Month: March 2022

The Girl (and her lunch)

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I can not tell you how many times in our years of raising a big family I fell back on the example of Jesus and His disciples feeding 5000 with a boys lunch. Making a little bit into much because God is in it. I wonder sometimes, if the boy’s mom packed with the thought that her son might be sharing. I wonder how big the loaves and fishes were and what he carried them in.

Many mom’s apparently make sandwiches ahead, as in the night before the next school day. And some even make enough ahead to freeze and pull them out as needed. I never trusted the bread to not get soggy so didn’t try that in spite of the fact that their kids did not complain that theirs were soggy. My approach was the morning line up. Generally I was making six lunches each morning and had a system to this while remembering who liked mayo, who hated it ect and hopefully getting the right sandwich into the right bag. We also relied on the tried and true PB and J.

At the time of this story I was at the tail end of school lunch years. With most of our kids grown and out of the house, I no longer had the line up. I was making just one school lunch on a school day. Generally I had always overpacked for this particular one. She never ate much while at school as a grade schooler but would eat most of what was left on the way home when her appetite returned. School was somewhat stressful as far as she was concerned and she did not want to eat while she was there much to the concern of teachers and lunchroom monitors.

Evidently by her high school days, this particular year, she was sharing her lunch with fellow hungry high school students. She made sure to eat something too, in case you are concerned for her. Since I learned of this sharing, I packed a bit differently. I packed with this in mind. She normally still had something left to eat on the way home but not always, which is ok because she could eat when we get home anyway.

One day heading home after school she was pulling something out from her bag and told me she was given banana bread from a student that day so actually had several things still to choose from. We were stopped at a traffic light and could see several car lengths ahead, a man with a sign at the side of the road. I am not sure exactly what all it said but it is an uncomfortable, familiar sight. Things were happening quickly since the light changed but she suddenly said “I have food. I could give him my lunch.” We passed him by. I looked at her and said “I can turn around”.

Frankly I was low on gas and still had another student (who had fallen into an after school power nap in the car oblivious to all of this transpiring) to take home as well. Finding a place to turn around in the stretch ahead would be an inconvenience and my mind wanted to figure out whether he was telling the truth on his sign. But we were giving food not money. And my daughter was giving her lunch to Jesus since He said “when you do it to the least of these you do it unto Me” You know, a cup of cold water in His name. Feeding the hungry. Visiting the sick. Those in prison. Loving the unlovely, seemingly least important ones, like He loved me when I didn’t deserve it. From Matthew 25:34-40

We were trying to figure out how to maneuver so it could be me handing the lunch out, not my daughter (we have seen too many/heard too many things that make us stranger leary) but when it came down to it, when we could finally get turned around and then turned around again it had to be her handing the lunch through her window. And he did seem grateful. And we were glad too.

Did he really have the kids at home like his sign said? If so, did one get the applesauce, another the cookies? Did they split the sandwich and banana bread? I don’t know. Or was it the first meal this man had in a day? Maybe. Maybe not. But Jesus knows and we are leaving that with Him.

Proverbs 22:9  A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.

Just as a PS. Several weeks after all this, I was at school (I was attending Charis Bible College). One of the ladies also attending, held up a large jar of Welch’s Grape Jam.

She asked me “Do you have a bunch of kids?”  “I do but they are all pretty much grown now…Is that grape jam? That is my daughter’s favorite. She loves jam rather than jelly”

“Take it for her.” Isn’t that just how God is? He knows and provides our FAVORITE..

I was able to say to my daughter that day as I handed it over “Jesus loves you Lily” 🙂

Blessings!

High Bar of the Proverbs 31 Woman

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Friends had Marty and me over one night for pizza, salad and general hang out time. It was just what I needed after work week/day even though I wouldn’t have thought so as tired as I was. I was revived by it. Nothing planned just being with friends. Grateful for that.

So these friends love hitting Goodwill, antique places, garage sales and such for fun. This mug is one of the things they picked up and gifted it to me…(there is one for Marty too but about being a man of faith and all)

My mug has a verse from Proverbs 31..that infamous collection of verses for women to aspire to… that nearly did our marriage in before it ever got started!

We had only been seeing each other a short while. I was still quite new to being a Christian and wanted to be walking it out … ahhh but then this bundle of verses portraying the Godly Superwoman. Everything I was not. I can still picture the room we were in, the couch I was sitting on when Marty opened a Bible to this passage and sincerely said ” This is what I want in a wife”. Time stopped for me and thoughts began skittering through my mind. Thoughts like ” You’d better start looking somewhere else…” The tune and words pop into the background ” to dream the impossible dream..”

Well flashing not only back but forward, two very flawed people determined to live for Jesus the One who saved us from our sins past, present and future got married and lived not always happily ever after but with a mixture of love, lots of children, happy times and trying times that nearly did us in, all the things that test the wedding vows and grow us up…

That job description for Superwoman…well I have learned along the way…it’s not all of those things all at once I don’t think. It’s a picture of a lifetime. Kind of like when I would buy my kids a coat just a bit big because they would grow into it…that’s how I see this now…something to grow into

Some Assembly Required

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I was thinking about the Bible verse I had at one time on my cover photo. I was also remembering the one about “better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere”. I was wondering if I mean those or are they just nice verses that express only King David’s heart. Maybe because he is saying he has asked it of the Lord it is a true glimpse of his heart as he worshiped and he just did not want to leave the presence of God. Maybe he was contrasting the place of worship to a cave he had to hide out in or even the palace he eventually lived in or the field he had shepherded sheep in and developed his rock and music ministry. Maybe he learned no matter what, the presence of God is the best of all life had offer.

I had an opportunity to head out to gather with other Christians and be in His presence around His Word. I was not sure about going out, getting dressed to be out, driving, and carving time out and so on. I could study here at home. I could tune in a listen or watch teaching/preaching online or tv. True. Then as I searched my heart I became aware that I really wanted to study His Word WITH other believers. There are a number of things I enjoy and find relaxing or fulfilling which are not wrong in and of themselves so it was not a condemning thing pushing me to “get to church”. I just realized that nice as those things are, there was a place in me they do not touch like gathering around His Word would with others.

I started to remember the place in scripture that says:

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:24-25) Another version puts it

“not forsaking the assembling together”.

So I chose to get on out there and mingle (assemble) with others and found one of the passages we were reading was from Exodus about keeping the Sabbath holy or set apart to God. I am not looking to discuss which day that is frankly, but we recognize there are days generally known to be set aside to gather and worship God our Creator.

We tend to hear these things as a negative in our culture I think. We do not think of the benefit or rewards of doing the things of rest, of worshiping God. We all practice normal daily disciplines that may not seem or feel pleasant at the time and yet we reap the rewards of doing them and don’t decide to leave off doing them because they take time or effort…changing a baby’s dirty diaper (baby clean, happy and smelling good again), going to work (get to make money to take care of self and family), paying bills (lights and heat stay on), washing dishes (kitchen in order and I can start all over at the next meal to feed our family), maintaining our cars (I get where I am going better and safer), shoveling snow…you have your own to add to the list. With blessings there come also responsibilities.

Secular Studies show that regular church attendance is linked with:

1. Increased marital stability, success and satisfaction

2. Prevention of disease

3. Reduced risk of suicide in teens

4. Reduced length of hospital stays

5. Reduced need for antibiotics

6. Lower blood pressure

7. Increased life expectancy

8. Higher average weekly income and higher average yearly income

9. Reduced risk of heart attack

10. Reduced crime rates

11. Improved physical health and less depression

12. Significantly reduced risk of alcohol abuse

13. Faster alleviation of poverty compared to government programs

These were taken from a number of studies. I do not have the list of resources in front of me but could try to obtain them again.

And those are just the secular studies.

God tells us in the Bible He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Even though reward seems to be a prize in our way of thinking, aren’t the above things a reward?

We gain when we get together with other Christians. We all have gifts or strengths to use that benefit each other that we do not benefit from just on our own for our own use. We assemble to build one another into something strong and beautiful.

So to be our best, to grow in all ways “Some Assembly is Required”