We never know how God is going to answer our prayers, but I believe an answer to my recent prayers came in the form of gastroenteritis – a type of flu that had me sicker than I’ve ever been before.

For the last couple of weeks I have prayed and asked the Lord to show me His nearness throughout the day.  You see, I so often find myself so caught up in the tasks at hand that I forget to look for Him around me – to keep the sweet communion we shared in the early hours of my devotions in all the little moments of the day.  

I find a little bit of comfort in the fact that even Jesus’ disciples had this problem of remembering how near He was to them.  In Mark 6 we find that Jesus had just performed the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 with the 5 loaves and 2 fish.  Then Jesus went up into the mountain to pray and told the disciples to go get into the ship.  In short order, after they got on the boat and got half way across the Lake, a terrific storm blew up and they feared for their very lives.  They were afraid, yet they had just been with Jesus and seen Him do a great miracle.  What made them forget what they had just witnessed?  How could they have forgotten the power of the Son of God? Was it preoccupation of fishing?  Conversation with one another?  Lack of faith? At the most critical moment, Jesus walked out on the water and they cried out – not knowing who this was, but Jesus spoke to them,

 “Fear not.  It is I, be not afraid.” 

John says in his account of this story, “Then they willingly received Him into their ship and were safely at land.”

In the middle of the night when I was calling out to the Lord for His strength and help in my illness, He brought my prayer to mind – my prayer to know of His nearness.  He was very close in the night watches while I was so sick.  Even the couple of times that my loving husband didn’t hear me slip out of bed, my God did; just as Jesus saw the disciples on the Sea and knew their peril.   He allowed us to be able to reach my doctor (who “just happened” to be be the one on call that night), to get guidance about going to the ER for IV fluids, and He went before us and allowed me to be seen, treated and released within an hour and a half. 

Years ago I read this statement and found it so true this past week –

I made a very simple dinner yesterday because of still dealing with the flu, but I saved a menu and pictures of something I made a couple weeks ago for a time like this…

Summertime means grilling out!  Even on a Sunday this dinner can be assembled and ready to throw on the grill when you get home from church, and it won’t heat up your kitchen because the whole thing can be done in a foil package outside!

1 pkg. (14 oz) smoked turkey kielbasa, sliced
2 large potatoes, cut into wedges
1 each green, sweet red and yellow peppers cut into 1-in pieces
1 medium onion, chopped
4 tsp lemon juice
4 tsp Olive oil
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt

Place 4 squares of foil on the counter and divide the kielbasa, potatoes, peppers and onion among the four squares.  Drizzle with lemon juice and oil; sprinkle with garlic powder, pepper and salt.

Cook on Medium-high grill for 30-35 minutes or till potatoes are tender.  You don’t need to turn it or flip it.  There aren’t even any pans to clean!

I cooked my corn in boiling water, but next time I think I’ll add it to the meat and veggies as well!  You can’t get any simpler than that!

Let me give you a little tip that I learned at a restaurant recently regarding corn on the cob.  Butter the corn, then sprinkle it with grated Parmesan Cheese.  This takes a good thing and turns it into spectacular!

I haven’t made these in a long time, but here’s a great dessert to go with the grilled dinner!  Banana boats.  You could also add ice cream after it comes off the grill!  That would bump it up to a Banana split boat!

What’s been cookin’ in your kitchen…or on your grill?

With love,

Shopping for clothes can be an exhausting experience!  Not only is it hard to find something that really fits well, it also needs to be becoming on you.  Have you ever tried something on in a store then walked out of the dressing room to show whoever was shopping with you and their response was,

 “Oh yes!  That really suits you”? 

Other than them telling you they like what you tried on, what were they saying?  They were saying, “That enhances your appearance.” Now you can buy one in every color and go home!  =)

 In Scripture, Paul tells women that we need to find – not clothing – but  the kind of behavior that enhances.  The enhancement is not our appearance, but our holiness.  He wrote in Titus 2:3a:

This is behaviour that makes holiness evident.  What does that include?  Let’s first talk about what it doesn’t include. 

• Walking around with our hands folded and our eyes closed to show we are in prayer
• Talking “religious talk”
• Dressing in out of date clothing
• Being only heavenly minded

Those are images that readily pop into our minds, but aren’t becoming to holiness.  It doesn’t enhance the look of holiness.  That is religion.  Holiness is giving the right opinion of Who God is.  When others listen to conversations, look at our appearance, or watch our behaviour we should be demonstrating what our God is like.  I Corinthians 10:31 says, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”  Therefore, if we are going to have behaviour that suits holiness, we must ask ourselves:

• Is what I’m saying glorifying to God?
• Is where I’m going glorifying to God?
• Is what I’m wearing bringing glory to God?

Could it be said of us that our behaviour becomes holiness?  It should be our highest aim and greatest delight, because then, and only then will we be glorifying our God.

See you in church, Sunday!

With love,

A nice little flu bug bit me rather hard.  No blog post today.  See you tomorrow, Lord willing. 

There will be a 30th anniversary celebrated in our parsonage this month!  It’s truly hard to believe!  When I look back on our wedding  I remember that it was simple, yet beautiful.  I had a very limited budget.  My parents had paid for my schooling; I paid for my wedding.  They did purchase my cake, which helped this young school teacher’s finances!  We just kept things minimal.  We had candles, flowers, and a good photographer.  My twin sister let me wear her wedding gown. 

We were surrounded by our family and friends that we loved and they watched and witnessed as we vowed before God to live together and love each other in good times and bad, for better, for worse.  We’ve experienced both, of course – the good and the bad, but with the Lord’s help we’ve weathered the storms and have come through the hard times closer to the Lord and one another.

The only funny thing that happened at our wedding was when my father-in-law (who performed the ceremony) told me to put Dale’s ring on the third finger of his right hand.  He obediently stuck his right hand out there, so I pushed slipped the ring onto the extended appendage, then during prayer, Dale worked to get it off.  I had visions of it flying across the sanctuary!  However, it would not  budge.  After we walked down the aisle as husband and wife, he slipped into the restroom and, using soap and water, was able to place it on his left hand.  Oh, we also left for our honeymoon without signing our marriage license.  Oops!

That was 30 years ago.  We’ve added some wrinkles and gray hair, but also more love to our relationship than we thought was possible on the day we said “I do.”  Staying together isn’t always easy, but it’s wonderful to be at this stage of our relationship.  We know each other so well.  We are comfortable with one another.  We have become stronger individuals because we draw off of one another’s strengths. 

My advice for any young couple would be:
1.  Decide right now to stay together no matter.  Never use the word divorce.
2.  Don’t stop dating and doing fun things together after marriage.  Carve out time for each other each week.
3.  Don’t focus on things.  You won’t have what your parents have now. Doing without things will only help your relationship because it will make you depend on the Lord.
4.  Pray for your husband and with him every day.
5.  Don’t go to bed angry.  Get it resolved before you go to sleep.

Marriage is a blessing.  How thankful I am for the husband the Lord gave me.  How long have you been married and what funny thing happened at your wedding?  I’d love to hear about it!

With love,