POWER BLOG

Link: http://www.arborday.com/

A couple of years ago, I bought a few fruit trees from the National Arbor Day Foundation. Among them were: A black cherry tree, a plum tree, two pear trees, (because my wife said she likes pears) and a "Peach Tree". They were all dwarfs.

The next year I noticed that the peach tree took right off! I mean, whatever is in the soil here, peach trees seem to love! (at least that one did) Little peaches started growing and everything looked really good.

The peaches got just a bit bigger than golf balls, then the tree started to die. So I got on the net and started to find out why. It turned out to be "peach tree bores". Never heard of them? Don't feel bad, neither did I.

I found out that there is this weird looking fly (or whatever it is) it resembles a wasp or flying ant that has black and white stripes around it's abdomen. Sure enough, I started seeing them in the yard for the first time.

They lay their eggs on the base of the peach tree. The little buggers hatch and then bore into the tree, killing it! The evidence is little beads of sap around the base of the tree where they penitrated it.

I thought, what a shame, it seemed to want to grow really well here. That happened last year. So, on a whim, I decided to jump in the car yesterday, and drive to Home Depot to look at trees. I got there about 30 minutes before closing time and went to the garden section.

The funny thing was, there was only one fruit tree left and it was, (you guessed it) an Elberta Peach Tree "and" it was a dwarf. (literally, the only fruit tree "period" on the whole property) I thought Wow, this must be a sign, so I bought it.

The cool thing was, the one that died was only 2½ feet tall and a little bigger around than a pencil when I bought it. This one was taller than me, and at least as big around as a silver dollar! (the old kind, not the new ones) Also, it only cost 7 or 8 dollars more than the old one.

I learned my lesson and bought some insecticide to spray the trees with to protect them. (I hope) I know I've blogged about it before, but it couldn't help but remind me of prayer and praying for protection.

As Christians, we too have problems pop up from time to time. The old problems, we've learned from, and pray to God for protection against them, and God is faithful to protect us. However, Satan truly does look for new ways to get a foot in the door and cause strife in our lives.

Just like the peach tree bores. I never prayed for protection against them or took any precautions, because I'd never even heard of a peach tree bore until it was too late. Well, I'm wiser now, and will guard against that.

Be on your guard. Satan is constantly looking for something with which to bore into your life. If we don't know what that is, we can't pray against it, but, sometimes, if we stay close to God, remain quiet long enough and just listen, God will warn us against attacks that wait around the corner. Then we pray, and God listens.

As far as peaches go, I like them. I don't crave them or make a special trip to the grocery store at 3 AM to get some, But they're very enjoyable when there here. On the other hand, praying for protection "is" something I'd roll out of bed at 3 AM to do.