Hearts in Service

"Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10a Be still. I thrive on keeping busy. I am extremely active. I'm usually moving from one project to the next without much breathing space. My thoughts are always racing, planning, and thinking ahead. Being still is difficult for me. However, this week is a week where I need to be still. Still to hear from God. Being quiet to rest my mind and body. Solitude to listen. Know that I am God. We look for God in the activity. In the bigness of life. In the miracles. More often, however, God is in the stillness. In the quietness. In the silence. Turning down the shouting of my thoughts and activities is not something I'm accustomed to. Yet, this week that is my plan. I want to talk less and listen more. To stay home and quiet my mind and body. To just be still... And know that He is God. I am thankful this week for Blessings #768-780 ... ♥ Pumpkin pie, a yearly treat. ♥ Flowers from a friend. ♥ A family who helped m

We had a full, but busy Thanksgiving. We were able to invite over a few people who would have been alone and that always makes me happy. Nathan put his cooking skills to the test and made a beautiful apple pie. As for me, after making 17 pies, I would be perfectly happy never looking at another pie again! :-) Friday is our traditional "Decorate the Tree" day and the kids did a great job with it. The only thing I do is put the lights on and they take care of the rest. It's nice now that they are older because I just turn them loose on it and they do it all. A funny story - Dan and the children also helped decorate the church for Christmas for me. I was so busy getting ready for Thanksgiving plus selling the pies that much of the time they were by themselves. I went down to decorate the front of the sanctuary and couldn't find the advent wreathe anywhere. I looked through all the boxes and it was nowhere to be found. Then I happened to look up on the wall and

Day after day, counting our blessings. One by one they have piled up. Small ways we see God's hand in our lives over the past month. We are called to a life of thanksgiving. A life of joy. A life of practicing the presence of God. Our blessings have accumulated throughout the month. Today is the day when we pull them out of our thankful jar and review the many little blessings that have accumulated. This month, our family is thankful for Blessings #726-767 ... ♥ Electricity ♥ A good time with a friend at the movies ♥ Grades that went up ♥ The gift of life ♥ Animals ♥ Clothing ♥ A family that helped Mom out ♥ Our church family ♥ Warm blankets ♥ Guitars and music ♥ Family ♥ Teens that went to a nursing home ♥ Autumn ♥ People who love us ♥ The ability to help a friend ♥ Jesus ♥ The encouragement of a friend ♥ Eating together as a family ♥ Christmas ♥ Mommy & Daddy ♥ Good pie sales ♥ Finishing up a project ♥ Our church reaching out to the fire department ♥ The gift of a new di

This is what I have been doing the past two days. Yesterday I made dough for 27 pie crusts, made them into rounds, wrapped them in plastic wrap and refrigerated them over night. Today, I've made 12 pies, 7 dozen potato rolls, and 3 loaves of rye bread. I still have another 4 pies to go. The reason? I had a silly idea to add pies to my bread list and post it on facebook so that local friends could purchase them. I'm not even that thrilled about making one pie, let alone 16. There is only one reason for it. I am certifiably crazy!

Thank you. Two little words. They mean so much and yet are used so little. How often do we go through the day and forget to use these basic words of courtesy? Do you thank the person at the grocery store when they bag our groceries? Do you thank your husband or child when they hand you something? Do you thank the person who holds the door open for you at the post office? Do you thank the person at church who takes care of your child in the nursery? Do you thank people at church who do a job no one notices? Just two little words. Why is it so difficult to remember to say thank you? Last night our church hosted a dinner for the local fire department. We wanted to say, "Thank you." To show them they were appreciated. We gave them a certificate of appreciation from our church for their dedication and service. The president of the fire company said that this was the first time in his 20 years of service that a community agency had ever said, "Thank you." That makes

I had a very productive week in the sewing room! Here are some of the projects I finished. I made two aprons. Dish cloths. Started my Christmas cards. I also completed two table runners. I just need to tack down the binding. What have you been up to?

I found this recipe a few months ago and make it quite regularly. Even my children who are not big sweet potato fans love it. I triple it for my crew. Ingredients 2 medium sweet potatoes, cut into wedges 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon seasoned salt 1/4 teaspoon cumin 1/8 teaspoon black pepper 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder non-stick cooking spray Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Combine all ingredients (except cooking spray) in a plastic bag. Seal and shake. Place sweet potato wedges on a baking sheet (do not overlap) coated with cooking spray. Bake at 450 degrees F for 20 minutes or until very tender, flipping potatoes once during cooking. Enjoy!

My favorite time of the year! I just realized the other day that Christmas is just around the corner and I haven't started planning out my cookies yet. I usually start making them in early November and put them in the freezer. This way I can pull them out for various parties and events. It always makes me laugh because no matter how many cookies I think I have, I usually end up having to make more because we run out. So I sat down and made up a list. The day after Thanksgiving we always put up our tree and decorations and then have hot cocoa and cookies so I do need to start baking! Here is the plan: Cookies Minty chocolate cookies Christmas meringues Gingerbread men Spritz Thumbprint Cookies Cocoa snowflakes Cinnamon pinwheels Sugar cookies Swedish ginger thins Kolacky Bizcochitos Candy Date-nut balls Rum balls Fudge What are you baking this year?

The Spirit Poured Into Us by Raymond A. Foss The power of the Spirit poured into us when we pour out our past becoming a vessel empty ready to be filled with God’s love Sharing our lives with the risen Christ walking yoked right to him conforming our steps to the way of our Lord Pouring out his love to all those in need serving rather than being served Today I'm thankful for the pouring out of Blessings #716-725 ♥ Teens pouring their time by giving up a Saturday afternoon to visit seniors in a nursing home. ♥ A church body pouring out their love and generosity on us for Pastor Appreciation Month. ♥ Pouring out my creativity into a friend's anniversary decorations. ♥ An Emergency Medical Technician pouring out her time on my son to help him start studying for an EMT test. ♥ The chief of the fire department and his wife pouring out their lives into Nathan by taking him to various fire meetings with them. ♥ A friend pouring out his help and resources by putting up plastic to help

Things were a little sparse in the crafting department this week. I'm working on table decorations for a friend's anniversary party in two weeks. They are celebrating their 25th anniversary with a vow renewal ceremony and Dan will be officiating. The luncheon will be held at the church immediately following the ceremony. I was given license to choose whatever colors I thought best and after mulling it over for a few days I finally decided upon cranberry with cream and silver accents. The church will be decorated for Christmas and cranberry will fit right into that color scheme. So far I've made 40 Danish paper heart baskets. I have approximately another 20 to go. They will be filled with candy for each guest. Once again, my camera made the colors look a different shade than they really are. I also made up some invitations to a ladies Christmas tea in December. I cropped the bottoms as I didn't really want my phone number plastered all over the web! ;-) That's

I have had conversations with friends who often talk about setting priorities - God first, then family, then ministry/church. When you are a pastoral family sometimes those lines get blurred. It's not quite so easy to say this, then this, and then that. Also, as Dan & I have studied scripture, we see things a bit differently. The idea of priorities and a hierarchy seems to be a very Western approach to scripture. We have always seen it as God is in the midst of every single aspect of our lives. That does not mean we don't set apart time just for the Lord. We both have a quiet time every day when we are reading His word and praying. We also take time just for family. We eat dinner together every night. We set apart days to do something as a family. We go to our children's school events as much as possible. We also have times of just ministry and outreach. Hospital visitations, church events, etc. But for the most part, those lines do get blurred.

For the past two years I've been on a journey. A journey of thankfulness. Of counting my blessings. In October of 2009 I decided that I would begin to make a weekly list of blessings in my life. Our family had gone through a severe trial and there were days I thought I was drowning. I needed to focus on some bit of hope in my life. Some of the things on my lists were small – the smell of fresh baked bread, sunshine after a few days of rain. Others were larger – gifts that were given to us, lessons the Lord was teaching me. I also started thanking Him for the things that don’t seem like blessings – a car that died by the side of the road after a long road trip and NOT during it. Trials that kept me clinging to God or discouragement that did the same. It has really changed the way I look at things. At times, I slip back into my old complaining ways but I have noticed that I’m more aware of the little ways God blesses me on a daily basis. It is essential that those who say th

I had the top to this table runner done over a week ago but was at a stand-still because I had nothing that would work for the border. However, a friend stopped by last week with a couple of boxes/bags of fabric and inside was the perfect piece. Here is the finished project which used up most of the autumn fabric I have on hand. Back view. I also put together some cards for a ladies brunch this Saturday. Inside are verses on thankfulness. You'll have to excuse the quality of the pictures. My camera seems to be acting up on indoor night shots. What have you been working on this week?