B's a Buzzin' & Praisin': A heart for Gratitude

8/31/2010

A heart for Gratitude

A heart for Gratitude

I thought I would be the first to say good morning, it is still deep in the belly of the night a little after 3:00am and I am awake. I took off my c-pap mask to better breathe the allergy filled air, this air is also filled with the presence of those I love. It is one of those strange times when God allows His being to draw me into His time and dimension and the Love I have for Him covers the love I have for the ones given to me, friends and family, and all of this seems so tightly tied together as though to melded into one, and it is happening here in my darkened room. For this I am deeply grateful.

The early atmosphere seems especially thick with His presence and I give praise……for His love for me, my love for Him and the love that moves in my heart for others. This love fest follows a day of indescribable and unashamed worship, and a time of being with family. What a blessing, my physical body can hardly bear it, my spirit loves it, this is joy. What A way to start this new week, in total gratitude!

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Fried Pineapple (breakfast~lunch~?)

1/4 cup brown sugar & 1/4 to 1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cups grated sharp cheddar
1/4 cups Velveeta cheese
1 (20-ounce) cans pineapple chunks, drained, and 3 or 4 tablespoons pineapple juice reserved~ but save all juice just in case, drink it if you don't use it!
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
Spray vegetable oil in a heavy skillet (preferably iron) melt butter add drained pineapple chunks, fry on medium for 4 or 5 minutes till dissolved, add cheese stir while melting, add reserved juice mixed with the flour.
add more juice or flour as needed to thicken the way you like it.
Serve warm eat as it is or as a side dish over sweetened rice....yummy!

EASIEST FUDGE EVER

LEMON

CHERRY

MAPLE

(ANY FLAVOR you want)

2 ¼ cup sugar

¾ cups unsweetened canned milk

1 ¼ cups white-chocolate chips

1 stick butter

(OPTIONAL FLAVORS)

For lemon fudge use :

1 teaspoon lemon oil

1 tea spoon lemon zest

*If substituting extract use more~ to taste

Bring sugar and milk to boil

Boil 6 minutes

Remove from heat

Quickly stir in white choc. Chips & butter

Add the flavoring you are using

Stir till smooth pour in 8x8 dish

Gobble before anyone else gets home!

FOACCIA BREAD

(rated easy)

Kitchen Tested- Don Approved

Delicious bread similar to bread stick, & can even be cut in strips. Hands on time about 12 minutes. Kneading time 1 minute. Rising time about 30 min. Baking time 10-20 minutes, depending on your preference of crispness.

Pre-heat oven to 475◦

Ingredients:

1 tea spoon white sugar

1 (.25) ounce package active dry yeast,

1/3 cup warm water,

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 table spoons olive oil

¼ tea spoon salt

(Assorted Italian spices)

Directions:

In a small bowl dissolve sugar and yeast in the warm water, for about 10 minutes.

In large bowl combine yeast mixture with salt & flour; stir well to mix. Stir in additional water (I used about 4/5 extra TB. water) 1 table spoons at a time, until all of the flour is absorbed. When flour is pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead about 1 minute.

Lightly spray with cooking oil a large bowl, place dough in the bowl and turn to coat. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place till it doubles in size, about 30 minutes.

Check oven (475◦)

Punch down dough, turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly (30 seconds). Pat or roll the dough into desired shape and place on lightly greased baking sheet , dimple the dough and brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt/pepper and I used garlic powder, basil, oregano (to taste)or salt/pepper and rosemary , thyme.

Bake…in pre-heated oven for 10 to 20 minutes depending on desired crispness and darkness of color.

My oven takes 12 minutes to a deep golden crispy brown!

So gooooooood!

I'm Feeling Loved!

There is a love that holds me in a timeless embrace, no beginning and no end, it is one so freely given. It completely fills my heart yet leaves room for others. This "Love" rains His wisdom and guidance upon me and desires that I follow Him, and in so doing I allow His love to live in me and thrive as a flame, as a precious jewel, a love that grows loyalty and rules my life. God's love, born in me through trust now guides all of my ways and in Him is my dependence for a clear path. His love directs my feet to HiS CHOSEN WAYS.

His love protects me from even myself. Respect for Him keeps me from making wrong choices, and I rejoice in His strength. I long to please Him, the one who loves me as no other, and I pray that I will always give Him the better part of me, and the first part of all that is mine. He is my strength and my need supplier.

This is way Proverbs 3; 1-10 speaks to me, as read in the Contemporary English Version.

"To love and be loved" to belong to a special love; I have reached the ultimate quest. I awaken in the mornings and sleep through the nights knowing I am loved. He has promised to be my husband, mother, father, my sunshine, my home, my adventure, my all in all. He is my heavenly Father, and I am never alone.
~

It Looks Like a Psalm

Psalm 118:14 The Lord is my strength and my SONG and He has become my Salvation~!

In times of brokenness, in times of seeing life through a dark prism I search and find the Song of my life, my Lord. As I remain in His presence, He conducts my focus and I dwell on Him and light returns and I hear the music once again.

Those time that I cannot understand My Lord's desires for my life or even hear holy words; I can still feel His song. I am enthralled as His melody runs through my soul, and by the passion with which he draws me into His heavenly realms as His hymns become living praise and wash over me.

His rhythm is my very heartbeat. I am in awe of the powerful tempo as His faithfulness courses through my life and it brings me to my knees. I long to dance in His light surrounded by the music of His being as He feeds the God thirst in me.

I long for answers; but rather I am blessed with a call to come into His presence and so I step into an anthem of prayer. I pray for patience and the lullaby that He is, sooths my need. His song is hope, as he pleads His interceding love for me.

By the music of Him, I am mesmerized. Jesus, the song of heaven, the Awesome Might King, He so loves me, He moves through me with a madrigal of strings and they are played by mercy and compassion. He sings a trinity of worship through me, and as I wait on Him, I sing with Him, we make heavenly music together.

Do you know the song?
Can you feel the beat?

Thrust Into Trust

Lessons learned from reading Hosea:

For me, the one who has opened my heart and life to the living God, accepted His son as savior, and live under His lordship, it would come with heartbreak and shock if He blocked the very path that He had guided me toward and led me down. Would I fall into bitterness, jump into despair or rest in trust.

There times in life when you must choose your reactions carefully, prayerfully as you cling to grace. My understanding is not necessary but faith is. Must I have reason and understanding to accomplish the act of faith? Must logic and sight give strength to faith?

Faith stands alone, no accompanying human trait needed, and I stand with faith.

"Father in those time when I am completely bewildered and confused, hold my hand, tug at my heart, remind me who You are, and wash me in Your spirit when I once again thrust myself into trust as you refresh my soul. Make Yourself known and all that I need, will become clear."

"Amen"

Can I remember a time when the Lord infused His strength in me?

Today, every day. I start each day by giving myself over to His care, telling Him how much I love Him and asking His protection over this soul of mine, that nothing in this world would come between us, not even me. I also ask that He would remind me of Himself all through my waking hours, and that I would actually feel and experience the strength of His holy strength.

I have particularly needed His strength these last few days. My husband of 57 years underwent his second (first was 19 years ago) open-heart surgery March 31, this year. For a 79-year-old man his determination knows no bounds, but there were risks and a little disappointment because the surgeon could only repair one rather than three arteries. However, with God's strength we will face that fact, and continue to live this new life in His strength. 2nd. CORINTHIANS 12:9 "My kindness is all you need, My power is strongest when you are weak." So if Christ keeps giving me His power I will gladly brag about how weak I am. ~~~

OTHER MOTHER

In one way or another I have been or have needed an "Other Mother"
~
The girlish giggles, the contagious fun,
the hair cuts and the ear piercing,
Running through the cemetery after dark,
Garage band parties and birthday cake,
Oh what fun the little girls make.
And I was there!
~
Sharing secretes, recipes and tears,
Twice told tales of male woes,
Opening scripture, holding hands in prayer,
Discussing children and new shades of hair,
Best of times for big girls care.
And I was there!
~
The times I have needed a shoulder,
Or at the best a hug and gentle caress,
A word, support and kind encouragement,
God provided , my needs were covered,
By a friend who loved and also Mothered.
And I was (certainly) there!
~
THANK YOU LORD FOR LETTING ME EXPERIENCING
BOTH SIDES "OTHER MOTHERING'!

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How My Day /Breaks

Lord thank you for another Monday in my life. Thank You that I have the blessing of starting my day in prayer, the source of my joy and contentment. Thank you for mornings of expectation as I desire to start my week in Your presence. Today Lord, I am having a problem with Your weather. Please give me an accepting heart, and wisdom to fight my way through the gloom this morning, so I may reflect Your light.

Amen

It's Monday, a new week, and my fresh start is cool and damp. Here in Kentucky on this Monday we're experiencing "Locust Winter", for those trees are in full bloom and the weather has turned on itself and become rather chilly in the slow paced rain that is sliding down.

Ivy encircles my giant maple tree, and its loose ends, that have yet to grasp hold of the tree, are waving in the wind like a way-ward child wanting attention. Just in case you couldn't tell, I am making a half-hearted effort to avoid being irritable, I may just go with it, ride it out, and lament later this undisciplined -weather related-snit that I am in.

My backyard is so very green with lush vegetation and the cloud that is hovering above it is so gray and watery that it gives the appearance of being on the bottom of a river looking up. There is no water standing in my yard but the wind is causing the uncut grass to ride its current and I feel like that all I need is a snorkel. I think Nemo just did a breaststroke through my hosta beds.

Living through the sixties when we already have had the eighties is rather disgusting, the "numbers" being temperature degrees and not the decades of years. In Kentucky, aka- Paradise, the sixties can be bone chilling when merciless, relentless rain arrives with it.

I know, I full well know, May flowers will follow, but just give me a break, a break in the clouds, please!
I have been retired for about ten years now but Mondays still have that same feel, a back to work day, to be dreaded, put off, and just tolerated. It always did and still does take sunshine, warm breezes, that tropical feel and an orange crush to make this day bearable!

So, what to do, crawl back under the covers or eat? Or……..No contest! Wonder if Don will notice how "the cookie crumbles" if I stay on my side of the bed???

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SOMETIME:
It was one of those "self-pitying" days; what was wrong, my focus was out of whack, that was wrong. I dwelt on me, myself, and I. Everything, was about me, and my hurts. In my thoughts, my plans, my actions, I was flying along solo in a "self "perceived, abandoned state. A lonely place to be, and there I was, by choice.

ALWAYS:
I cannot stay there in that empty place long, for I hear the heart call of my heavenly Father's Spirit, from deep within the core of me. I give over, give up, and hand Him the bruised soul of mine. He, in His God-like way, lifts me out of the dark, and into the light of His presence, and I see the truth with re-focused eyes. I am not alone. I never was abandoned. I am surrounded by good company, caught up and held safe in the Holy Trinity.

Psalm 118:24 "This is the day the Lord has made we will rejoice and be glad in together." (emphasis mine)

The Starring Role

You ask if they (?) made a movie of my life, who would I want to play the lead? I answer; I would play the lead, for no one else would do it! I would gladly re-live the comedy, the tragedy, and all the drama, with a few tweaks of course!

I would have more comedy with just a smattering of tragedy, so the comedy would stand out in sharp relief! The drama? Just pour it on, it is what gets me up in the mornings anyway and keeps my life full of exciting corners. God knows of my thirst for adventure, He placed the desire for full living deep within me, and each day I live it out!

Today's drama involves my husband recovering from heart by-pass surgery in the hospital. The comedy is in the humor, which is the way we (my family) cope with stress, and tragedy is the food in that institution!

At this special occasion I am "starring" in a typical way although in an untypical day in the "God blessed" epic of my life.

Halleluiah! What a pantry.

John 6:35 Jesus replied: "I am the bread that gives life! No one who comes to me will ever be hungry. No one who has faith in me will ever be thirsty." I stock my spiritual pantry with the "bread of life", the food that never gets stale always satisfies, quenches my thirst, gives me a taste treat beyond delicious. Even though the "bread" completely fills me, I am always left with the desire for more. A deep hunger in me is satisfied, I cherish , I share, I scarf the "bread" up but there is never less than I need. The "bread" fills the inner me and blesses the outer me. We have an emotional attachment and I love the "bread of life" and even though I use Him all up he is ever there for me! Halleluiah! What a pantry.

CELEBRATING~ Hope Reflected in a Choke-Cherry Tree

Purple, the color of hope! With hope I watch it, and I watch it closely in this early approach to spring. My Choke -Cherry tree has a "purple" tone, so for today that is my color of hope. There are tiny buds birthing on each branch, but I am not sure if they are blooms or infant leaves forming. Because this two year old has yet to bloom where it has been planted in my side yard. I know it should have white blossoms (for me to enjoy) in the spring and tiny dark fruit (for my birds to devour) in the fall. Will this be its time for blooming? To my Choke-Cherry I compare myself, my time of blooming in this my seventy-fourth year. I start every day as though God's spring lives within me and that gives me hope. Although my trunk is worn and my limbs are tired I feel the stirring of life in me each morning as I lay my very roots before Him, my blessed creator, and wait in hope and expectation for the spring-like renewal He has for my spirit each day. There are days my hope blooms for all to see. Some days it is private as the sap of God's spiritual strength runs deep within my soul, and the hope and promise of our relationship flows through me. My hope is a person, Lord Jesus, and today He is reflected to me in the color of "royal", purple.

A KEPT WOMAN

Knowing God's unconditional love for me has always brought a deep abiding security and it is the focus of my life, yet I find there are aspects of this "Heavenly" love I need to understand fully in order to live the full, richly blessed life of the "kept woman", one kept in His love. Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Delight yourself in the Lord: I spent many years thinking that “delight myself in the Lord” meant being a good girl and staying happy, and everything that I desired, wanted, and just had to have, would be mine, no special effort needed, I mean after all I belonged to Jesus didn‘t I? I was a kept woman, safe in my Heavenly Father's arms As it often happens for most people, time began to change my way of reasoning and understanding of the weightier (as in more substantial, not a burden) things of life including the scriptures. Delight myself; long to be with, long to know fully, long to have deeper understanding of, wrap myself in, to love more deeply; on it goes, a living praise song with no end, inexpressible joy of learning and growing while being covered in His love. He will give you the desires of your heart: God opened my eyes to this part of the verse in particular; it brought a new maturity when I thought I was already on top of most everything! It was like looking at one of those eye teaser puzzles, if you stare long enough at the protruding shapes they become convex and the whole scheme of the picture is changed. “And he will give you (me) the desires of your (my) heart!” Again, time stepped in and unveiled a broader scope of this God breathed statement. It was a surprise to me! I am not at all the subject of this verse, nor are my wants. With an open heart exposed to my Father, my desires become the ones that He places within the heart of me. He is giving me the desires that He wants me to have. What a winning combination, He has desires for me, He gives me those desires, I want them, and now the two of us agree and this is the substance of answered prayer. ~ Father, you know my heart, You understand my need, Change my thinking, Fill me with Your desires, For You are my desire. Amen Click here to view other Women of Faith Talk Back entires.

The True "Meaning" of Me

I mean, I have so many things to do, I need to get started, I mean to, I really do, and I am going to just as soon as; ok "now" is the time to do what I mean to; I will in a jiffy; or after awhile ….. I think it all through and make my plans, and then what happens? I don't know, I'm asking you. The morning is gone and I really meant too. Here comes….. there goes the afternoon and that means I let myself down again.

I mean to do so many grand thing in my life everyday, I want to do them all at the same time, write, paint, cook and decorate my house. I have taught myself to bead and craft wire jewelry with books from the library, I mean to only spend two hours a day doing this, that's what I meant to do, but what I do is, well I mean, the time just flies. Fifteen hours in my waking day just isn't enough, I mean it.

So, I really mean to slice and dice my day and portion out each piece to a different interest, and an occasional one must to given to cleaning, I mean it truly does. Or I could give my whole days to one thing or the other even if it means getting confused, It could be a means to an end. What it all boils down to is that it means that I must ,make decisions about this situation, no one can do it for me.

Ok, so here's the deal, even if it means making the wrong decision for the day, I am going to make a plan and stick to it and follow through. I mean it! I am going to start one thing at a time and do it, either in the time allotted or the day allotted, and you know what this means, no more living life on the edge, know just what my day holds, oh good grief no, no, no, no, no! So boring I don't know if I can do it, I really mean………

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8/31/2010

A heart for Gratitude

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