So, how did you do with your room?  Did it overwhelm you to tackle it?  Did you finish it?  If not, take little snippets of time to keep clearing it out.  It’s amazing what just 15 minutes can accomplish!

Cleaning and decorating is a work in progress.  It really never stops.  Once you get a place straightened up, maintain it by daily keeping things put away.  Emilie Barnes says,

I’m reading this to prepare for our ladies’ ministry this year.  The Lord has directed my heart to have our ladies study it together.  Before I ask them to go through this book, I thought I’d read it through.  So on this past Monday afternoon, on my husband’s day off, we headed to the mountains to rest and read for a few hours in a beautiful spot. 

 Not long after we got here we sat and watched a thunderstorm roll in slowly like a tip-toeing toddler.  We witnessed the sky change from sunny to dark gray with heavy sheets of rain being introduced by rolling thunder.  Then in time, the skies changed back to brilliant blue with clouds that looked like piles of cotton candy sitting atop the mountain peaks.

After the rains passed we moved to a higher spot where we could watch the sun set.  Again, the sky changed constantly – both in color and substance.

It was an unbelievable afternoon and evening.  It was not only beautiful, it was also amazingly quiet on this mountaintop. It was a quiet that allowed me to listen – not to nothingness, but God’s voice.

Reading Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World  in that setting was so appropriate.  This book is about the story we read in Luke 10.  You remember the story of Mary and Martha – Mary was sitting at Jesus’ feet while her sister Martha was rushing about preparing a meal for Jesus and his disciples.  In her frustration Martha asks Jesus, “Lord, don’t you care that I’m serving while my sister is sitting?”  Jesus gently rebukes her by telling her that Martha was worried and troubled, but that Mary had chosen the better part – worship. The book is all about how to learn to sit at Jesus’ feet; how to have a quiet heart of worship instead of an anxious, worried one. 

With the rain and then stillness all around me, the Lord spoke to my heart so sweetly as I read. “Be still – even in a storm.  Leave the heavy things that I don’t intend for you to carry.”  He knew I would need these truths.  He knew I would need to be reminded not to be troubled, because trouble came even before we left the mountain.  But God had spoken in the quiet, and now I was running back to those truths as an anchor for my heart. One truth from the book was this quote: “Worry magnifies the trouble.  Prayer magnifies God.”

“This is your burden, Lord.  I’ll let you carry it.  I choose to pray and magnify you instead of worry.”  As the sun was setting over the mountain, my husband and I clasped hands and did just that – we prayed and gave the care to the One who had also brought the thunderstorm and allowed it to pass.  “This too shall pass away,” I thought.

“In the meantime, Lord, give me a Mary heart that I may worship at your feet instead of being distracted by a storm.”  I returned to our parsonage home with a quiet heart – a Mary heart in this Martha world. 
Thank you, Lord.

From inside my parsonage window,

Imagine that you are on your way home and are super hungry and in need of something to eat now.  You stop at the grocery store, dash in and, not wanting to take long to get something to eat, you head right to the check out line.  There you find an assortment of sweet things – candy bars, M&M’s, mints and chewing gum.  Knowing that this will at least ward off your hunger, you purchase a couple of your favorite candy bars and head out to the car.  Eating the candy bars on your way home, your hunger is pacified…at least for a bit.

We’d call the stuff they sell at the cashier lane “fluff”.  It’s nothing substantial.  We’d never go get our grocery cart and buy a weeks worth of candy.  Why not?  It won’t promote growth or health and it won’t satisfy.

If we won’t do that consistently for our body’s sake, why do we often live off of “fluff” in our spiritual lives?  We dash into God’s Word, get a quick little something sweet and dash back out again, having satisfied our need for something spiritual.  However, it’s not lasting.  It won’t promote growth or spiritual health. 

Where do you have to go in the grocery store for things of real substance?  We go into the depth of the store for those things – back where the meats and dairy products are, also the produce and grains.   Proverbs 8:21 is speaking of the Wisdom we find in God’s Word and it says,

• Stop before you open your Bible and ask the Lord to teach you today.  
• Sing a song of praise to the Lord.  Worship Him.  Sit at His feet.
• Slow down.  Read slowly and contemplate what you’re reading, just as you would contemplate each item you put into your grocery cart. 
• Study a verse that you don’t understand by using a commentary.  Matthew Henry commentaries are available on-line and are a great resource.
• Script it.  Write down what you learn. 



Green Tomato and Vidalia Onion Gratin



I learned this great tip for cutting corn off the cob.  If you place it on the middle part of a bundt pan, the corn doesn’t wiggle everywhere while you cut it off. Also, the corn falls into the pan instead of all over the counter.  It works great!  To have this corn ready in a jiffy for Sunday dinner, I cooked it on the cob Saturday night, let it cool, then cut it off.  Sunday I put it into a skillet with a little butter and warmed it up.

Ready for the oven

The herbed-roasted turkey (also a new recipe) was so flavorful.  You mix together a paste of the herbs and olive oil  and put in on the turkey breast, as well as under the skin. I roasted it slowly in the oven while at church, then bumped up the heat to brown it a bit once I got home.  The gravy from a turkey is so good.  I just added a little chicken broth to the pan drippings and thickened it a bit with corn starch. 

I will look forward to eating these leftovers!  Mmmmm!

What’s been cooking in your kitchen?