Hearts in Service

Isaiah 26:3-4 ~ "You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord, is the Rock eternal." Three a.m. seems to be the hour when my over-active brain wakes me up the past few weeks.  I lay there, willing my mind to go back to sleep but inevitably those concerns and worries that I'm facing start invading my thoughts. We have had a stressful few months.  We are dealing with some concerns with family, financial issues and various health concerns.  It seems as if I get over the top of one wave of stress and then am facing another one.  The waves are endless and there are times when I feel like I'm sinking beneath them. I love these verses in Isaiah because it is a reminder that the Lord brings peace to the man or woman who trusts in Him. Trust is the key. When I take my eyes off the Lord and put them onto my circumstances, I can begin to feel anxious and stressed. Yet, when

Throughout the years, I have been told that I'm transparent.  I easily share my feelings.  I don't try to hide things.  I'm a fairly open book.  And by that, I don't mean I share every last thing in my life, but I certainly wouldn't be called reserved. I looked up the meaning of transparent this morning. Transparent - a. light to pass through so that objects behind can be distinctly seen. b. Easy to perceive or detect. Yep.  That sums up who I am.  Because in all the times I share and am transparent, my desire is to point people to the Lord.  I want them to see Him in me.  I want them to know that even when I struggle, my desire is to please and serve God. Being transparent can be painful.  Sometimes it means opening myself up to criticism or misunderstanding.  It means I have to be vulnerable.  Some people don't like transparency.  But my desire is that God's light would shine through me and people would be able to see Him.  And that makes the

Zechariah 8:4-8 ~ This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each of them with cane in hand because of their age. The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there. ” This is what the Lord Almighty says: “It may seem marvelous to the remnant of this people at that time, but will it seem marvelous to me? ” declares the Lord Almighty. This is what the Lord Almighty says: “I will save my people from the countries of the east and the west.  I will bring them back to live in Jerusalem; they will be my people, and I will be faithful and righteous to them as their God. ” Matthew 18:12-14 ~   “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?   And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine t

Psalm 94:18-19 (NIV) ~ When I said, “My foot is slipping, ” your unfailing love, Lord , supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy. For the past few weeks, Dan has been speaking about hindrances to our faith.  This Sunday he talked about the lack of joy as one of those hindrances.  We will have trials and troubles in this life.  Not a week or month will go by without some sort of struggle happening.  It's my attitude as I go through those trials that matters. I slip and slide my way through life.  My anxieties often cause me to flail and flounder.  Yet, the joy I have is a result of trusting that the Lord has a reason for allowing me to go through something.  I'm at peace because I know who is in control.  I can lay down and sleep each night because of the hope I have.  I may slip and slide, but God's hand steadies and supports me.  Nehemiah 8:10b (NIV) ~ Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

It's Frugal Friday again and one of my favorite days because I enjoy sharing some of my money-saving tips.  It keeps me motivated and hopefully, helps some of you.  Pinching pennies is work.  I'm out scouring the blackberry bushes every other day.  I have my eye on an apple tree out in our back field.  It has small apples on it but they are free and good for sauce.  I look for deals wherever I go.  I find ways to squeeze out every bit of goodness out of our material possessions so I don't have to go out and buy things constantly.  It's hard but it's satisfying! I hit the regional market again and I scored big this time!  I like going there because I go with a specified amount of cash and when it's gone, I am done.  This week I took a bit extra because I knew I wanted to get some items to can and freeze. For  $50 I was able to purchase the following: 1 bushel plum tomatoes 5 dozen ears of sweet corn (got a deal for

Dan and I walk side by side in silence; the only sound is the crunching of leaves under our feet and the shrill chirp of chipmunks.  Every now and then we are rewarded with the sight of wildlife; a doe and her two fawns, squirrels, or a garter snake, slithering across the path to get out of our way.  The air smells sweet and earthy.  The forest air is thick and humid.  It is our place to retreat and reconnect. There aren't many forests in Central New York and we are happy to have this little oasis.  I mentioned to Dan yesterday that the minute I leave the car and begin walking here, I feel the burden lifting from my shoulders and my head clearing. Being in full-time ministry isn't easy.  So many people look at the pastorate with scorn.  They think it's a cushy job and the joke is that pastors work one day a week.  And the truth is at times it is unique because of the flexibility many pastors have.  But it's also a job where your brain never shuts o

Exodus 14:13-16 ~ Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still." Then the LORD said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground." The Israelites are at the edge of the Red Sea with Pharoah's army riding hard on their heels. After letting them leave Egypt with Moses, he had a change of heart and was after them to bring them back into captivity. We pick up this story here where the Israelites are panicking and start wailing and lamenting to Moses that he should have let them die in Egypt. I love the Lord's solution to this. He tells the Israelites, "Be quiet!" "Stop whining." "Have fa

It's been a hard road to have children while being in the ministry and I fear we've made numerous mistakes along the way.  The hardest part is when you see your children affected by decisions you've made.  Moving here was hard on two of my children.  Emily had close friends in our last church and it's been a hard adjustment for her here.  She's made some friends and also lost a few along the way.  The year we first moved here, she went to summer camp, excited to see her friends from her last church.  However, they had moved on and to be honest, were quite unkind to her during the week of camp.  The day we picked her up from camp, she sobbed all the way home.  Then there have been some hurtful situations here as well.  I've watched her close herself off from people quite a bit.  She's more cynical than she ever used to be and that breaks my heart. Stephen is doing okay though still struggles quite regularly with generalized anxiety disorde

It was such a busy weekend and one in which I didn't do much relaxing. Saturday was taken up with a children's program, cleaning the church and typing up and copying bulletins as well as things around the house.  The majority of my Sunday afternoon was spent canning.  It has been so hot here and yesterday the humidity finally dropped.  So I took advantage of the cooler temperatures in the afternoon and started working on processing the fruit and vegetables I had. I canned the 6 pints of sauerkraut that had been sitting in brine.  I made another 7 pints of bread and butter pickles.  I made 6 - 1/2 pints of blackberry jelly.  I made a batch of cheese - queso blanco. I plan on making bread out of the leftover whey from the cheese. This time of the year is busy but I enjoy it.  I spend time praying while I cook or can.  I reflect on different things.  It's a good time of mentally thinking through a problem.  I was tired last night and fell asle

Now that my travels are over, life has settled into an ebb and flow of days.  I've been making jam and sauerkraut, canning items, doing laundry, cleaning, making soap, catching up with emails, and trying to make ends meet.  Every now and then I think things are under control and then I get some new obstacle and challenge to face. Yesterday's challenge came in the form of Stephen's college bill.  We have different options to take care of it.  We can pay the semester in full which won't happen since we don't have the money.  We can make monthly payments which will hurt greatly since it's about 40% of Dan's monthly income.  Or we can take out another loan which is not something we really want to do.  I could do some tutoring for the school system but the only problem with that is that while it'll help pay the bill, it will also throw us into a different tax bracket which won't help us in the lon

Ephesians 5:1-2 (HCSB) ~ Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children.   And walk in love, as the Messiah also loved us and gave Himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God. When the boys were little they followed Dan around and imitated everything he did.  They loved nothing more than riding in the car with him and going places.  Whatever he did they wanted to do.  When they played, I would often catch them pretending to preach or mimicking something that they had seen their daddy do.  At times, our children's imitation of us wasn't so pleasant.  I would hear attitudes and words come out of them that showed they watching everything we said and did, and it wasn't always positive.  Just as children imitate their parents, we are to imitate our Heavenly Father.  We should be watching how He acts and reacts, what He says and how He responds.  Jesus example should be what we try to mimic.  We should be following Him around and trying

Many days when I open up my Facebook to see what's going on in my friends, family and acquaintances lives, I'll see wonderful pictures and positive posts.  But many days I also read words of complaint, discontent and at times, verbal vomit.  It's so easy to fall into the trap of spending the majority of our lives complaining instead of being thankful.  Or to think that if my circumstances were different then I would be happy. Every now and then I too fall into the trap of wanting to take to my keyboard to launch a complaint but then I'll remember these verses in Colossians. Colossians 3:15-17 ~ And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jes

Today was the last day of our frugal staycation and was the most pricey of the week.  Yesterday, I went grocery shopping, read, watched a movie, and basically did a few chores.  So while we didn't go anywhere it was a nice change from our normal breakneck speed. This morning, Dan & I headed to a state park near here and walked about 3 miles.  Then we sat and enjoyed the view for a bit.  We stopped at Dunkin Donuts for breakfast before heading home. This afternoon we took the kids and went to see the new Star Trek movie.  Our local movie theater redid some of the rooms and we were happy to find out the movie was in one of the newer ones with reclining seats. Total cost for today = $64.50 ($7 parking at park, $8 coffee and breakfast, $32.50 movie tickets, and $17 snacks at theater). Total cost for 7 days = $144. So while it wasn't the most exciting week, it was a good one and we enjoyed it.  It is possible to have fun and not spend a fortune.

I love this sign! Every now and then I'll feel a twinge of jealousy when I hear about someone's fancy vacation.  I wish we could afford to go on a cruise or travel or fly to a resort.  But we can't. The reason is that we decided a long time ago that we were going to live within our means and we weren't going to go into massive debt.  Many people I know get to do these things by using their credit cards and then spending years trying to pay them off.  We live on one income for a number of reasons and it is a choice we made.  And it's a sacrifice but one we are willing to do. We are not perfect.  We do have some credit card debt that we are working hard to eliminate.  It's not easy at all so I certainly don't want to keep racking them up.  So when I saw this meme this morning it struck a chord.  "Act your wage!"  If you make $25,000 a year, don't spend like you make $50,000! Was our vacation exciting this week?  Not at all.  Were