A few days ago we discovered that the Black Walnut tree in our yard had unsightly bumps on the top side of lower-branch leaves. We learned, much to our surprise, that this was due to an infestation of gall mites. Yet the problem had been hidden and unseen from the ground; we only discovered the disease when we trimmed off a low-hanging branch. How deceiving! From a distance, everything looked just fine: thick leaves and abundant growth. Yet our tree had been getting stealthily infected without us even being aware of it. Black Walnut trees are particularly susceptible to gall mites. The problem is exacerbated when there is thick, unpruned foliage accompanied by a lack of rain. The combination of these two factors help the incubating mites to spread as they irritate the lower branch leaves; the ones that get the least amount of rain because of the thick covering of branches above. Not enough air and space between branches, and not enough rain water, help the mites to get a footh...

The mouth speaks what the heart is full of. Anonymous When I was a kid, this little ditty – “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me” – was bandied around. It was just a sing-song rhyme that children repeated. However, years later I realized that this was incorrect. In fact, words sometimes can hurt us much more deeply than physical pain.  We use lots of words every day (20,000 for the average woman; 7,000 for the average man), so using words in harmful ways – or even committing sin through our speech – is virtually unavoidable. God, in his great wisdom, knows this about us, so He provides many Scriptures to highlight the battle we face in choosing to use our words wisely and well. More than 100 verses describe the verbal power we have to curse or to bless; to tear down or to build up.  Using our words properly does not always come easy. We don’t always instinctively make the right choice about what to say, when to say it, and ho...