Friday, June 12, 2015

I Know Who Holds Tomorrow

I have a great Lord and He has given me several amazing friends. They have come through shining with the light of Jesus. At the very least our possessions will be put in storage through the help of many of my friends. Thank you so much.

To my friends I want to give you such great hugs as you have uplifted me and listened to my concerns. When tiny irritations have popped up, you, my friends have sent encouragements and prayers.Thank you so much.

As I begin to sort through my things to make moving and or storage possible, I want to thank all my supporters. Yesterday as I was doing my morning chores, I was singing because the Lord through you had made my heart glad. It was amazing because the little flock of birds that live in the palm tree beside the parsonage were joining in my song. That morning was alive with life, love and music.

I love that I have friends from many walks of life and different faiths. I so value their contributions because they help me to grow as a person. You are a kind bunch of people who have no problem telling the truth. I want you to know who much that means to me.

Now I need to be back to packing, but I wanted to share with you a song that has been lurking in the back of my mind. I love to sing this song and now the words take on an even deeper meaning for my family.


May the Lord bless you for your kindness to my family.

On a side note: I had two friends stop by the house yesterday to do a quick soap session. I had loads of fun even though I didn't really get a chance to impart most of my knowledge. I love making soap and I love teaching others about making soap. Thank you for the diversion.

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Soapbox: I want to be like Abel

This is a Soapbox post because my family is going through some turmoil at the moment. After serving in the Worship service and after the coffee refreshment, our family was asked to leave the church. Cowboy Preacher preached his last sermon at this pulpit. I sang my last song in that church. My children are devastated by the suddenness. They don't understand how someone can smile, chat and ask after you and then do this. In 30 days we have to vacate the parsonage, whether we find another place or not. We have no grace from this Bride of Christ.

As I pack up our possessions, not knowing if we will even get a van to move it. Knowing that we might have to leave it all. We may have to leave years worth of our things we had collected. We have moved quite often of late and we are mostly down to the very few things that mean something to us. On top of that, we bought new beds for all the kids. It is painful to think about leaving this stuff. The years worth of craft supplies I collected costs a lot of money. My soap supplies, my beads, my paints and scrapbook papers. My children's keepsakes and toys may all have to be left. It was breaking my heart.

Then the Lord whooped me upside the head. He set my thoughts upon Cain and Abel. The story is that Abel gave the Lord the best of his efforts. Cain didn't. I thought back to an article I had read in the last several months about what people give to churches and charities isn't the best. It is often second hand and we no longer have a use for it in our households. It is a second thought. We know who is going to end up getting these things and we don't put forth our best efforts. We see where they are in life and we don't think much of it. We forget they are children of God even if we and they have forgot it. As we try to give the best to our own children to give them a boost into the cruel world, to fully equip them for this world and beyond, shouldn't we also do so for the other children, the children of God?

We should be giving our best efforts to shine the light of Jesus. Our best, not our second best. We do not show the love and grace of my great and almighty God when we don't put in our best effort. I want to be like Abel. I have often found myself doing the Cain thing without thought. I do my best efforts for my own benefit. I am going to have to work better on being like Abel. God has blessed me so often He deserves to be my first thoughts and my best efforts.

So while my best efforts are not enough for the world, I know that the Lord sees me doing my best and that is all that matters. As I pack up our possessions not knowing if we will have to leave them, I know that He is in my heart and that is all I need. So if I cannot take them with us, I will do my best to organize them so that someone else may be blessed with them. If the Lord chooses to bless another with these delightful possessions He had blessed us with, then I hope it is His love and care that shines through. As I clean and prepare this dwelling for another servant of God, I will put forth my best efforts. The Lord has blessed my family and I many times, so I can leave knowing that I am leaving my trappings to the Lord.

As we step into a new adventure following the Lord, I will put in my best efforts. I want to be like Abel. Where would the church be today if we all gave our best? If we were to have Abel's heart of giving? I want to be like Abel, how about you?

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Grandpa Al's Peanut Butter Cookie Recip

Hi Everyone,

I thought I would stop by and type up this really quick post. I'm reorganizing my paperwork again and I came across this email I had printed up. You see, my sister had this habit of asking me for Dad's peanut butter cookie recipe every few months or so. I'm not sure if she keeps misplacing the recipe or what, but I had typed on the bottom of the email. "Don't Delete This Message!!!" I thought I would go ahead and post it on my blog so I have it handy to send to her again whenever she requests it again. I love you Young! Yes, her real name is Young. It means "Eternal or Forever" in Korean. I think I am getting over being the only kid in the family to have been born in South Korea NOT to have a Korean name.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp baking soda

Instructions:


  1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
  2. Cream together butter, white sugar and brown sugar together for 5 minutes.
  3. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, salt and baking soda, set aside.
  4. Add egg to butter mixture, mix well. Add peanut butter and vanilla extract and mix well. 
  5. Add flour mixture to butter mixture and mix well.
  6. Make 1" balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet 2 to 3 inches apart. Make the characteristic pattern on the cookie dough using a fork. Take care not to smash the dough too much.
  7. Bake in a preheated 375°F oven for 10-12 minutes.
  8. Cool 1 minute and remove to cooling racks. 
That's pretty much it. I confess that I do use more than 1/2 cup of peanut butter but I haven't changed the recipe to reflect this as yet. I am sure that it will trip up my kids when they want to make cookies like mom, but I haven't decided which recipe I like more, so I keep the original. I may have to make a little trial to see which cookie is favored.