapes now. So even my Dining Room chandelier has CFLs. I switched to Earth-friendly cleaning products by companies such as Shaklee, Seventh Generation and now even Clorox offers an Earth friendly product line. Using detergents that are high in concentration is a great way to save on the impact to our Earth. It helps cut down on the number of plastic containers that will end up in our landfills. These containers do not decompose.

Also, last year our newest addition to our routine at home has been two new trash containers in our home. Our family makes a conscience habit of separating our trash in the house by recycling. We have a can for paper, plastic, tin, foam and anything marked with a recycling symbol and number on it. Another can is for pop cans and bottles. The third can is for waste that we can’t recycle.

This year the newest thing I discovered is recycling my shopping bags. I know.... What a guilt I used to get about always throwing away these plastic bags. As a super busy mom I just didn’t have the time or forethought to put reusable shopping bags in my car to take to the store. Better still, I began to purchase reusable shopping bags. And, I remember to put them in my car to reuse and reuse.

"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:13-14)

"The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the heavens languish together with the earth. The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse devours the earth; its inhabitants suffer for their guilt." (Isaiah 24:4-6)

It is up to us to teach our children how to save our Earth and give their grandchildren a safe and healthy Earth to live on. Our Lord our God has given us his commandments bazillions of years ago in the Bible reminding us to take care of the Earth and if we don’t, there would be consequences. Let’s just equate it to the Father telling us to Clean Up our Rooms or else! ;-) Isn’t that what we tell our kids?

There are so many ways we can make a difference to help make our Earth a better place to live and last for generations to come. I suggest starting slow. Do something that you know can be comfortable and easy for your family. Even if it is just shopping for products that have an earth-friendly sticker on them, organics for instance. Or maybe you just recycle your grocery bags? Heck screw in just a couple of CFLs. Chris and I have noticed in the three years we have been using them, we have saved almost $100 on our electric bill.

Well, I know this is a lengthy letter and I apologize. But I care about you and I want us to always be together on this beautiful planet. I hope you will consider what I have written and if you would like me to help you get started on ways to make a difference, let me know. I have many more ideas and ways that we use here at our home that I am sure we can find that one thing you can do to help save our Earth. :-)

I love you guys and God Bless our Happy Earth!

HAPPY EARTH DAY!!

Kerilyn