Because He loves Me!

I have posted on this book before, but I am reading it once again and found yet another reason why I love this book- Stepping Heavenward…

Here are a few great quotes from the book:”I am a wayward, foolish child. But He loves me! I have disobeyed and grieved Him ten thousand times. But He loves me! I have lost faith in some of my dearest friends and am very desolate. But He loves me!  I do not love Him, I am even angry with Him!  But He loves me!”…”I came away, and all the way home I fought this battle with myself, saying, ‘He loves me!’ I knelt down to pray, and all my wasted, childish, wicked life came and stared me in the face.  I looked at it, and said with tears of joy, ‘But He loves me!”  Never in my life did I feel so rested, so quieted, so sorrowful, and yet so satisfied.”

When my own mistakes, deliberate and not, come to stare me down I can say…That is what I WAS, but I was washed, I was sanctified, I was justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of my God, who LOVES me! (from 1 Corinthians 6:11)

**I found this as a draft saved under some posts I had written, but never posted.  It was dated last October, but still fits today in May!  So, hope this belated post encourages you as much as it did me just now as I read it.

Spring Has Sprung Just in Time for Summer

Almost like Yankee Noodle Lettuce Wraps!

Even though I am still feeling sick to my stomach at 20 weeks pregnant, my appetite remains. If anything, has grown.  I feel the best when eating and for some reason am constantly craving Chinese food.  I posted one recipe last week on Facebook and will post this one on my blog.  Since my favorite restaurant, Yankee Noodle, is over 650 miles away I decided to try to recreate one of my favorite menu items from there.  I adapted this Lettuce Wrap recipe from a Taste of Home Recipe.

Step #1 4-5 chicken breasts  (I boiled first, then cut into strips & fried them to a crisp because for some reason when pregnant chicken grosses me out, but the more cooked the better! I fried them in a little bit of vegetable oil and added about 2-3 tsp. of peanut sauce to the oil.)

8 oz. water chestnuts   (Add these to pan right before chicken is completely done.)

1 tsp ginger          (Add this to pan with the water chestnuts.)

Step #2 Combine the following:

1 tbsp rice vinegar

2 tbsp teriyaki sauce  

1 tbsp soy sauce

1-3 tsp peanut sauce (to taste)

1/2 to 1tsp garlic powder

1/4-1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

(Stir all together and pour over chicken.)

Step #3 I cut a 1/2 head of lettuce to put my chicken mixture in.  In each lettuce wrap I added cellophane noodles that I had cooked up, raw shredded carrots and cut up green onions. I also poured a little dipping sauce on each, which is a little teriyaki, soy, peanut sauce, garlic powder and red pepper flakes combined to taste.  Enjoy!

Toys and Candy

It only took me six years to figure out how much candy to buy at our previous house in Kentucky.  Last year I had finally bought enough to make it through the  final trick-or-treaters and then we moved. This year we found out that while the neighborhood we live in now isn’t the most popular one for the kid to make their rounds, it still saw a good amount of great costumes making their ways around to fill up on candy. And I had other entertainment as well.  I spent the majority of my time running off two little pumpkin thieves. (see pictures below) It proved to be a very amusing night.

Jesse, Buzz and the Human Cotton Candy had a great time, too.  They went to a few of our neighbors’ houses, then Doug drove them to another neighborhood where they got a huge loot of candy.  As always, more than enough.  The most fun for Emie this year, though, was creating her costume.  She wanted to be cotton candy and had an idea of how she wanted to do it swirling around in her mind.  I wished she could’ve found a $1 costume like Lily’s that we had bought at our church’s garage sale this summer!  But, I have to admit I ended up having so much fun helping Emie create her Cotton Candy masterpiece, that when she left for school a couple mornings ago, she had to say, “Now Mommy, Do NOT do any more work on my costume until I get home!”  It was a fun year, creating costumes, talking with neighbors, seeing where some of the kids’ friends and teachers live, chasing bandits away and of course sneaking a few pieces of chocolate in between trick-or-treaters! 

The true Hero

I have always loved super-hero stories.  I think we all have something in us that wants to be rescued.  And sometimes we want to be the one who does the rescuing.  It’s a good desire to want to love and serve others, but sometimes it switches over into serving in order to be recognized for the great hero we are (or are trying to be!).  I regulary read a blog that is written primarily for pastors (since I’m married to one!), but some of the words in the post today really resonated with me.

“There is a hero within us that wants to be recognized for making a positive difference in the lives of other people. That’s why when we do something good we say, “Look what I did!” …Jesus Christ is the true Hero. What’s important is not our sacrifices, but the one Jesus made at the cross for all people (Philippians 2:6-11). The way to greatness is not by striving to be a hero for God, but by submitting to the Father and joining his work of love as Jesus did (John 4:34, 5:19). A discipline that serves as an antidote to the hero spirit is to Abide in Prayer.” Read the whole post here.

These words really made me examine my motives.  Why do I serve?  Is it for my glory or the glory of the true Hero?  By no accident I was also reading a book today that reminded me that those things I do in secret will be rewarded by the One who I can keep no secrets from.  And that is the great thing about prayer, it is usually not seen by others, it brings me to my knees in humility and whatever result comes from it can only give glory to the True Hero, the Great Rescuer, the Redeemer of my soul.

Goodbye, Summer

First day of school

Emie’s party-Getting to ride around town in the Dream Carriage

Reluctantly, I have to give in to the fact that summer has ended for us. The girls started school yesterday- Lily in 3rd and Emie in 5th. Emie also celebrated her 10th birthday. This has been a good summer in many ways, yet one of the hardest in that I said goodbye to my cousin. Life keeps moving forward with the good, the hard… The kids keep growing and changing and so does my heart. There is so much I have yet to grow in, but for now I rest in the fact that God keeps carrying me through. So, I welcome a new change with the fall approaching and thank God that He never changes. Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.

Hope in the Already, but Not Yet

It is nearing two weeks since I first heard the tragic news that my cousin, John Larson had been killed as a result of his spray plane crashing. Not a day has yet passed that he hasn’t consumed my thoughts. Many things have passed through my mind…thoughts, questions, concerns for family, but also several old childhood memories I have of my cousin. John was a kid full of adventure, creativity and fun. He also was sensitive, caring and protective. A perfect older cousin for two little girls who had no big brother of their own. Almost all of the bedtime stories that I have told my kids over the last few years start out, “Me, my cousin John and my sister Traci…” We built numerous forts, we created get-away machines, time machines and booby traps, we explored, we hid in cornfields, we rode motorcycle dirt bikes and snowmobiles, we played Atari and Operation and Lite Brite, and John wasn’t above making a country library with us or playing with our Care Bears and Cabbage Patch Dolls. (I think he may have drawn the line at Barbie dolls, though!) I remember that my first couple years of elementary school John sat with me on the bus every day. I once remember when John was home sick from school and another boy tried to sit with me. John later gave me a lecture that this boy was not very nice and I shouldn’t sit with him again. I trusted my older cousin’s (3rd grade!) judgment completely, so the poor other boy never stood even a remote chance with me! Memories like these keep flooding my mind and it’s tempting to begin to despair as I question the wisdom of God in taking someone so young. I want to say, “but, couldn’t have You just…or…maybe it would’ve been better if…or…I think this or that plan makes more sense…”

“But this I call to mind and therefore I have hope”…”The Lord is my portion(the already); therefore I will wait for him (the not yet).”From Lamentations 3:19-24. I have a Savior who also died very young. A Savior who already conquered death-this part of life that we so despise. At Savior who already sits on His throne. And He weeps over death. It is not as it’s supposed to be. Not yet. So, in this I know that I can still trust in God, yet I can weep and weep hard. Death is ugly. But it is already conquered. Yet, I long for His return. I wait for the day when I no longer grieve over anything. He has already done it. Through His power, through His resurrection, through His amazing grace He gives me faith to believe in Him and to surrender my life to Him. Even when I doubt, His grace never waivers. But yet, I wait. I wait, knowing through Christ, I already have hope. I wait with tears because this world is broken- with death, with sin, with despair. I was reminded of that a couple of weeks ago. So, I wait for the King who has already beaten death and sin, to return, and therefore I have hope that the best is yet to come. Come, Lord Jesus!
“…I will watch expectantly for the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me…Though I fall I will rise; Though I dwell in darkness, the LORD is a light for me.” Micah 7:7-8