How to "Become God's Favorite"--Hmmm...

"Are you one of God's favorites?" I read last evening in a devotional by Randall McElwain, who is quickly becoming a favorite author ever since we heard a message by him at campmeeting in Kansas this summer.  He mentioned (if I remember right) Abraham,  Enoch, and David from the Old Testament, and Peter, James, John and Mary from the New, as some of God's favorites--"because they spent time with God," he said. And then he told about "Maggie," an 80-year-old lady who spent hours sitting in her easy chair praying and communing with the Lord.

"Maggie," he wrote, "was one of God's favorites...Will you join me in seeking to become one of God's favorites this year?"

I sat there,very much touched with the thought of being "one of God's favorites" because of "spending time with Him."
In fact, McElwain's words struck a very deep longing inside my heart.

BUT. 

The dishes needed to be done.
I had just spent most of the afternoon and part of the evening grading papers and tests (American Civics, Spanish I, and Grammar) and filling in report cards for home school. 

Now Crystal was still at work, and Carrie was gone to violin rehearsal, and Rose had made most of supper, so guess who needed to do the dishes?

I hesitated. I thought about going to my bedroom and "spending time with God."

Instead, I started doing the dishes.

Thus I probably lost my chance to become God's favorite!!!!

Actually, while I did dishes, I just talked a little bit to God.

I told Him that I would like to be "one of His favorites," not in the sense of being better than others, but in the sense that McElwain wrote, of being close to Him, and pleasing Him, like Mary who sat at His feet.

So I washed dishes and wiped counters and strained milk and talked to God, and wondered.

I wondered if God thinks much of mothers of seven kids who have to see that three meals a day get put on the table, laundry gets done, clothes get ironed, the floor gets mopped, the boys' hair gets cut and the girls' gets combed, hours of schooling a day gets done, and a whole list of other things that keep moms from spending hours in their easy chairs "spending time with God," and becoming "one of His favorites."

Then I sat down on the sofa, sorta like in an "easy chair," you know, and read through most of the Convention Herald, from IHC. I read the pages and pages of all the IHC conventions this year, and articles by old saints who wrote that we need to fast meals and fast sleep to intercede for revival.

I was feeling too weak to do much that evening, and I sat there with my head in my hands after reading all that, praying and thinking. 

What does God do with mothers who get weak within  minutes of not getting a meal on time,

and who can't make it through the day if they miss a single hour of sleep at night?

What does He do with mothers who get antsy and start to pick their heads and faces as soon as they sit still trying to read their Bibles and whose weary mind quickly wanders every time they kneel to pray?

What does He think of moms who seem to do better reading short passages of Scripture at a time throughout the day and spending short seasons of prayer on their feet so they won't be tempted to         mull so much?

I thought about how being a mother of young children requires a different set of disciplines than being a preacher or evangelist.

Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is to take a walk out to the pasture in the sunshine during school recess to visit your children who are building an enormous snowman!

When is the last time you heard a preacher say or an article say that you ought to do something like that?????
The kids had rolled two huge snowballs, and had to bring a big long plank to roll the second ball up on top of the first!

I loved their ingenuity!

And then my camera battery quit!  Awww!

I wasn't able to get a picture of the second ball getting set on the first one, but I loved watching my kids out there in the sunshine and snow..
Somehow, a few moments with my kids seemed to be important--very important, even if I wasn't fasting or praying or being spiritual or becoming God's favorite.

Like "Abou--Ben -Adhem, may his tribe increase," may we moms show our love for You, Lord, 

not by "being spiritual," and "becoming Your favorite," and necessarily fasting  much needed sleep and food, but by simply "doing Your will," whatever that may be in this season of life.

 

 *********

A post that was a blessing to me:

http://dorcassmucker.blogspot.com/2017/09/trusting-god-in-way-too-much.html

Solace in the Kitchen

The kitchen.
It's where Mom is.
It's where the family gathers.
 It's where cookies are baked and snacks are shared.

It's where soup steams and chili simmers and cheese melts on bread and the scent of herbs snipped into the chicken broth fills the warm air.

It's where the eggs and milk are brought each day,

and its where you bring your stubs and splinters and hurt feelings--because Mom is usually there.

It's where the amaryllis sits in the middle of the welcoming table,

and it's where all the family is welcome--and others are welcome, too.

  There have been many days when cooking and baking was more of a chore than a joy and comfort for me. There was so  much to do, and all I could think of was how to get one meal after another on the table while also caring for babies and educating young children and including them in my work.

But as my children grow older (and I do, too!) I realize what a comfort a hot meal is, and how much it means to have the table set and ready with supper on time, 

when Dad and the children come home from work.

Sometimes we take a hot meal on the table for granted.

We chafe at "having to" make another meal after already making two earlier in the day (which some folks deal with by cutting down to just two  meals, but that is another subject altogether.) 

We chafe at the dishes we have to wash and the messy counters we have to clean.

 But there is a special comfort one can take in making such meals in the kitchen.

 The very act of chopping onions and pepper and celery, or mixing a pleasant, colorful array of fruit in a bowl, can bring solace to a heart that hurts. 

Sometimes healing can be found in the mere giving of oneself to prepare a meal for the family or others.

And it's especially so when done in the name of Jesus and for His sake.

It's the simplicity of the activity that runs counter to the complexities of life's problems.

Many times we simply don't know how to deal with the complexities of life's problems or how to resolve interrelational issues.

But we can always give a cup of cold water (or hot coffee). We can always pull out an onion and pepper and potatoes, the flour and sugar and molasses, 

and make a meal for our loved ones.

We can even salvage apples that were frozen out in the van, and turn them into a spicy apple crisp.

In a recent devotional by John Piper, he brings out how Jesus said, "When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?” (Mark 8:19–21)

                                                    "Understand what?" Piper asks. "The leftovers.

The leftovers were for the servers. In fact, the first time there were twelve servers and twelve basketfuls left over (Mark 6:43) — one whole basket for each server. The second time there were seven basketfuls left over — seven, the number of abundant completeness."

They did not understand the meaning of the leftovers, namely, that Jesus will take care of them when they take care of others. 

What didn’t they understand? That Jesus would take care of them. You can’t out-give Jesus. When you spend your life for others, your needs will be met. 'My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus'(Philippians 4:19)."

We discovered this once again when we heard about a family in need who had just moved at last into a little apartment but had next to nothing to begin life here. The dad is a vet and the mom has disabilites, and some of the children have severe food allergies.

I  mixed meatballs and Carrie formed them,

and we baked potatoes and made a special green bean casserole and took a few other things.

On our way home, I was so weak with hunger that I stopped into a grocery store to buy something to hold myself together--and I found some unbelievable markdowns that filled half my cart.

Once again, when we shared love from our kitchen, God filled our grocery cart with blessings!

Our kitchen can be a place where the hungry find bread, the thirsty find water, the cold find warmth, the hurting find comfort, the weary find rest, and the empty find God's love.

Cozy Winter Evenings

Despite days of weakness for me lately, I am so grateful for the cozy winter evenings we've been having indoors after the supper dishes are done and outside chores are done and the milk is strained and I kind of have to crash.

Usually the boys bring in the wood and kindling and fill the wood box, but Rose helped out Sunday when it was so cold and snowy and blustery out.

The snow was piling up by the barn.

The snow piled up in drifts by the snow fences.

Sunday evening Crystal and Hannah were doing dishes.

Carrie sat knitting...

while Jonathan read aloud from Margaret Jensen's book, "Stories by the Sea," amazing, tender stories of God working through a family and their home and table, surrendered to Him.

Hannah listens while holding a puppy!

No end of lovin' on the puppies, who fall asleep in the children's laps.

And after everyone is in bed, Jonathan stokes the fire for the night and we turn out the lights.

Sometimes I just stand there by the fire for a bit before heading to our chilly bedroom, so thankful for the coziness and peace.

Prayers of thankfulness and intercession both arise in those quiet moments alone by the fire.

Warm our hearts, Lord, at the fires of Your Word and Spirit before we go out to face the chill of the world!

Smack Dab in the Middle of A Manhunt!

Fireman Sam isn't the only one in the family to have all the excitement!

Little did we know that an innocent trip to the library in the middle of town would land us right smackdab in the middle of a real, live manhunt complete with police and guns and blockades! 

Late Friday afternoon after chores at the neighbors were done, I was taking the children to the library. There we were, driving down Union Avenue toward the library when we saw there were two police cars over in the right hand turn lane. No big deal, but as we approached the traffic light, Timmy spotted three police creeping around the corner of the building next to our street, and they had guns drawn! Then we saw another police car on the street to the right, and another over on the street to the left, blocking the lane of traffic coming onto our avenue. As we sat there at the light, we saw that inside the glass door of the apartment building to our right was yellow crime scene or caution tape. And a police was running up the hill right beside us! It felt kind of eerie. I wondered if bullets were going to start zinging by our van! 

 

 The light turned, and we went on to the library. After we parked, we could see more and more police cars arriving on the streets. I called Jonathan to see if he had heard anything on the radio, and he hadn't but he felt we should move on out of there! It didn't sound good. Reluctantly, we left our beloved library, and went down over the hill to a store, Big Lots, where I thought we could hang out for half an hour till the excitement toned down.

Well, as we went around the curve and down the hill toward the store, there were two MORE police cars blocking the opposite lane and making people detour. As we passed them, the police were hurriedly pulling on bullet-proof vests and swinging out their rifles. I had a hard time making a left turn into Big Lots because of backed up traffic. The children begged to park where they could watch what was going on. So I did, wondering when the bullets would start flying! There we sat, watching, as sets of police cars kept arriving on scene, being directed one way or another by the blockading police. I shopped a while at Big Lots, which was a huge disaster because of how much money I spent on bargains. As I checked out, I asked the clerk if he knew what was up and he said there had been a shooting, and the shooter was on the loose. The clerk said he got nervous every time a new person came in the door! He told me an alternate way to get out of the parking lot so I wouldn't have to go out on Union, and I decided this was not the day to go to the library! We found our way out and came home where there was a hot supper of pork and veggies right out of the crockpot.

I know, that's the wrong picture, but it was the closest I could come to in my repertoire!
My brother Elon acted quite disappointed that I hadn't taken any pictures of this exciting event!
I can't believe I didn't think to take pictures!

Meanwhile, in town, the manhunt continued. We read that when the police had responded to a domestic violence call, the police had been shot at, and returned fire, but no injuries were reported. The shooter was still on the loose, and people in the area were being told to stay inside, lock their doors and stay away from windows.

And here we had been right smack dab in the middle of it just before they shut down the streets around there! Praise God for His protection, and that the next day the shooter was peacefully taken into custody with no further shooting or damages.

That same week Sam had to attend firefighters training at a couple local schools, for preparedness in case of emergency.As the world goes to pot around us, we have to look more and more often

to Jesus for our security and our fortress and our Rock.

Right in the middle of troubles all around us, and sometimes right in the middle of our own troubles,
"There is a place of quiet rest, near to the heart of God,

a place where sin cannot molest, near to the heart of God.

Oh, Jesus, blest Redeemer, sent from the heart of God.

Hold us Who wait before Thee near to the heart of God."

Just as our mama dog lay curled up sleeping peacefully in front of our woodstove while family life buzzed about her, we have a safe place to which we can run to find rest in life's turmoil--

near to the heart of God!

When You Gotta Do What You Gotta Do!

There are days when--well, you just gotta do what you gotta do!

When life just seems to go straight down the toilet!
(Jonathan got this picture of our cat getting the best drink he could find one morning and then emailed the picture to me saying, "Surely you can get something out of this for your blog!")
Isn't my husband fantastic?

 So when days happen like that, we need to remind ourselves to remember, and not to forget
the Lord's mercies and faithfulness.
I loved what John Piper wrote a few days ago in his Solid Joys devotional email in relation to this Scripture--
“This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end.” (Lamentations 3:21–22)

Piper writes, "One of the great enemies of hope is forgetting God’s promises. Reminding is a great ministry. Peter and Paul both said that they wrote letters for this reason (2 Peter 1:13; Romans 15:15).

"The main Helper in reminding us what we need to know is the Holy Spirit (John 14:26). But...the mind has this great power: It can talk to itself by way of reminder. The mind can 'call to mind,' as the text says: 'But this I call to mind...Don’t wallow in the mire of godless messages in your own head. Messages like: 'I can’t . . .' 'She won’t . . .' 'They never . . .' 'It has never worked . . .'

"The point is not that these are true or false. Your mind will always find a way to make them true, unless you “call to mind” something greater. God is the God of the impossible. Reasoning your way out of an impossible situation is not as effective as reminding yourself that God does impossible things."

Last weekend, Jonathan got a text from a friend of many years whose life had fallen apart a while back, and with whom we had been in contact recently.
His text shocked us with its triumph and joy.
He has gotten right with God and his wife is back together with him again!
Jonathan and I could hardly stop rejoicing!

And so here this blogpost is bicycling in with its basket of reminder--God does impossible things if we will let Him,

if we will call to mind what He has done, is doing, and will do.

The mercies of God are new every morning.

We aren't reduced to water from the nearest toilet to drink!

He gives fresh, living water from the clean, clear well of salvation--and you don't have to dig 903 feet to get it!