Jesus was in the kitchen

This past weekend was a new adventure for me. I helped cook for 15o+ people! The kitchen was at a spiritual retreat and 3 other ladies and I cooked for the group. I had fun and we made a lot of food. You don't get much down time because when you are done with one meal, you start another. Actually you are starting another meal before you are finished with the other! It went well, and I saw Jesus in the kitchen!
Friday night's menu was ham balls, cheesy potatoes, beans with almonds, dinner rolls and ice cream sundaes. I was in charge of making the potatoes in the morning. I made the amount that was designated. The first group that eats is served family style and their potato bowls kept coming back for seconds! The potatoes were yummy! But that posed a problem for the second half of people to eat. It looked that there may not be enough potatoes for everyone! Well, the other cook said that there was potato salad in the fridge, so we could get that if we needed to. But seriously, potato salad with ham balls? We started to dish up plates for the second group. I was on potato duty. I gave everyone one scoop but it so looked like it was going to run out! I sent up a short prayer, "Lord, you fed the 5,000 with loaves of bread and a couple fish, you can make the potatoes last." I was scraping the edges. I just kept praying, and everyone was eying the pan to see if there was any left. We scooped the last plate, someone said stop, that's enough. There were 5 complete plates left - one for each of the cooks!
I looked back just as I was going to sit down and there was the extra plate (remember we had 4 cooks). It was Jesus speaking to me, saying, "I will provide for you, and see, this one is for me!"
I just sent praises to the Lord! I am telling everyone of His Glory! He is my Provider! In this Thanksgiving season, whatever you are going through, may you give thanks too, for His unending faithfulness!
And may Jesus be in your kitchen too!

Points to ponder

Deuteronomy 29:29 (New Living Translation)
29 “The Lord our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions.

An eleventh-century English monk, Anselm, said,
"I do not seek, O Lord, to penetrate thy depths. I by no means think my intellect equal to them: but I long to understand in some degree thy truth, which my heart believes and loves. For I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe, that I may understand." James A. Boice. Psalms, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1998) 1149

Today is Grant's Birthday. I can't believe it's been 11 years ago that we received a call at about 9:30 am that we had a son! Glenn was at my folks helping my dad, so we had a conference call with Grant's birthmom. She then told us that we had a son! I couldn't wait to go to the hospital and see him for the first time. He was so tiny- 6lbs 3 oz.! We had a blizzard the next day but on placement day we took the 4-wheel drive pickup to get our son - because nothing was going to stop us - not wind, rain, sleet or hail!

Happy Birthday Grant, I am so proud of you! You are growing into a young man, I can't beleive you are eleven! Time goes by so fast! Love you much!

Harvest

There was smog on the plains today and I am praising God for it! The sun was a grey-white this morning at 8 AM on my way to work. The fog was prevalent, but there was something that broke the stillness - a humming noise. This humming noise is a welcome sound for it has been too silent for too long. The harvest has been shut down because of rain, but yesterday the wind blew! You could hear the hum of combines from far away this morning. The bean dust created a wonderful, glorious smog! I've been praying for the farmers and the harvest. The weather man says that there is a chance of rain for tomorrow night and Wednesday - let's hope he is wrong.

Football Season Won!

Saturday, we had our first snow of the season. The wind blew and it was a "balmy" 37 degrees outside! I was not inside my comfy house, I was attending my son's football game!

This year is the first year my son, Grant, joined a tackle-football league. My husband, Glenn, is helping to coach Grant's team. Glenn is having fun with coaching, and is learning to appreciate the game in a whole new way.
We have had 4 games and now are in the playoffs. I can see improvement every week in the players, not in the area of the score but the team keeps accomplishing techniques. The last game of the season they came up with a win and they won the Saturday playoff game.

For me the winning is not the important part. I just kept encouraging Grant to do his best and that is all anyone is asking of him. For me the important part is seeing a dad and his son bonding. To hear a son saying, "Thanks, Dad, for coaching me" is a prize. Football to me is seeing my son in a whole new way. He is the center for the team. The center is in charge of the huddle, so he has taken on that role, which is so unlike him.

The team may not have a winning record. The team may not win their bracket in the championship. But my son has already won! And this mom, couldn't be more proud!

What would you do?

Curled up with my coffee and my Bible study, I felt the jolt of the question. It was as if I stepped out in the rain on this cold wet day without protection. It was a wake up call, to me. I have been trying to find answers to life's questions - really trying to figure out where God was coming from. In a sense, trying to figure out why certain things happen in my life and the life of others. And then this question:
What do you think you'd do if you thought you had God completely figured out?
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Wow.
The author goes on to say: "Consider afresh that God was just as intentional about what He didn't tell us in Scripture as what He did. You might say that what is missing and unexplained on the pages of Scripture is in some ways just as inspired as what you find in ink. Who else is so brilliant, so multidimensional and gloriously mysterious that you could spend your entire life studying and never grasp His vastness?"(Beth Moore: Stepping Up A Journey Through the Psalms of Ascent)
Wow.
I think sometimes I have to have an answer for everything. I try to figure out why stuff happens. I think that by doing this I am trying to compartmentalize God! I don't want a God that fits in a box! I was putting my God in a box - it was a big one but a box none the less. He already broke out of a box for me. He came into a box(a human body) and broke out of it by overcoming death! I can't shove Him back into a box. If I had God figured out, I am not sure I would worship Him.
This weekend, God showed me, Isaiah 55: 8-9
8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the LORD.
9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts."
Wow.
Hallelujah! God is greater than my thoughts and my childish, selfish, mortal ways! God does not fit into any space in which I put Him in. My God is bigger! My God is God! I PRAISE HIS HOLY NAME!

What about you?
What do you think you'd do if you thought you had God completely figured out?
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Growing Pains!

Sometimes growing hurts. When I was in junior high, I remember my mom would rub my legs because they would ache. She said that they ached because they were growing. When babies teeth come through their gums, they are usually cranky, maybe have a fever, their noses run and they drool. When the teeth pop through, you find the reason for all the crankiness! The little, pearly white teeth are like little buttons on their gums. And soon the babies don't look so much like babies anymore but little toddlers!
Right now, my group of friends is going through some growing pains. It hurts! We are crying, supporting, and questioning why this change has to take place. We are going through some growing pains and its not fun. In fact, it stinks!
God says, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jer. 29:11)
We have some friends who are the type of friends that like family. We have invested in their lives and they have invested in ours. We are in each others stories. We laugh and cry together, we share hurts and rejoice together. And they are moving.... They are moving far away, not just across town.
They have heard a call from God to "Go." They have wrestled with the decision. But they are being obedient to their God. We don't want them to go but sometimes our ways are not God's ways. They have a peace about their decision but it's still hard, thus the growing pains. There is a reason for the move that we may never know on this side of heaven, but God knows. And we have to trust Him. We will trust in His promises to get us through the pain, "For I know the plans I have for Brad, Cindy and family," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
Maybe God will allow us to see the white pearls someday.