Promises

If there is ONE thing in my soul that needs to be worked on each day, it is this:
hope in God...
Hoping in God sustains us.
Hoping in God gives us joy and peace and contentment.
Hoping in God is our security.
Hoping in God gives us purpose. 
Hoping in God is ours in Jesus. 
Yet...I can at least speak for myself here...So often we worry (with or without God), question, fret, and a whole slew of other things that leave us as ships ready to be tossed by whatever wave happens to come our way next. 
I went to write out a verse in Lamentations about the mercies of God being new every morning. As I copied it down, I decided to read the verses around it. And that's when my mind turned right back to that familiar place: 
hope in God...

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;

His mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;

great is Your faithfulness.

“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,

“therefore I will hope in Him.”

Lamentations 3:22-24

 The steadfast love is with us, His mercy is always new, He is faithful, He is our portion...We have so many reasons to hope and when we have come to the end, to hope some more. 
Hope in God...You won't be disappointed! 

Real Faith

Ladies, I have a question for you today....Do you pray? By this I mean, do you spend earnest time in prayer to God? 
I do and I don't. I have seen God move in specific ways in answers to my prayers over and over again. It blows my mind. It's exciting and yet it's humbling. The God who made and keeps EVERYTHING is here calling me to pray to Him, to have faith, and to watch as He works. 
I am quick to thank God. I am quick to look to God. But I'm just not quick to ASK for things. 

Even so....Every single time I have asked for something specific I've seen a clear answer to it. No spoken words, no writing in the sky, and no pretty package on my doorstep...Not even a "still small voice". What I've seen is CHANGE...Changed hearts, changed situations, growth, understanding, overcoming, and quite a number of times, something given. Usually, answers didn't come overnight, but they came. 
Last week, while I was watching Heidi's kids I decided to turn a sermon on during "nap time". I looked through my iPod and decided on a sermon Mark Dever preached last year. Check it out HERE: Real Faith...Prays. 
Dever is one of my Mom's favorite preachers and I have to say, I can see why! He brings Scripture to real life and I happen to love how he ALWAYS has some piece of history to add to the point he is excited about. 

Ladies, listen to the sermon. Examine yourself and follow Dever's advice!!! Do you pray as though you believe that God is listening and will actually MOVE? 
Pray: Boldly...Specifically...Perseveringly....and WATCH as God works. 
2013 has been about DRINKING and a huge piece of that is praying...God works through our prayers. He works today and our prayers live on long after us! 

Praying isn't mainly about talking to or hearing from or getting something from God...Praying IS about setting a pattern of FAITH. Praying is KNOWING truth, STANDING on truth, and staying FOCUSED on God. 

As I pray, I need God, I need His Word, and I make for myself a path that leads me to walk with Him....Praying is what builds and strengthens and "fleshes out" the mind of God in my own head. 
Dever says to think about what you didn't pray about yesterday and pray about it today. That's A LOT....Don't run, don't worry, don't fear: do pray, do wait, do believe....He cares and He is working and in prayer you are saying, "in faith, I believe".

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess our sins one to another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three ears and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. James 5: 13-18

S'more, Please

A year or so ago, "s'more" everything was all the rage. Everyone was making s'more cookies, bars, and pies. I couldn't wait to get in on it! There was only one problem. Ever single recipe I saw was basically chocolate bars, marshmallows, and graham crackers smooshed and repurposed. 
Eventually, I came across a recipe that wasn't quite so boring. I bookmarked it and decided to save it for later. Last summer, later never came. 

Last Saturday, we had the first cook out of the year and I decided it would be the perfect day to make that S'more Pie I'd been so excited about. 
After it turned out, I knew I wanted to share it with you here! Unfortunately for you, I was so excited to actually eat it that I just snapped a few quick pictures with an iPod...
I'll put a link to the original recipe at the bottom of this post. If you make the pie, I'd love to hear from you!!! 
The only tips I have: 
Nope, there is no added sugar in the filling. That's okay, don't freak out. I used 8oz of chocolate, half bittersweet and half semisweet. 
The marshmallow fluff goes FAST, it might be helpful to have someone else scrape it out of the pan while YOU blend it up....

 Click HERE for the recipe complete with a printable file over at Just A Taste! 
Do you have a favorite cook out recipe? 
While we're recipe swapping...
Do you have a favorite potato salad recipe?
What about a recipe for a raspberry, pineapple, pecan jello salad with 7up in it?  

Once Upon a Saturday

Another weekend is over and with it another holiday has come and gone...I get the horrible daughter of the year award! I made sure to be there to spend the holiday with my Mom but that is all I had for her this year.

Saturday marked the first official cook out of the season. It was HOT and perfect.

Sunday was (of course) Mother's Day. There was face timing, chalk drawing, a dinner with friends, and "Lincoln" watching. My Mom is an AMAZING woman and yet honoring her on the holiday marked for it was PATHETIC. She's reading this shaking her head I'm sure...I love you and you know it, Mom, even when I STINK at helping you know it!

*****


LAST weekend, my brother and sister asked me to put together an obstacle course for them. I looked around for things to set up and hours worth of fun was born...The time JUNK came in handy, or something like that!

They ran, jumped, crab walked, crawled, balanced on a barrel, carried water, dribbled, and jump roped....OVER AND OVER AND OVER again. The scores got faster and slower. "Hey, Mom, watch this!!!!" was shouted. Videos were made, pictures were taken, and I hope another fun memory was added to the banks. 

Every now and then a quiet Saturday at home turns into something a little less quiet. I love those days!!!

*******

Uno mas, Meh-Mah.....I LOVE you and I'm GLAD you're my Mom and my best friend! There may not be any grandbabies, but there are still plenty of good times. :) 

They Matter More Than We Think

Frankly, life does not have to be exciting to be good. You don't have to take trips...Or know many people...You don't have to have a nice car...And you don't have to be important...Life can still be good.
I have spent most of my life living in small towns. Even when I've lived in the city, I've seen that neighborhoods become their own small town, their own safe haven. 
These places are full of people who are all "busy" and yet if they died, life would go on just fine without most of them. They spend their days going to work, cleaning the house, fixing food, taking care of the lawn, checking the mail, getting gas for their car, watching TV, and occasionally they get together with family for a party, a cookout, or a milestone. 
Life in these safe havens have things to teach us...
Time goes on and things don't matter, people do. Yet, it's always the things that bring us together.  We see the same people at the post office, our kids play on the same sports teams, and maybe our Grandma's go to the same beauty shop. As we do the menial things, we get to know each other and we start to CARE for each other. 
 When you know the people around you, you know that we're all in it together. And together, we can see that a quiet life really can be quite good. 
This weekend, especially if you're just taking it slow, take some time to think. We're not going to be around forever. MOST of the things we do don't even matter. Think about the people around you and take some time to pour into them the joy and the life that you have in Christ. 
In Christ, the "pointless" minutes and hours and days have purpose. He gives them to us and He means for us to use them well.