On one recent day, the word DOMINION popped in my head, and I have not been able to get it to leave. It’s a good word. I’m glad it came to me, and I’m learning to take advantage of it.

It started with eggs. My husband takes care of our chickens and collecting and washing their eggs. We have a drawer reserved in the refrigerator with trays for the eggs. I’ve been sick for a few weeks and the members of the family that would normally take eggs had not been coming around because of the contagion. The eggs piled up. My husband started packing them in egg cartons and placing them in every available space. He took over my sparkling water drink holder. He took over the cheese bin. There were stacks and stacks of eggs. I couldn’t get groceries… there was no where to put them.

And that is when that word — DOMINION — popped in my head. I thought… I need to take dominion over my refrigerator. The eggs have to go. It was getting impossible to even tell how old they were, and I never want to give anyone a carton of eggs that are not the very freshest.

We emptied out all the egg cartons and started over. I washed all the egg trays, cleaned the whole refrigerator, and I made a rule. If the eggs don’t fit in the egg drawer, they need to go to the compost pile. Now that is a hard rule with egg prices as they are, but I had to take dominion — for my peace and sanity.

Now I know… as soon as the eggs start piling up again, my husband will forget the “new rule” and eggs will start to show up in the cheese bin and the drink holder. But I’ve engrained that word, dominion, in my brain, and those eggs will mysteriously be slipped out the back door to the compost pile, in the dead of night.

The next area I had to take dominion over was with the cats. Last year, I did a post of redoing my front porch with peel and stick tile and added some painted porch rockers. And then the cats came. I claim only four of them. My oldest grandson says I have 29 and counting. The chairs weathered, the paint was peeling off, and the cushions were covered in cat hair.

I refuse to wash such nasty cushions in my washer.

I thought… I guess I need to get some paint, repaint the chairs, toss the cushions and buy more. But what would I be doing it for? No person can sit in a filthy chair full of cat hair. Then that word popped into my head… dominion. I decided I was not going to spend another dime on those chairs for the cats. In fact, the chairs and the cushions all needed to go. I have four beds for four cats on the front porch and that is all we need. The porch is so much easier to hose off. Here is a picture after hosing it off this morning.

I wintered over a planter of geraniums in my hobby greenhouse and pulled them out to add to the porch. Last year they bloomed an ugly shade of very dark red. When you winter over geraniums, the stems become gnarled and ugly looking, and the best thing to do is to take cuttings and restart them. But, I hated the color. And dominion came to my rescue once more. I dumped the old geraniums in the compost, and I bought one pretty pink and white variegated geranium. I took one cutting off of it and pressed it into the dirt. As they grow I’ll take another cutting and root it to fill up the container for the summer. I have an antique baby bathtub on the end of the porch for these flowers.

The next area of dominion was the garden table and umbrella. I use the table to hold drinks, seeds, vegetables, and for periods of rest when working in the garden. Each year I put an umbrella in the center of the table for shade. And each year, no matter how we position it into place, the umbrella blows out during wind or storms and ends up in one of the garden beds, or in the frog pond, with the table and chairs turned over. It has blown over, even when closed down.

So this year, I decided to move the table into the natural shade of the peach tree, and forgo the umbrella.

The original place where the table set, with its new landscaping.

Here is the table under the peach tree. I recognize the fact that I might occasionally get a small peach falling on my head. But one small peach to the head is worth it to not have the umbrella blowing across the garden and tearing up my beds.

I know you’re getting the picture of how to take dominion over areas of your life that you need to gain control over. So I’ll leave you with only one more.

Here goes…

My toilet seat was getting old and stained. So I sprayed it with dawn power wash and left it soaking. That stuff is so strong, it took the paint right off. So I decided to put some leftover primer on the seat rim, and use a sticker to cover the top of the lid.

Can you guess what kind of sticker I used?

My history with cats is a running theme in our family.

I’ve decided to go with the flow and make a joke of it.

…. My only other problem was, I could never find a convenient time to finish painting the inside rim. And the other day when I cleaned it, I noted the primer was now coming off.

I ordered a new lid today from Amazon. It had been reduced from $29.84 to $17.37. Now that’s a great price for peace of mind. And… its the kind of lid… you can turn both locks at the back and completely remove it for cleaning.

I LOVE DOMINION!!!

God does too… He said, “Let us make man in our image, and after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Genesis 1:26 (ESV)

And..

“You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet…” Psalm 8:6 (ESV)

“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 (NKJV)

What do you need to take dominion over?