Christian Life

My Schedule for Today is to be Unscheduled

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Last month when I had the blessing of speaking to a group of pastor’s wives, my subject was on REST.  I encouraged them from the life of Jesus who told His disciples in Mark 6:31, where He said,

Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while; for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.

We can all push ourselves so hard for so long that we find that we, like the disciples, scarcely have time to sit down for supper!  We eat on the run.  We try to play catch up with the laundry on Saturday as the mountain of clothes in the hamper resembles that of Mt Everest.  We feel deprived of time with our spouse.  We haven’t had a whole paragraph of conversation with our kids – only phrases like, “Where’s your homework?  “Did you brush your teeth?” and “What time is your game tonight?”  Our spiritual life is shallow and leaves only guilt instead of joy and peace.

Something has to give.

The suggestion I’m going to share is one I learned this summer during our sabbatical.  It’s one that is harder to do than say, but it’s needed, and may I also add, it’s necessary if we’re to live out fruitful lives for God’s glory.

Schedule unscheduled time.

Sit down with your calendar, a red pen (and your spouse, if you’re married) and find regular times you can be “unscheduled.” I would recommend that you spend these times as a family or just as a couple.  It doesn’t have to be a whole week or weekend – it could be just one whole day.  But take that red pen and put a big red “X” over at least one day every couple of weeks where you are

unreachable,

uncommitted,

and

unscheduled.

  • Try to stay unconnected while you’re away, meaning don’t plug into the Internet. Don’t text with friends.  Don’t send emails.  Instead, try to:
  • Rest – Sleep in. Take a nap.  Go to bed early
  • Play – Have fun! Play games.  Go to a concert.  Enjoy a snack.  Take a drive.
  • Read God’s Word
  • Write in your journal
  • Spend time in prayer
  • Make meals easy if you’re at home or staying somewhere where you still need to prepare meals.
  • Work on a project that is different from your normal tasks; work on a hobby you enjoy, for example.

Even just a day away from your normally hectic routine will energize you and help you to be ready to return to the demands that await you.  After Jesus and His disciples returned from their rest, Jesus was immediately moved with compassion on the crowd that met Him because they were as sheep having no shepherd.  We, too, will have a renewed love to minister to those in our lives after we’ve taken time to schedule being unscheduled.

Do you need to mark out a day in red ink?  Ask the Lord how, where and when, then do it!

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Appetizer · entertaining

Cheesy Artichoke Appetizer

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I failed to get a picture before I put this out for my guests.  I stepped out to snap a photo and this is all that was left!!!  That’s a good sign!  You need to make this!

Rarely ever do we order an appetizer when we go out to eat, but if there IS something we’ve ordered on those rare occasions, it is a Spinach Artichoke Dip. Served with warm tortillas, it’s easy to make a meal out of it!

When you find a recipe that tastes every bit as good as your restaurant favorite, and is super simple to assemble, you know you’ve hit on something dangerously wonderful. It’s dangerous because you know you shouldn’t eat it too often, but it’s wonderful because you have the chance to make it anyway!!
I served this last weekend at my Fall Party and it was a huge hit. If you’re going to be entertaining this fall, you really should add this to your menu.
I love having an appetizer for my guests when they arrive so they have something they can nibble on while I put the finishing touches on the meal. It just seems to make gathering together warmer and more inviting if there’s a hot, bubbly dip ready to greet everyone! The ingredients are few and simple! You can serve this with tortilla chips, crackers, or toasted bread.

Artichoke Dip

2 Cups grated Parmesan cheese

2 Cups Mozzarella cheese

1 Cup mayonnaise

2 cloves garlic, minced

16 oz can artichoke hearts, drained and finely chopped

¼ Cup green onion, chopped

Combine all ingredients, except onion. Mix thoroughly. Place in an 8×8 baking dish. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbly. Sprinkle with green onion. Serve warm.

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This is good stuff, folks! It even warms up great if you happen to have any left over (good luck with that one!).

With love from my country kitchen,

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Dinner · Fall · Home decor

Friday Favorites – Fall Party

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Last weekend we got to have a lovely Fall party in our backyard.  It was so much fun to prep and decorate for it, and I couldn’t wait to show you some pictures.

The guests were our recent Apples Of Gold mentoring group and their husbands.  The Lord gave us a gorgeous day and evening to enjoy being outside for the entire dinner.

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I used mums and small pumpkins, as well as corn stalks out on the patio area.  I covered the three round tables where our guests ate with brown butcher paper.  Then I wrote the guest’s names on the paper.  Each table had a centerpiece that was a mixture of fall items – pumpkins, candles, apples, leaves and other decorative pieces set on a wooden tray or a piece of barn wood (see pic below).

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The menu consisted of:

Artichoke Dip and crackers

Veggie Tray and dip

Blue Cheese Crackers

Cream of Wild Rice Soup

Potato Soup

Beef and Barley Soup

Homemade French Bread

Harvest Salad – Greens, apples, red onion, dried cranberries, walnuts and blue cheese with a Balsamic vinaigrette

Pumpkin Crunch Cake

Texas Sheet Cake

The evening turned nice and cool, making the fire a welcomed place to gather to share testimonies of how the Lord has used Apples of Gold in each life, to sing songs and to be challenged by my husband to “Continue” and “Compliment.”  I thought the night was a huge success and can’t wait to host another gathering outside this fall!

Other events of the weekend consisted of a morning in Jonesborough with my daughter, Alli.  Jonesborough (the oldest city in TN) is always quaint and fun and beautiful, but add a farmer’s market, a library book sale and fall decorations, and you have a perfect morning!

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That waffle with blueberries above was my breakfast – fixed by my sweet husband before I headed out to Jonesborough!  Okay, I made the waffles and froze them, so all he had to do was toast them, but he thought of me, fixed breakfast, added blueberries and brought it up to me while I was having my Quiet Time!  What a great way to start any day!

One last group of photos below will reveal a kitty who curled up in the wooden tray on my chaise lounge – one I used ot hold magazines!  I never know where I’ll find her sleeping!

I was on the search for a gray cardigan and I found the one pictured here clearnanced priced for a whopping $5!  Double win!!

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The fall sunrises have been so beautiful!  I feel like Robert Sheffey, the old circuit riding preacher when he would see the sun setting and would take his sheep skin and go pray because he could “almost see heaven peeking through those clouds.”  I use my walking time to pray out loud to the Lord.  These cool, beautiful mornings have been such a blessing as I cry out to the Lord, walk and pray!

My week and my heart is full of so many of God’s blessings!  I am undeserving, but so very thankful! What fun things did you do this week?

Stay refreshed,

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home

Comforting Sounds of Home

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As I write this post, the windows are up, allowing the cool morning air to blow in, but the air isn’t the only thing coming in.  There are also the sounds of the country drifiting into our house.  I hear…

A tractor on the hillside

An occasional car

A bird’s song

Silence

These are all reasons I love living in the country!  But there are sounds that happen inside our house, too.  Many of them are intentional sounds that I pray will comfort those that enter and give them the sense of rest, and of a haven.

  • Quiet – How?
    Be intentional.

    • Turn the television off.  Don’t use the television to buffer the silence.  In many homes the television is turned on in the morning and plays all day long. The noise of commercials alone creates an atmosphere of confusion and chaos.  Sometimes people are afraid of silence.  But it’s in the quiet that we hear the Lord speak.  In the quiet we can think, plan and concentrate.  In the quiet we can meditate on Scripture or hum a song!  It’s hard to do any of that if there’s something shouting at us as “background noise.”
  • Music – When?
    • When guests come over –  Having quiet doesn’t mean nothing can be on.  I will often turn on Pandora Radio on my computer before guests arrive.  I have a station of just instrumental music that I turn on softly so we can hear the music, but don’t have to shout over it.  I think having on music that people might know will bring the words of hymns to their hearts and encourage them.  It’s also a great testimony of your love for the Lord, just as a Bible verse hanging on your wall would do.
    • During mealtime – When our girls were home, I usually always turned on a CD during supper.  It wasn’t always sacred music, but it was usually just instrumental.  There’s a dulcimer CD that when any of us hear it today, we associate it with the midwest home we lived in, simply because of the memory the music evokes! It’s such a reminder that even sounds are a sensory that God gives that can create a special atmosphere.
    • At bedtime – If you have little ones at home, playing soft music as they drift off is a great way to quiet their hearts and help them sleep peacefully.
  • Humming – Who?  You!  When?
    • While you clean, cook, fold laundry, make the bed, or drive.You get the idea. I have never heard my mom sing a solo in church, but even today when I visit her, I’ll hear her singing softly and it’s comforting to me.  As she sings, I know that she is reminder herself of the biblical truths of that hymn.  Eph 5:19 tells us to speak to ourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.  Singing and humming is reminding yourself of truth, but it is also a message to those that hear you.
  • Quiet speaking voices
    • Bring the volume level down. If you respond quietly, it will set the tone. Proverbs 7 tells us that the strange women has a loud voice.  As women, we should speak softly and expect the same from our children.
  • Laughter
    • Give the good medicine of laughter.  Learn to laugh at yourself – when you forget to put the salad out for supper and remember it the next morning at breakfast – when you have spinach in your teeth or you trip in front of a crowd.  Laughter throws the cares of the world over your shoulder.  Have fun and create fun in your home and laugh together!

Let your home be associated with peace and quiet, soft music, quiet voices, humming, and much laughter.  What a haven you will give those that enter!

What sounds do you associate with home?

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Christian Life

Be Wise To Satan’s Devices

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During the early fall it’s common to see many spider webs as I walk in the morning.  From bushes, doorways, and fence posts, the spiders have worked hard laying traps for their suspects.  I always feel sorry for the bugs that are lured into the web, knowing that a certain doom that awaits them.

Recently as I walked and spotted so many webs, a verse of Scripture came to mind –

 Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.
II Cor. 2:11

This passage is speaking of giving forgiveness to others who have wronged us. Paul is telling the Corinthians to let go of anything that others have done to them.  If they were offended or hurt, or if he hurt any of them, he reminds them to forgive.  Paul wisely knew about the snares, the traps or the webs that Satan lays for believers – things like hurt feelings and unforgiving hearts!   The hurts lure you in, then doom comes!

Do you know Satan’s tricks?

Are you aware of how he tries to ensnare you and keep you from moving forward for Christ?  One of his tools is to get us offended, hurt and wounded so that we cannot possibly forgive.  Bitterness sets in.  Anger flows from our hearts.  Justice is our demand. And he has us.  Trapped.  Fallen captive because we aren’t wise to his devices.

Women from our church – and all over the world have begun a five-week prayer vigil for revival.  We are crying out to see God move in mighty ways – advancing the Gospel, souls saved, hearts revived.  We need to be reminded that the devil is not going to sit idly by while we pray!  We had better be wise to his devices!  We need to be on the alert for him to set a snare for us!!

  • If he can cause a strife in your marriage so that cold shoulders and pursed lips trump the Gospel kind of forgiveness, then he has ensnared another home and kept us from evangelizing the lost.
  • If he can get us hurt at church, so that we throw our hands up with a heart that says, “It’s not worth it!” then he has laid the web perfectly to silence our voices and keep us from praying for revival in that place!
  • If he can make us think that we are deserving of more than we have been given – more material blessings, more health, more recognition, more love from our God, then we have been lulled into the stickiness of the web of bitterness, spun by the deceiver, liar and hater of our soul, that will bring about a certain spiritual death.

BUT,

if we, like Paul, can be wise to his devices, instead of ignorant, we will see each of these scenarios as Satan’s ploy and we will wisely steer clear of them.  We will humble ourselves on bended knee, and forgive as we were forgiven, and pray, and love others because without it, we will be caught in his web.

It’s our choice.  Wisdom or ignorance – that’s how Paul put it.  Which will we choose today?

Let’s stay right so we can keep praying for revival!

img_8101P.S. For today’s reminder about how to make your home a haven, if you cover it with prayer Every.Single.Day. it will be noticeable.  Your family will feel it.  The enemy will be stopped by it.  A watching world will take notice.  Guests will recognize it.  Prayer is the greatest gift we can give our home.  Have you PRAYED for your home and each member of your family today?