Today I have evidence that reading someone else's blog can be totally inspirational! (I have one friend in particular who refuses to read any blogs at all-There's really no good reason for it either). Maybe if she did she would have a dinner like this!
So I had already pulled out the chicken: I had a hanker'n for Chicken Pot Pie.
I had a bit of down time today, so I was reading my friend's blog. She changed it a while back and I hadn't had a chance to look at it yet, so I was catching up a little. Well low and behold, what should I stumble across but Chicken Pot Pie - in homemade bread bowls no less! DELICIOUS! I was inspired - and here's the result:
I know, right? We just had the weekend and so I should be well-rested and ready to take on the week. Well, I'm not. Or I wasn't anyways. And then for some reason I just got motivated. Here's what happened:
Butter Tarts - there's no escaping the brown sugar. However, once in a while I indulge.
Beer Bread - I use spelt flour and honey
And of course some home-made Birtch Farm's apple pie. Larissa decided on a star for Landon and to remind us that there is a special surprise in the middle of the apple, also reminding us that Christmas is coming! (Yes, I said it: Christmas. Christmas. Christmas. Christmas.)
So what really happened? I'll be honest - it's that sweet little reminder named Josie Stahle. I'm still in awe of God's grace and goodness in giving her life and blessing us all with it. Now I know that I will never forget the words from her wise Daddy just days after her birth: "We've sure learned to take things moment-to-moment and appreciate every one. You know it makes you stop and think about all the stupid things we say, like: 'I just want this day to be over';'this day was so long, thank God it's over';'I hate Mondays'. You know, whatever it is we say, we really take life for granted".
Wow huh? I can't tell you how often I hear those words now as I catch myself not living in and appreciating the moments. How precious and fleeting our time here really is.
We all know we're mortals; we just like to pretend we're not. But let's stop pretending. Let's live out today, enjoying it, making the most of it; whatever that means to you.
All too often I am hearing a child being told they are a "good boy" or a "bad boy" and something in me cringes.
I know that most of us say things without realizing what it is we're actually saying, believe me, I know I do it all the time! And it's an area I'm working on. Mommies and Daddies: please take my encouragements and hear my love for you and your child!
I know it's not intentional that a lot us parents qualify our child's identity with their behavior, and the truth is that not everyone has an ECE worker for a mother (like yours truly). I credit this sensitivity to her! So in case no one else will ever tell you, please let me!
When your 2 year old isn't listening to you and runs in the opposite direction he is NOT a "bad boy". Yes, his behavior is disobedient and you need to correct him but that's our job as parents, to teach that character of obedience.
When your 3 year old hits another child for not giving them the toy or cookie they want, she is not a "bad girl". Her behavior is certainly bad, but your child is not.
When we call a child bad we are telling them something about who they are as a person. They aren't bad, they are kids and they need to learn and it is our responsibility and privilege to teach them. So teach them well parents. Teach them that they are loved and adored. Teach them that you love them always and that they can be secure in your love. When they behave badly, tell them they are behaving badly but please, please don't tell them that they are bad. Reward good behavior and teach them that bad choices and bad behavior has consequences.
A Pastor that we respect says, "Choose to sin; choose to suffer". Wise.
We tell our kids, "Choose to obey or choose a consequence". They choice is theirs. That empowers them and tells them "Son, I know you're smart." Nagging and threatening our kids tells them we think they're stupid because we have to keep telling them over and over again to do something, or not to do something - and it just frustrates us and them! (Thank you Dr. Kevin Leman for that one)
Let me put it this way: If you didn't meet expectations at your workplace, and your boss came to you and said, "John, you've made some bad business choices. You're workplace is a mess. John, you are a bad person". .... that just doesn't even make sense, does it? Everything in you would probably cry out 'injustice! I am still a good person!'. Your little Johnny, and mine. might feel the same way only they don't have the years or the wisdom to know that, and so they WILL believe they are bad - especially if their Mommy and Daddy are telling them that they are.
Anyways, I'm always learning so much and realizing so many areas where I fall short. I hope I never sound like I think I know it all, because I sure don't. I really want correction in my life, and I really will take all the advice I can get to be the best Mommy I can be! My heart is only to share with you the wisdom I've received and pray that your parenting experience will be a joyful one!
You can never do it all and you can never please everyone!
This is the story of my life: Trying to do it all and trying to please everyone (all at the same time, no less). An impossible task, I know. Am I that foolish that I just keep attempting it?
The one who ends up the most upset when I fail is always me.
I think I have some serious people-pleasing issues I need to deal with.
Any good resource suggestions? I'll take all the help I can get!
If you know us at all, or have been reading this blog then you've probably figured out that we've been in a season of really exploring our journey in life, and our journey with God and faith.
There have been many ups and downs, frustrations and disappointments, but also many liberties and victories. None of which have come easily or without some degree of cost. While we are pursuing God's will for us and learning to live in Father's love, I just want to take a minute to thank you.
To those of you who have been patient with us (and perhaps especially with me) while we search out our hearts, a great big THANK YOU! Sometimes it's hard to walk with people, especially "crackpots" (as one friends like to refer to us!), who are perhaps too honest about their struggles.
Thank you to those of you who have loved us through the struggles as we wrestle with asking uncomfortable questions.
Thank you to those of you who have not judged us as we've been working things out.
Thank you to those of you who have encouraged us to not just follow a system of religious duties and obligations but to seek out what God is teaching us and whispering to our hearts.
Thank you to our friends who have helped us feel liberated to say "no" sometimes, and to not operate out of guilt or manipulation.
Thank you to our dear friends who have challenged us to live in freedom and question us in "the way we've always done it".
And thank you to those of you who know us enough to know our heart's desire is only to pursue Christ and never to be critical. Even if we have been at times, it is never our intention, so thank you for knowing and trusting that God will reveal that to us as we seek him.
And to those who have affirmed our passions and desires and encouraged us to follow them: THANK YOU!
I was thinking a lot yesterday as I was having the battle in my mind caring about what others were thinking of me/us (that's a blog for another time!), that it's funny how as "Christians" we celebrate when people of other faith question their beliefs and religion, but when we ourselves ask questions that challenge the system that we've established, it puts people's backs up.
Look, we're all messed up to some degree or another. We all have our hangups and our struggles. None of us are perfect. Especially me!
Let's love each other by loving each other, even when it's uncomfortable.
I hope you got something out of my last post. It was part of a powerful, liberating read for me. I'm still reading the book I took that out of, actually, that is just in the beginning. So I will be sure to write more as I reflect. I won't continue copying the whole book, because, well, that would be illegal I think!
I am on this journey and feel so close to finally "getting it" about God's love. Things I've always known in my heart and spirit but just wasn't able to express or put into words. Probably because it's just something you(I) need to experience not just know, or believe, or be taught. As Christians I feel we're often handed this recipe card, so-to-speak, on knowing God, hearing from Him and being loved by Him. And therein lies the crux of the problem: I'm taught and believe that those things are things to be found, acquired, learned. When in fact they are just there already, not to be attained or achieved. See, it's hard to put into words, let's just say I'm finally learning how to live loved.
But here are some thoughts and notes on the follow-up to my previous post. If you haven't read it, maybe you should.
DO I HAVE TO?
In my observation, those who seek to follow God only because they don't want to go to hell never discover how incredible a Father he really is. They see Christianity as an onerous burden and don't want to do one bit more than they absolutely must.
When someone is struggling with desiring something that Scripture marks out of bounds for the believer, we ask what we should do. If we/they are told what the Bible seems to say, do we ever feel somewhat disappointed, as if to look for some sort of loophole? I mean, so many people who have been raised with religion want to find a way to have what they want and not end up in hell.
"Do I have to stay in this marriage if I don't want to go to hell?"
"Do I have to forgive the person who hurt me, to be saved?"
"Do I have to give up this habit, to be saved?"
*How do you answer those kind of questions? They are totally unfair. If you say yes, you can do what you want then you empty the cross of it's power by substituting human effort. If you say no, people will use it as an excuse to indulge in a false notion of what it means to live in God.
These kinds of questions actually reveal how far removed Christianity has become from its central purpose. Instead of desiring to walk in friendship with him, we are only preoccupied with securing his goodies. It's his blessing we want, not him!!! How painful that must be for him. It would be like inviting your adult child over for dinner. He hesitates a moment. It's obvious he'd rather not come, but before he answers he wants to know something, "Mom, I guess I could come but I've got other things I'd like to do. Will you write me out of your will if I don't come?"
What answer can a mother/father give to that question? None would suffice since the question misses the whole point of relationship. True, God has the best goodies in the universe, but the person who seeks those without desiring to know him misses out on the real life of the kingdom.
That is exactly what those of us who wonder if we must do something or risk our salvation. They don't want one drop more of God's life than the minimum required to escape hell. How tragic! No wonder they missed the best gift God could give them. Jesus wanted so desperately to free them from the tyranny of trying to earn eternal life by their own religious efforts.
All this is not to say that hell does not exist, nor that dire consequences await those who refuse God's freedom. What I (Wayne) am saying is that when we use the threat of hell to motiviate people to come to God, we're using it in a way Jesus never did and in a way he never intended. In doing so, we push people further away from God's greatest desire, rather than inviting them closer to it.
The message of Christ was not to come to God or you'll burn in hell. His message was the God's kingdom has come near you and you can become a participant in it. You have a Father who loves you more than any other person ever has or ever will, and you can now discover what it means to have a daily relationship with him. If not, then your own sin will destroy you utterly and completely
There is no one that God does not love with all that he is. His love reaches beyond every sin and failure, hoping that at some moment they will come to know just how loved they are.
There is nothing more important for you to know.
We just got home from a week of tent camping and it was amazing. For anyone who likes to keep up with us via this blog, there will be more to come on that later. For now, I'm getting some time alone and am reading an incredible book that is just too good to not share. I'm compelled to offer some nuggets to you in hopes that you will be nourished and blessed as much as I have just been.
"The question is compelling. "Do you know where you would end up if you died in a car accident tonight?" The evangelist has already painted the pictures. You could find yourself in an eternal garden of exquisite beauty laced together with winding paths of gold; or writhing in agony amidst the leaping sulfuric flames of hell. If there was ever a choice that defined "no-brainier," this is it. Once you convince someone that hell and heaven exist, winning a convert is easy. After all, praying for forgiveness and "accepting Jesus" seem like a small price to pay for a Get-Out-of-Hell-Free-Card! So effective is this appeal to people's worst fears and insecurities that hell has become the most popular invitation into God's kingdom. What we have not so critically examined is whether or not threatening people with hell engages them in the relationship God has always wanted with them. For we live in a day when millions of people have made a commitment to Christ and yet so few lives are really transformed by his power. It has been said of this generation that our Christianity is a mile wide but only an inch deep. We see effects of it everywhere. People claim to know God, but show no evidence of transformation in their daily lives. We challenge them as hypocrites and attempt to badger them into more righteous lifestyles, but in the end most believers end up as much a part of the world's ways as their non believing neighbors. While the threat of hell can stir instant commitments, it does not breed long-term disciples. If you are only in this kingdom because you fear the aternative, you missed the greatest part of what it means to know God. WHY THE THREAT? No one ever threatened me to do something that was wonderful. My parents didn't threaten me with punishment to get me to go to Disneyland. So if I am told that I must love God or he will throw me into hell, I might well consider loving him- or at least pretend I do. But if the only reason I'm even responding to him is to serve my own self-interest and escape a fiery eternity in hell, am I really loving him or myself? Can a true friendship blossom under so grace a threat? Let's say I approach a recent acquaintance of mine, hoping to deepen our friendship. I say to him, "I have really appreciated the time we've been able to spend together and inf act, I'd like to see our realationship deepen and maybe become best friends. Would you like to spend some more time together over the next few months and see if that kind of friendship develops?" So far, so good! But what if I added one more thing:"I hope you do because if you don't, I'm going to hunt you down and torture you for the rest of your life." Hasn't the invitation just taken an ominous turn? Even if he wanted to explore the potential of a friendship with me, it has now been twisted by my threat. What does it say about me? How will he ever feel safe in a friendship cultivated on fear? Whether you are conscious of it or not, the threat of hell can create an inner dissonance in our perception of the God who seeks our love. How can we feel safe with a God who is seemingly anxious to dangle us over the flames of hell? If he can find nothing else to call us to him, then what kind of God must he be? And if we find no better reason to love him, how shallow must our faith be? CONTRADICTORY PORTRAITS Here is the problem, isn't it? Scripture seems to pain two contradictory portraits of the Living God - a terrible judge and a loving father. Which is it? Can he be both? We read no only that God has prepared hell for the unbelieving, but also that he commanded Joshua to practice ethnic cleansing in Canaan, poured out fire from heaven to consume Sodom and Gomorah, and opened the earth to swallow those who opposed Moses. Unapproachable in his purity, even the most most righteous fell on their faces near his presence, paralyzed by their unworthiness. He demanded unquestioning obedience and punished those who did not comply with unspeakable anguish. No wonder we're at least a little confused when he appears in the New Testament and tells us how much he loves us and invites us to be his children. We saw Jesus healing the sick, forgiving prostitutes and murderers, going into the houses of sinners. He invited children into his lap and portrayed his Father as so tender that the most wayward sinner could run to his side in absolute safety. So what happened to God? Did he get saved somewhere between Malachi and Matthew? Had he reinvented himself into a nicer, gentler God? Of course not! He is unchanging, the same throughout all eternity. So then is he both? Is he kind and gentle to those who please him and vengeful toward the wicked? That's what many of us have been taught to believe, which is why we end up playing he-loves-me-he-loves-me-not games. We sift through every event to try and figure out if we are in his favor or out of it. If we think we are in, we can relax and coast through life. If, however, we think our difficulties probe we are out of favor, we have to try harder to please him; a course of action Paul warns us against. True righteousness cannot come from human effort. There's the problem. I can't please him until I'm certain of his love for me, but he will not love me if I cannot please him. This is an endless loop that offers no resolution. How can he be a mean and vengeful God one moment and a kind and tender one the next? Those portraits don't depict the same God in different circumstances, but rather contradictory portraits that leave us confused and uncertain of God's true nature. Unless we can glean from Scripture a cohesive view of God's nature we'll never know who he really is or have the confidence to embrace the relationship he desires with us. God did not change between Malachi and Matthew. Our perception of him, however, changed drastically. Before Jesus came we could only see God's actions and assume he was moved by motivations similar to our own. His actions against sin made him appear as if he didn't care for people. His attempts to teach his people to trust him were misunderstood as vengeful punishment. Jesus changed all of that. By listening to hi words and watching how he lived we suddenly see God's motivations. He fully reflected the Father's glory so we might know him as he really is and no longer be victims of our own misinterpretations. Love dwells at the core of God's being and the Old Testament contains hundreds of pictures of a God who is rich in mercy, willing to forgive, and passionate about setting us free from the sin that diminishes and devours the life he wants us to experience in him. He allows us the consequences of sin, not because he delights in our anguish, but so that we can see its devastating effects and run to the only one in the universe who can set us free from them. His wrath against sin was not his rejection of us in anger, but only a reflection of the depth of his love that cannot look away unconcerned as sin destroys us. These are not mere philosophical issues. If we aren't certain of God's motives toward us, we will never have confidence to engage his presence in the reality of our lives. We'll keep him at a safe distance and miss what he desires most for us - a friendship with him more real and more powerful than any we've known before."
Well, that's all the time I have for now, but will continue with this later. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it!
