Good afternoon -- my how things can change in three weeks. I nearly could not find where I could write my post! Blogger has made such a change - I did not know how to navigate through all of the info. I absolutely did not intend to wait 3 weeks to write again -- just so much has happened - including, but certainly not limited to --- I found myself in the ER at 4 am on Sunday - the 15th - with a case of Bronchitis that had me where I could not breath. Am much better now!!
I've wanted to write so many times - but sometimes the subject would have been so emotional and sad I just could not do it. On Monday - while I was very sick - I attended the funeral of the little baby I had written about - she was 15 days old, had been held 95% of her life - looked like her dad and Mom - and was so loved. It will be years before we really realize what all she accomplished in her 9 months, 15 days. She taught young adults how to step out and make a difference in the lives of their friends who were hurting, she taught us old people how to really care enough to share some of our struggles. What an amazing little angel she was and like our preacher said: "Just think - she is in Heaven before all of us - already experiencing the beauty, the joy and the wholeness of God."
On Friday night we had a ladies event at church -- over 100 ladies attended and the evening was charmed. We have the absolutely sweetest, loving, forgiving, caring, and obedient women I will ever have the priviledge to know. How uplifting and joyful it is to have women that lwove you, are not jealous of what you do - but encourage you and support you. That is what I have found at Shiloh - my how God blessed us when he forced us to make the most wonderful change. I thank God now for the people who forced this change upon us! God is so blessed and so so good to us!!!
Today I was priviledged to attend the "Call Her Blessed" event benefiting Christian Homes and Services. Anita Renfroe spoke and entertained. She was delightful, funny, and intuitive. What a joy to have experienced this event.
Yes - I have also been cooking some! Yesterday I sent some of my easy, simple, and delicious recipes to one of our young ladies. I am going to post them now -- some of them have been on this blog before - but it has been a while - so here goes:
EASY CHEESE TORTELLINI BAKE
1 Bag of the frozen double cheese tortellini’s and place in
casserole dish that has been lightly sprayed.
Pour 1 jar of spaghetti or marinara sauce over it. Top with 1-1/2 cups cheese and bake at 350
degrees, until hot and bubbly. (You can
also use the meat stuffed ones!)
how easy is
this!)
EASY CHICKEN POT PIE
2 cups (or one package) Frozen mixed vegetables
(May substitute 2 large cans of Mixed Vegetables)
2 Cups cooked chicken breasts diced or cut in to bite size
piece
1 Can Cream of Chicken Soup
½ Cup milk or half and half
Dash of minced garlic and dried onion
Add a slight dash of any other seasoning such as fox point
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper or generous dash of red/black pepper
2 Pillsbury or Food Club (which I like better) pie crusts
(in the box where you just unroll)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Unroll one pie crust and press into pie plate (with new roller I gave
you)
Pour chicken and vegetable mixture into it.
Top with remaining crust.
Cut slits into the top and rub with butter or brush with egg wash. (1 egg beat really well with 2 Tablespoons
water.)
Bake about 30 minutes until bubbly and well browned.
Heats well too!!
PORK CHOPS AND APPLES
Jon
Carole Gilbreath
Good to use thin, inexpensive pork chops
4 thin (can do more or less) pork chops
Salt and pepper
1 large Apple – cored and sliced into round slices
1-1/2 tablespoons cooking oil (Canola or Olive oil)
3 tablespoons brown sugar
½ cup water
Wash pork chops, blot dry, and sprinkle with salt and
pepper. Heat the oil to
hot and add the chops – slightly brown on both sides. Place the sliced apple
on top of the pork chops, sprinkle with brown sugar and pour
water over the top.
Lower heat under pan, cook for about 20 to 25 minutes until
apple and pork chops
until tender. (THIS
REALLY IS GOOD!) Can be served with
rice or potatoes.
PASTA SALAD
Jon Carole Gilbreath
1 Large bag or box of whole grain wheat pasta (much
healthier) – You can get the spirals, penne, or shells. Bring to a boil in
large boiler (to keep from bubbling out
- pour in about 1 tablespoon of either olive oil or cooking oil. Cook until just fork tender. Drain – do not rinse.
1 Bag “Steam Fresh” Mixed Vegetables – either the one with Broccoli,
snow peas, water chestnuts, etc., or Asparagus, 2 colors corn, etc. Cook as directed on bag in microwave. Drain.
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 or 3 dashes of balsamic vinegar
Salt & Pepper
Combine the pasta, vegetables, salt and pepper. Top with olive oil and vinegar – and toss
lightly.
I sometimes add walnuts and dash of red pepper flakes.
There you are!!! On Friday night I spoke and I told Travis - I know I can write better than I can speak -- so just so you know what I said (did not read - just spoke - well, here it is!!!)
SUMMER
Summer – I can imagine you
are thinking “she needs to be talking about fall – or perhaps winter – and
maybe I should be – but I am still living the life of summer – letting fall
pass me by! So let me tell you what I’ve
observed and learned during this journey!
Summer reminds me of the ocean and the beach! The beauty and serenity of the ocean beating
against the rocks – and then again it reminds me of the water furiously rushing
in and beating on the rocks and then rushing back out. I’ve always loved the beach and maybe that is
why I cling to “summer of my life,” and not go quietly into fall.
Summer was made by God – as
we all were. Psalms 74:17 says: “It was
you who set all the boundaries of the earth, you made both summer and
winter.” There are many references to
the heat, the drought, fruits ripening, and gardens growing during the summer
time. Proverbs 10:5 tells us: “He who
gathers crops in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a
disgraceful son.”
I believe there are some analogies between the
“Summer Season of our life and the young adult, who has just passed through
spring, has either finished college and landed a great job, or has just gotten married
and has had her children. Life has begun
– now how do we handle it? The Season
of Summer can reflect the path we walk and the testing of our faith. Are we obedient to God and His plan? Do we withstand the heat and dry spells to
magnify His walk in our own life. Just as the fruit trees of summer grow and
begin to produce fruit, they eventually need more nourishment from the owner or
the fruit becomes small and scarce. The
same thing happens when we stay out in the heat without shade or protection, we
become over heated, unable to do our best.
The drought this summer showed us what happens when we don’t get enough
rain – things dry up, get hard and parched.
The same is true with us during the summer of our lives. We will not be able to overcome the hardships
we will face without His presence in our
lives? I believe that along with the
thrill of accomplishment, the joy of raising our children, our successes, that
summer is also a time that is often filled with stress, anxiety,
disappointment, and tragedy. Just as
summer is the longest season, it also takes up more of our life than any other.
If we are not careful, we can
let our summer years become a time we get so busy we forget to pray. Many women tend to try to run the world – get
the children off to school, hope they will be okay and worry about who they are
with, what they are doing, who will they become – all the time – asking
ourselves: “Am I doing enough for
them?” Then some have this really
important job that needs their full attention too – and too often we find
ourselves wrapped up in the business world, truly without enough time for our
family – maybe because there is just so much stress at work or they have always
wanted to be more appreciated! Their
attitude is: I want to show my boss what a good citizen I am so I am going to
volunteer and get on several non-profit boards – and try to make sure the days
don’t co-inside with the other ones. If
asked if they can handle a project at church, they say no – just too busy right
now! Others find themselves saying “Oh,
I would love to attend that ladies event, but I have to volunteer at the kid’s
prom that night – maybe some other time.”
Do you see what can so easily
happen? We can get our priorities all
mixed up – and the time we most need God, we forget all about him. I know statistics may show that many young
“Springs” leave their roots and never return – I think the “Summer’s” do
too. Why? Perhaps because of peer
pressure, trying to get ahead of the neighbors, perhaps, worries about
finances, college for kids, fascination with success – and perhaps not taking
the time for what should be most important. I believe it is perhaps during our
life lived in the Summer season of it - is when we need God in our lives the
most. How do we make our relationship with God our
number one priority? What is important
to each of us? We usually consider whatever is the most urgent to be the most
important – whether it is needing to use the bathroom, or it might be a movie
or TV show we’ve been wanting to see. It
might be a trip to take or a special event like a ballgame we want to
attend. It might be something we want to
buy. The priority might be a
relationship, a job, a project. It might
be an illness, a tragedy or a difficult ordeal. In Mark 1: 35-39 – we see Jesus’ priority
was to pray and then preach. Prayer
should also be our priority. Prayer is
the kind of priority that lies at the root of all the others – at the root of
life itself. It’s a lot like eating, if
we rarely eat, our physical health will suffer.
We’ll be weak and sick. IT will
affect our ability to carry on the activities of life. In a similar way, if we rarely pray, our
spiritual life will lack vitality. We
will approach the challenges and successes of life on our own, as though we are
not totally dependent on God for even life itself.
Without prayer, we begin to
take credit for the good things in our lives, chalking them up to our skill,
knowledge, wisdom and hard work. We
begin to forget that all our skill, knowledge, wisdom and hard work are gifts
of God. He gave us the mind, body and
circumstances of life that enabled us to have and develop those attributes.
On the other hand, without
prayer, we fall into fear, anxious worry and even despair. We become unaware of God’s love for us,
unsure that He stands with us in our problems.
We feel afraid, alone, doubtful, and scared of what life keeps heaping
onto us.
So quickly, how can we
develop a better prayer life?
Hard to find time: It is fine to watch a TV show that we really
wanted to see, how about turning off the TV when it is some senseless show we
are just watching to kill time before bed time! Turn it off – pray!
We make priorities out of
things we care about. It isn’t that we
don’t care about prayer; it’s just that since God doesn’t cry when we don’t get
dinner on the table or send out a repo man if we don’t pay for the car, washing
machine, etc. we tend to put prayer farther down the priority list.
What if we start to look as
prayer as a time that refreshes and rejuvenates us? It relaxes the mind and body to release to
God our worries, our anger, our fear, and anxiety. It is a better antidote to frustration than
nibbling on donuts or chocolate bars. It
fills our need for intimacy better than affairs or pornography. It is a far better way to handle anger than
exploding at our spouses or children. It
lasts, alternatives don’t.
Prayer is Therapy, not
Duty. It is easy to view prayer as a
duty or obligation. When we do that,
prayer becomes hard, something to put off, a burden and pressure all by
itself. What a tragedy. Spending time with God is great therapy.
And finally, Prayer is not a
substitute for action: We learn that
Jesus hiked early in the morning to a solitary place for prayer. When it is time for action, it’s time for
action. When your child or spouse needs
attention, it is not the time to go off and pray. When you need to repair a faucet, or make a
call, or prepare a meal, it is not the time to disappear into your closet for
an hour. We can and should be able to
pray any time, any place, while we go about our business. The point is, seeing prayer as a priority will
make all of your other priorities more manageable and less stressful. Let prayer time be a time to relax, let God’s
love bathe and salve your frayed nerves, your taunt emotions, and your
exhausted and frightened heart. Let
prayer be your time to rest in God, to let Him renew your strength, brighten
your hope, sharpen your faith.
So let’s try these four
things and see if we can’t stay focused on what should really be our priority:
1.Stay
faithful to God – pray and take time to stay connected to our church. Make him
No. 1 and our family close behind.
2.Participate
in church activities such as tonight – put it on your calendar – and say “sorry
to other invitations or events!”
3.Find
someone and make it your special project to encourage them, surprise then with
little thoughtful deeds, cards, gifts, and always pray for them.
4.Stay
in touch with friends – and always be open to new friends.
Kristen Eastland posted this on Facebook and I
want to close with her quote because it sums up what I think our attitude
during life lived the Summer Season of
our life should reflect: “Every
experience God gives us, every person He puts in our lives, is the perfect
preparation for the future only He can see!”
Thank you!
Please have a wonderful Wednesday - try helping someone else -- it is amazing how it makes you feel! Don't really do it selfishly - but after it is done - feel the reward! Oh - check out Anita Renfroe on UTube!!!!
