True Southerners are known for their Sweet Tea and  their hospitality.  The words Southern and hospitality go together like bees at a picnic.

The dictionary defines Hospitality as the quality or disposition of receiving and treating guests and strangers in a warm, friendly, generous way. 

Hospitality goes beyond simply a glass of tea.  Let’s ask the who, what and how’s of showing this generous spirit.

Who?  While Southerners are pretty much expected to be hospitable, Christians are especially encouraged to “Show hospitality without grudging.”  That is, we’re to do it without grumbling.  No whispers under out breath, no sighs or the rolling of the eyes.

What? What do we give?  We give our heart first.  The giving of anything, a glass of tea or a kind word, starts with my heart.  I do it because the love of Christ constrains me.   In other words, it pushes me forward, it motivates me to do what I do.  Maybe this is why us Southerners say, “Bless your heart.”  =)  That is the foundation  of being hospitable.  Ask the Lord to open your heart to others, and then out of love for Christ, and that person, show them Christ’s love.

How?  How will that look in every day living?

Stuffed Green Peppers
2 Large green peppers
8 oz. lean ground beef
1/3 cup chopped onion
2 medium tomatoes, peeled and cut (or canned tomatoes, drained)
1/2 cup long grain rice, cooked
1/2 cup water
 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp dried basil, crushed
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 cup cheddar cheese

Halve peppers lengthwise and remove stem ends, seeds and membranes.  Immerse peppers into boiling water for 3 minutes.  Invert onto paper towels to drain well.

In a large skillet cook meat and onion till meat is brown and onion is tender.  Drain fat.  Stir in tomatoes, cooked rice, water, Worcestershire sauce, basil and pepper.  Bring to boiling; reduce heat.  Cover and simmer for 5-10 minutes.  Stir in half the cheese.  Spoon meat mixture into peppers.  Place peppers in 8x8x2 in baking dish.  Spoon any remaining meat into baking dish.

Bake, uncovered, at 375 for about 15 minutes or till heated through.  Sprinkle with remaining cheese.  let stand for one to two minutes or till the cheese melts.  Makes 4 servings.

How about ending that great meal with a little pumpkin dessert; another favorite flavor in the fall. This recipe for Pumpkin Bars makes TWO 9×13 pans!  They whip up really quickly, too.  After cooling, they’re topped with a cream cheese icing.  Moist and fantastic! This is a great dessert for a crowd!  I introduce to you the delightful Pumpkin Bar…

Pumpkin Bars
2 Cups flour
1 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 2/3 cup sugar
1 cup oil
4 eggs
2 cups pumpkin
1 cup nuts, chopped
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice or 1/4 tsp each, cinnamon, allspice, cloves and nutmeg

Frosting:
6 oz. cream cheese
1/2 cup butter
2 Tb. cream
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar

Mix all ingredients for bars.  Pour into two greased and floured 9 x 13 pans and bake at 350 degrees 20-25 minutes.

To make frosting, mix cream cheese and butter.  Combine with other ingredients and mix well.  Frost cooled bars.

I hope you’ll try these two recipes.  I have serious doubts you’ll be disappointed!  If you are, call me and I’ll come pick up the leftovers!  =)

Have you made any fall favorites yet?  

With love from my country kitchen,

I love to freshen up the elements that are a part of the tasks I do each day.  It makes the tasks have an element of enjoyment that would be missing otherwise.  Let’s take for instance, baking and cooking.  How many times do you and I reach for the salt box to add a teaspoon to our recipes?  LOTS, right?  Why not do something to simplify and embellish that part of the chore?

For years I’ve had a little red dish to pour salt into.  It had a plastic lid to cover it and it sat right on my counter and was at my disposal.  It worked great, but I recently got a gift from a friend – some vintage Fiesta wear that she found at an antique store.  Part of the collection was a darling yellow creamer.  Inside the box was also a random blue lid.  Bingo!  I knew how I’d use that little guy!

Isn’t that adorable?  It just makes me happy to see it sitting on my counter!  It’s now filled with my salt and is ready every time I’m baking or cooking.  I just pop the lid off and scoop out what I need.

If you have your salt in the box it was sold in, I’d suggest that you freshen up your kitchen chores by finding something pretty to put it in.  It’ll make your cooking one step easier with not having to open the cupboard and get the salt box out.  Plus you’ll smile every time you see that pretty dish you choose!  Maybe you have a sugar bowl just stuck away in your china cabinet that you could use for your salt (inform your family that it’s not sugar – unless you do it close to April Fool’s day!).  Get creative and see what cute dish you can find!

Do you already use a dish for salt?  What is it store in?

See you in church!

Stay refreshed,

The piano tuner is here.  The “music” that’s coming from the living room doesn’t sound like the beautiful chords I heard last weekend when my girls were skillfully playing. Instead, it’s reminiscent of the girl’s early days of playing Seal C.  Middle C was the only note in the song.  Yeah, it was lovely.

“Can this guy even play the piano?”  I wondered.  He is pecking out one half step at a time, playing each note with one hand, while the other hand is inside the open top of the instrument.

Strike the key.
Listen.
Strike the key.

Ooo.  it’s off.  It sounds like a sick seal! My brow wrinkles.

Then the tuner’s hand inside the piano takes his tuning lever to tighten the string.  He starts again…

Strike the key.
Listen.
Tighten.
Strike.
Tighten.

Now it’s just right.

He moves on to the next key.

This procedure continues all the way up the keyboard until every note is perfectly in tune.

As he continues the painful process, a song from my childhood comes to mind.

What a tuning lever is to my piano, continual prayer is to my heart. We’re told in I Thessalonians 5:17 to– Pray without ceasing.  Without constant communion with the Lord, the sounds coming from my life sound off.  Sin goes unchecked.  My thoughts, words and actions that don’t line up with God’s Word, and are a clinking sound instead of being melodic.

Constant communion with God isn’t walking around with a prayer shawl over our heads, but it’s taking every care, every decision, every need to the Lord the moment it happens.  We are to stay in an attitude of prayer, ready to whisper our need or praise to Him at any moment all through the day and night.

As we stay in constant communion with the Lord, the Spirit of God lays His finger on a sin in my heart and says, “Right here is sin.”  Like the tuners lever, the conviction isn’t pleasant, but when I admit it and call it what God calls it, there is music as my heart is once again in tune.  What a sweet song there is then!

Before the tuner left our house, he stopped his clunking, and actually played a song ~ beautifully.  “He can play that piano!” I thought.  Now every note was in pitch with the next and the music was much sweeter because of his masterful work with the tuning lever.

I smiled.  Being in tune is a blessing in music and in hearts!

Are you “in tune” today?  If not, whisper a prayer.

With love,

A Peek Into My Life This week

All ready for my students!

Earlier this summer I was privileged to host a neighborhood Bible Club for our church.  I loved having a couple of the neighborhood children attend each of the five days.  I saw a hunger in their eyes to learn more as we finished out that week, so I began to pray about hosting an After School Bible Club for them.  They were so excited when they learned about it!

Yesterday was our fourth club.  I told my husband that if I didn’t accomplish anything else all week long but have Bible club with those two children, I would feel like I’ve accomplished great things!

Those little children are so eager to learn each week! One is a four-year old boy, so he’s a little squirmy, and to be honest some weeks I wonder if I’ve really gotten through to him.  The other child is a six yesr-old girl.  If you think of the sound a sponge makes when it’s drinking up water, that’s what it seems I hear from her the whole time she’s here!  We spend one hour together and it’s packed with activity.  Here’s what our time together looks like:

At 4:00, their little faces appear at my front door.  They’re smiling, waving and wiggling with excitement!  We go out to the back porch that’s covered from the sun.  I greet them with a hug and ask about what happened in their day.

I’m teaching them some simple songs.  Jesus Loves Me, The B-I-B-L-E, Obedience, and My God is So Big are some we’re working on.  We sing a few songs, then stop to pray and ask God to help them to learn about Him today.  We’re working on one memory verse for this quarter.  We practice saying it together after we sing.  Then comes story time!

After several different scenarios, I’ve found it’s best to have them in little chairs their size.  They sit in a chair while I sit in front of them and teach the Bible lesson from my open Bible.  How precious it is to see them watching intently as I’ve shared the truths of God answering Hannah’s prayer for a son, Samuel’s obedience to God’s voice calling him in the night, or God’s call of Saul, the first King.  After the story, we play a review game of different sorts, which they love and always ace!

I serve a simple snack, and ask one of them to thank God for it.  It’s precious to hear them pray.  I try to make correlation from our snack to the story.  While they eat, I read a true-to-life story that goes with the Bible story.

Then we finish with either a craft or game that goes along with the lesson.  Last week when we learned about King Saul, they each made a crown to wear and we talked about the fact that God is the best Ruler and we must obey Him!

The hour flies by!  They usually ask to repeat one of their favorite songs, and even the memory verse before our time is up.  Soon it’s time to send them home, crowns bouncing on their heads, as they head back to their house, anxious to tell their parents what they did at After school Bible Club.

I’m longing for the day when they understand salvation and receive Christ as their Savior, but until then, we’ll keep teaching, keep sharing, keep loving them and pointing them to Jesus.  It’s truly the highlight of my week, and I pray it is theirs, too.

In case you’re wondering what I use for curriculum, I found some discarded Sunday school material at our church that wasn’t being used.  I use that as my jumping off point.  There are great tools on the Internet for games, crafts and review games.  You could get your whole lesson just from these resources.  I supplement the lesson with these and other great sites.

If you peek onto my back porch on Tuesdays at 4:00 that’s what you’d see –  Oh, and my happy face beaming at those two precious children!

Are there children in your neighborhood with whom you could have a Bible club?  If a weekday isn’t open, you could use Saturday mornings.  Pray and ask the Lord if there’s a child or two out there who need to hear the Gospel from you.

With love from my country porch,