1000 Gifts, Vol. 4, #66

My 1000 Gifts list began in a paper journal in November 2006 ... and changed my life.  When I reached 1000, I stopped, and it was noticeable ... to the point that my friends started asking, "Are you still writing your list?" [Hint, hint!] 

And so I continue ... plodding away on this journey of cultivating gratitude. 

Recently, in an effort not to forget the Giver of all good gifts, I have added a small (but big-in-meaning) phrase to the front of each gift I list. 

Do you count your gifts?

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

671.  I thank the Lord for a week of perfect weather - highs in the 70s/low 80s and lows in the 50s with clear blue skies!

672.  I thank the Lord for many opportunities to serve and invest in others' lives.  (I'm headed to my first weekly half-hour in kindergarten today &  my first weekly hour in 2nd grade tomorrow!)

673.  I thank the Lord for a husband who asks fantastic questions!

674.  I thank the Lord for moments of reading together in the living room and periodically sharing newly gleaned information or insights with each other.

675.  I thank the Lord for the opportunity to serve together on our church's missions conference team.

676.  I thank the Lord for how our past experiences are being put to good use on that team. :)

677.  I thank the Lord for a very ordinary widowed grandmother who has experienced God's faithfulness for decades ~ and was willing to speak candidly and powerfully to our church women's retreat.

678.  I thank the Lord for a first-grader running to greet me with reckless abandon and tell me all about her day at school and teach me how to play "Pretty Pretty Princess." :)

679.  I thank the Lord for case workers, adoption attorneys, and parents who have gone before us who listen, share their wisdom, and help us muddle through options.

680.  I thank the Lord for a new 7-week women's Bible study with four other women.

Reverse culture shock (Retreat edition)

Last Saturday I woke up at a nice retreat center, and walked across the conference ground, enjoying the perfect early-fall weather.

It had been several years since I'd been on a retreat, and I certainly had never been to this Midwest conference ground.  How fun to explore a new part of my new home state!  How wonderful to be outside early in the morning during this glorious time of year!  And ... breakfast! My favorite meal of the day!!

I walked through the buffet line, selected my food in a daze, set my tray on a table, went over to the drink station to make my tea, and then sat down to eat.

And the feeling I know all too well (though had not felt in awhile) came back!  My head was spinning, and it felt like I was having an internal whiplash.

"Where is the fish and rice and soup?!?!?"

As the conversation around my table continued, I tried to make sense of what was going on inside me.  I've been back in America for four years. And never once in those four years have I wanted fish and rice for breakfast.  What is going on?!

Aha!!  The last time I was on a retreat was in Japan.  And typical breakfast fare at such retreats usually includes whole grilled fish, rice, and miso soup, none of which was visible at this Midwestern retreat center on a Saturday morning in September.

Culture shock. It always trips you up when you least expect it!

Freezer Cooking, Lunchbox Edition

Freezer cooking ... it's one of those things that takes some forethought {and work!}, but the payoff is incredible!

Last year I read Not Your Mother's Make Ahead and Freeze Cookbook (Thank you, Interlibrary Loan!).  Several of the recipes became part of our list of well-loved dishes that freeze well.  The best part is that I've even been able to take a frozen (thawed) casserole to a friend when I signed up on Take Them a Meal. 

We are rounding the corner to the start of harvest, which means lunches & suppers packed in the red lunchboxES.  The best lunchbox meals in our family do not involve spoons or forks, thus the casseroles are out of the question.  I don't want to send a ham sandwich twice a day for three or four weeks ... mainly because I wouldn't want to eat a ham sandwich twice a day for three or four weeks! 

So, what to do?!?  Freezer cooking to the rescue!

One Saturday afternoon I baked two meatloaves, cooked a pot roast in the slow cooker, and grilled a bunch of pork chops on the George Foreman.  After the slices cooled in the fridge, I froze them in ziptop bags with freezer paper in between.  Once they were frozen, I removed the freezer paper, and I have the equivalent of IQF sliced meat to add variety to harvest lunchboxes.   Someday soon, I hope to add a roasted turkey breast and roasted chicken to this lineup.

In full disclosure, I really haven't cooked since that day a couple weeks ago. Even when Jim is home for a meal, I just pull out two slices of meat, defrost them in the microwave, and add some vegetables, salad, or fruit.

What are your best freezer cooking recipes or tips?

Elevator speech

Last week's prayer meeting focused on a nearby home for boys.  Two of the boys who are nearing graduation (& who are much better at public speaking than I was at that age) addressed our group, explaining the philosophy of the boy's home, the stages through which the young men progress, and what a typical day is like. 

In conclusion, their leader asked them to give us their elevator speech, each of which went something like this:

"I was sent to this home because I was defiant.  I didn't think my parents would have the courage to do it, but they did.  I've learned to be responsible and respectful.  I gave my life to Christ and was baptized a few months ago. I want to go to college and study history.  This home has changed my life."

Their elevator speeches (and the entire presentation) were all the more meaningful because one of the farms Jim rents is owned by a trust, and half of the profits go to this boys' home.  No doubt it makes the hours spent sitting on a tractor in those fields more meaningful, as he ponders how the Lord of the harvest is transforming the corn seeds in those fields into Gospel seeds in the hearts of broken boys!

Small things

Sometimes it's the little pleasures in life that can make a big difference!

• Serving Sunday evening popcorn in a real dish instead of a recycled plastic container.

• Drinking hot tea out of a teacup, complete with saucer!

• Freshly laundered sheets, blankets & pillows!!

• A tablecloth on the dining room table after weeks of having it bare (& cluttered with projects).

• Spending $2.27 on a pack of gel pens, after using a clerk's nice gel pen one day to sign my receipt.

• Nice smelling soap in the linen closet. 

What are some of the small things you do to make your day special?

Good Words

I've been appreciating Paul David Tripp's Facebook page.  Some recent gems include:

Today you will worry about your needs being met or believe that in Christ they have been met and get up and live like you believe it.

Today you will be tempted to minimize remaining sin and in so doing devalue the gift of the grace of Jesus Christ.

He has a way of rephrasing truth that I know into words that cause me to stop and consider how deviant my lived-out faith is from my professed faith.

Links of Interest

A few links for you to ponder:

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The Very Worst Trend Ever

Only when we acknowledge that we have really sinned can we be thankful for sin's authentic remedy: Jesus our Savior. Messiness—of the it's-been-a-rough-day variety—doesn't require a Savior. My sin does. ...

If we are constantly looking for someone else who is broken in all the same places, we overlook the comfort we can have in the perfect God-man.

"For we do not have a great high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin" (Heb. 4:15). 

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I appreciated one of the comments on the blog post, A Letter to Marilyn as She Travels to India:

"... living in another country can affect you deeper than you realize. It will always be apart of you inside where only those who have experienced it can understand."

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On Whales & Worship Lyrics:

If I supplied you with a copy of the lyrics to the 6,500 hymns of Charles Wesley, two things would happen to you as you read it. First, you would be deeply moved by the truths the lyrics contained, whether you knew the melodies associated with them or not. Second, you would know your Bible better. Could the same be said if you read through the lyrics of our modern worship offerings?

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1000 Gifts, Vol. 4, #65

661.  Thank you, Lord, for sound sleep.

662.  Thank you, Lord, for delightful times over meals with three different groups of people.

663.  Thank you, Lord, for the fun of discovering Thai food!

664.  Thank you, Lord, for friends modeling simple ways to encourage others.

665.  Thank you, Lord, for a GREAT first Sunday back in 6th grade girls' Sunday School!

666.  Thank you, Lord, for a dozen DELIGHTFUL girls!

667.  Thank you, Lord, for some early mornings this past week when I watched your world awake.

668.  Thank you, Lord, for the beauty of your moment-by-moment changing canvas as the sun peeked over the horizon, and the sky turned all manner of blue and purple and golden, in turn changing the color of the landscape.

669.  Thank you, Lord, for three girls running to my window to talk during my 1-2 minutes parked in their driveway.

670.  Thank you, Lord, for hearing others' stories of God at work.
 

Reading with a Kindle

This summer I was delightfully surprised by the gift of a Kindle Paperwhite! (Thanks, Jim!!)

I'm not here to write a review; I'll just tell you how I'm learning to live with and use mine.

This review convinced me to order a $10 cover.  I ordered magenta, and although it's a little more pepto-colored than I like, I am very happy to have a brightly colored case, so that I don't lose my Kindle, as I think I would if the case were black and didn't stand out whenever I dig through my backpack or a stack of books or magazines.

I was used to reading on Jim's iPad, so at first I found it very strange to read on such a small screen (which seems even smaller the larger you make the font - ha!).  Therefore, I was very glad to accidentally discover landscape view.  If you, too, are trying to find landscape view, the best I can tell you is, "Do a google search." :)

I enjoy slipping it in my purse and having my Bible, hymnal, and dozens of books at my fingertips whenever I find myself waiting somewhere, but the biggest change was when I packed for a recent weekend getaway.  Instead of packing an entire totebag s-t-u-f-f-e-d with books, I took two books and my Kindle!

I had been collecting free Kindle deals for several months (and reading them on the cloud online on my computer), so I have a nice variety - ESV Bible, some devotionals, fiction books, and missionary biographies.

My favorite sources for Kindle deals are:  Challies A La Carte, eReader Girl, and David C Cook emails.  Of course, there's always the library website, too, and the good thing about that, is that you never have an overdue e-book; it just disappears from your e-reader in 14 days!

Do you know of any other sources for good Kindle deals?

Hidden Blessings

Our phone & internet kept cutting off ... sometimes mid-call or mid-search.  It had happened periodically for a couple years, and we just thought they worked on the line a lot.  But this particular week, we experienced no service multiple times a day for hours at a time. 

When the technician came, he discovered a wire connected in the wrong position.  It would work in that position, but not as well as intended.

It especially would not work correctly in the heat.  ... And we had been having near record-breaking heat!

So, the hot days were a hidden blessing, allowing us to discover a problem that had been causing low-level stress over time.

Have you had any hidden blessings lately?

Grieving in the pew

"There are grieving people sitting in every pew."

That sentence jumped off the page and stayed in my head, as I stood in the Christian bookstore, flipping through books a few years ago.

I don't recall the title of the book or even the topic, but the more I live, the more I agree with that statement.  

How to help the grieving people in our pew ~ or what to do with our own grief ~ is the question. 

Molly Piper has a blog series, "How to Help Your Grieving Friend," which offers practical ideas for supporting a friend who is grieving a death, specifically the death of an infant or child.

Most of our grief is different from that, stemming from disappointments of life, hurts from others, and even losses we ourselves might not even notice. 

Every choice, even the good choices, means we say, "No," to another option, and to varying degrees, we grieve what might have been. 

While house-hunting, you decide on the house with more bedrooms, thereby not choosing the house with bay windows.  In the grand scheme of things, most people won't actively grieve the loss of bay windows, but sometimes it's helpful to name (and acknowledge) our losses, even those that we think don't matter. 

As with all human experiences, when we enter into grief (our own or our friend's), we experience new &/or deeper aspects of God's character. 

As I've reflected on loss & grief lately, my "Aha!" moment has been the reminder that it won't always be this way.  As Jim's grandfather would say,

"It's better farther on." 

Until that day when the Lord Jesus returns, let's encourage one another by being present in one another's grief and by reminding one another of our sure & certain hope as believers, that it is better farther on!

1000 Gifts, Vol. 4, #64

651.  Thank you, Lord, for an afternoon at home to do laundry & cook lots of meat for the coming weeks' lunch (and dinner) boxes during harvest.

652.  Thank you, Lord, for a crop for Jim to harvest.

653.  Thank you, Lord, for a long weekend away before harvest.

654.  Thank you, Lord, for new memories made with family - walks, games, golf, county fair, etc.

655.  Thank you, Lord, for 24 hours alone after family left - for these two introverts to recharge. :)

656.  Thank you, Lord, for September and starting (or resuming) new schedules ~ and the new opportunities.

657.  Thank you, Lord, for opportunities to be your hands and feet and mouthpiece in those opportunities, sharing your grace and truth.

658.  Thank you, Lord, for hope ~ and others who remind us of hope.

659.  Thank you, Lord, for one more year of walking with our "new" church.

660.  Thank you, Lord, for protection on the roads {with a new & busy schedule} and the convenience of iPads and audio books and car stereo systems.