Hearts in Service

"Everyday may not be good, but there is something good in everyday." ~ Author unknown It hasn't been a particularly good week and at times, I can be tempted to complain. I hate that I'm so prone to see the glass as half empty rather than half full. I work hard not to go down the road of whining, and one way that I do that is to try to see something good in each day, even if the majority of the day has been bad. This week I saw these good gifts from God. 💓Fall colors, still hanging on the trees. 💓 Flowers that have survived a few frosts, as well as some snow. I brought these indoors to enjoy. 💓 Hugging a friend tight in her loss. 💓 A word of reminder that while we cannot take others' problems away, but we should strive to be the person who makes someone's life a little bit better. 💓 These ladies from our church's Hooks and Needles group who helped me stuff goody bags for a Halloween outreach. 💓 A few Etsy sales this week. 💓 A surprise visit from my

2 Corinthians 4:6-7 ~ For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. I have an earthenware crock that has a lid and I use it to make sauerkraut. However, the lid is cracked and it is fragile so I always have be careful when I am using it. One slip and the whole thing will shatter. I also put a cloth under the lid to keep the air from getting in. The crock doesn't look the prettiest and has some weird discolorations on the outside of it.  But that crock has held many delicious pints of sauerkraut throughout the years. I've also used it as part of my Christmas decor last year. I am so careful when using it because I don't want to drop it and break it. It's

My jams and vanilla extract at a local shop. Some weeks are just weird and this was one of them. Some things were expected and others were not. It started with the extraction of two of my wisdom teeth and I lost a day and a half in a drug-induced haze. It ended with a busy day yesterday doing ministry things, helping a friend with computer stuff, and grocery shopping.  The days between included an entire morning at a neurology appointment for my son, finding out a squirrel had chewed  a basketball-sized hole in the interior hood lining of my son's brand new car and was making a nest in the engine, working at a friend's shop, sewing, ministry items, a canceled get away because of Dan needing to be available for a funeral and meeting with the family, and just an overall strange eclectic sort of week where nothing was normal.  This week left me feeling unsettled, out of sorts, and as if the  unpleasant and unexpected was around every corner.  But there were some good things too: ❥

  1 Peter 5:7 ~ "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." Have you ever felt so anxious about something that it consumed your every waking moment? I have and when that happens it leaves me feeling exhausted. It feels as if I'm in an ocean with waves pouring over my head.  We've heard this verse in 1 Peter many times, but what does it actually mean? What does casting your anxiety on the Lord look like?  The idea in this verse is not just to casually pray and hand your worries over to God, but to hurl them onto Him. Think of it as casting a line in fishing. The fisherman throws his line far away into the water. In other words, throw your worries so far away from you that you won't be tempted to keep taking them back. When I'm upset about something, I have a tendency to think about it all day long. Or I'll talk about it constantly to my husband. I replay the situation over in my mind. It consumes me to the point where I have a hard time focusin

J ohn 1:14 ~ The Word  became flesh and took up residence   among us. We observed His glory, the glory as the One and Only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. I'm battling a headache today. I feel lethargic and like my head is in a vice. Even going for a walk hasn't really helped. However, as I was walking this afternoon a few thoughts came into my mind. We are all familiar with the above verse that talks about God becoming flesh and living among us. Jesus was fully God and yet, fully human, until He ascended back into heaven after the resurrection. I am amazed that He would deliberately take on this frail human body. We are told in Scripture that He experienced hunger, thirst, tiredness, anger, pain and all the human emotions we have. He experienced temptation and despair. Can you imagine what it must have been like when all this humanness came upon Him? Can you imagine suddenly having limitations when He was God? Who would deliberately choose to suffer pain or illne

I realized this morning that it's been a week since I've posted anything here. That mostly been because of a combination of busyness and just lack of inspiration. Writer's block is a real thing.  I love this time of the year and this year the changing colors have been spectacular. Dan and I went for a walk the other day and the views were beautiful. I grew up in a time and in a family where canning was just part of life. My grandparents on my dad's side of the family were farmers and I have fond memories of cows, creameries, hay lofts, and big old farm kitchens. My paternal grandmother practically lived in the kitchen.  My maternal grandmother worked a full-time job, but I remember trips to local farm stands when we would visit and hours spent putting up peaches and whatever other goodies she would procure. So I tend to gravitate to all things homey. I love working in my kitchen and putting up food to have for winter months. My biggest excitement this past week was the

  I've spent a lot of time in my kitchen this week. I love autumn and everything about it. And one of the things I love best is being able to preserve food to last for the winter months. It is a satisfying feeling to open up a jar of food that you put up yourself to make a dish for your family. I love seeing all the pretty jars on my pantry shelves and knowing that my hands were the ones who did the work of providing some security for my family's culinary needs. I haven't gone apple picking in a couple of years because it's just not as fun without little ones. But I do go to my local farm stand and purchase local apples. I picked up a half bushel of McIntosh apples for $.75 per lb. which is much cheaper. Yesterday I made an apple pie. I cut up some apples and added sugar and spice in the crockpot for apple butter. That has been cooking in the crockpot overnight. I need to jar it up today. I also took the peels and filled a jar about 3/4 of the way, added a tablespoon of

Psalm 19:7-9 ~ The instruction of the  Lord   is perfect,  renewing one’s life; the testimony of the   Lord   is trustworthy, making the inexperienced wise. The precepts of the  Lord   are right, making the heart glad; the command of the  Lord   is radiant, making the eyes light up. The fear of the  Lord   is pure, enduring forever; the ordinances of the  Lord   are reliable and altogether righteous. I feel like the Lord has been taking me on a journey of self-discovery the past few years that has been painful and yet, healing. Everything I rely on in my life has been stripped away and the mirror into my soul has been thrown wide open. And in that mirror He is revealing deep wounds, ugly truths, and areas of my life that I've kept hidden. It's a painful process and each time I think those wounds are healed something new pops up which causes a chain reaction of emotions and ugliness that I need to take back to God.  As I was reading this morning, I came across these verses in Ps

I may be strange, but I have always loved Mondays. To me it's a brand new fresh start and a giant do-over from any mistakes I made from the previous week. But since I started doing these Multitude Monday posts, it's also been a way to look back over the previous week and see some of the blessings that the Lord has given to me.  I haven't done one of these in a few weeks because of busyness and travel and thought I was due to post one. Despite my neck issues, it was a good week. Ever since my retreat I was on last weekend, I have felt much of my depression and discouragement lifted.  I spoke on standing on the promises of God instead of the lies of the enemy and it's almost as if speaking it aloud helped to lift the weight off my shoulders. I am thankful for that. I have much more that I'm thankful for this week.  💓 Opportunities to get back in the kitchen and cook and bake again. French butter lemon-lavender cookies. Veggie lasagna made with homegrown zuchinni and