What Are You Craving?

Don't tell my oldest son, but the reason we can never keep peanut butter in the house for very long is because of a mysterious event...

At random times throughout the day, my tummy starts rumbling.  It's like it literally starts talking to me.  Peanut butter. First as a whisper, one I try to ignore.  Then it becomes a roar.  PEANUT BUTTER!!!! 

I can't help it.  I MUST respond to the craving.  I sneak a spoon out of the drawer, quietly open the cupboard, pull out the peanut-buttery goodness, slip off the lid, and enjoy a few quiet moments of indulgence.  It's just me and the peanut butter.  Seriously.  It's the simple things in life, I tell you.  

The other day, while enjoying my peanut butter in peace, I looked out the window at the beauty that is my backyard and heard that whisper.  

What if you craved Me as much as you crave peanut butter?  What are you craving more of?

Dang it!  I'd been caught!

John, 6:35 says, "Jesus replied, 'I am the bread of life.  Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again.  Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."

Lord, you just HAD to go there, didn't you?


I can honestly say that I AM craving more of Jesus, and I desperately want to know and understand Him more, but if I really am being honest here, then I have to admit that there are times I walk away from praying and reading my Bible for fear of becoming, "That crazy Christian Jesus Freak lady who no one wants to talk to."

What are you craving more of?


It's a question worth looking into.

Would I really rather indulge my cravings than be fed by the One who will ensure that I never go hungry again?

Would I really rather risk my strong walk with God in favor of a few moments of human indulgence?

What would YOU rather do?

I guess this is where being humble comes in.  I'd like to think that I read my Bible a lot (every morning when I start my day, every evening before I go to sleep, sometimes scattered throughout the day....well, that if all goes according to MY plan and I have the time to in between being wife and mom).  I'd like to think that I pray a lot, too.  I have conversations with Him all throughout the day.  And that, my friends, is where I see the problem lies.

What are you craving more of?


Dang!

Did you see that schedule of the good little Christian girl up there?  Whose time table is that on?  Certainly not God's.  I'm guilty, so guilty of trying to fit God into the moments that I want Him to.

He wants ALL of me.  Not just the moments I'm willing to "sacrifice."

I crave more.  More time with Him when HE wants me to.  You know what that means?  More time on my knees (even if my children and husband are watching).  More time in my Bible (especially when my regular teaching gig starts back up in August).  More time honestly, heart-wrenchingly praying (even when my crazy-controlling-self KNOWS there is other work to be done).

More.  I crave MORE.

"Taste and see that the Lord is good.  Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!  Fear the Lord, you his godly people, for those who fear him will have all they need.  Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry, but those who trust in the Lord will lack no good thing." - Psalm 34:6-10

If I would just die to myself...my time...everything that I'm craving really WOULD be fulfilled.  Not on my time, but on God's time.

So, the next time I feel my tummy rumble and literally SPEAK to me that I need peanut butter, I'm going to CHOOSE to think about God instead.  And I'm going to CHOOSE to let Him fulfill me.

What are YOU craving more?


I hope you'll think about that today.  And when you're ready to, I hope you'll join me in seeking Jesus instead of anything else.  I bet you'll find yourself a heck of a lot more fulfilled through Him than through anything else you have been filling yourself up.  Who cares if you really ARE that Crazy Christian Jesus Freak lady?  You certainly won't be alone, cause I'll be right there beside you!

Until the next whisper,

Em

The True Beauty of Brownies

"Stir sloooowly."

Those words repeatedly came out of my mouth this evening while I was cooking with my oldest boy.

"Mom," he said, "I've got it.  I know what to do."

And then, of course, while I was working on getting dinner in the oven, the brownie batter went a-flyin'.

The controlling woman in me could have easily gotten upset, but God was whispering to me during this joint cooking experience, and I kept my cool.

You see, there are two kinds of cooks in this world.  The one, like me, who cleans up along the way so as not to have one huge mess at the end of the project to clean and there's the one, like my husband, who waits till the last. possible. second. to clean up everything all at once.  It's labor intensive.  It's messy.  And it most definitely is not my way of doing things.

My son is preferring my husband's way of doing things, so we naturally butt heads a bit whenever he's in the kitchen with me.

Tonight, though, those brownies were his absolute pride and joy, so I just went with whatever he wanted to do.  We got messy.  We worked hard.  And now I have a plate full of completely delectable, warm and gooey Ghiradelli brownies to have for dessert.

Isn't that how our walks with God are?

Follow me here...

When we look at other Christian women, we see only the outside - the completed, delectable, mess-free, warm and gooey goodness.  We don't realize the sheer work (and absolute mess) it took to get to where they are.  We look at them and see all the things we desperately want to have...strong faith, complete trust, free-flowing Bible verses, true inner beauty, hands lifted in real worship, etc.  But, ladies, wow.  What if we took the time to ask them just how in the world they were able to make it all happen?

I'm sure we'd learn that some of the very women we look up to are those wait-till-the-absolute-minute-to-clean-it-all-up kind of women.  Just like my husband (and maybe you) when it comes to cooking, they're the women who could literally be falling apart at home, but they have that magical ability to pull it all together before they get outside the walls of their house and look, well, just awesome from the inside out.

I'm sure we'd also learn that there are women out there like me (and maybe like you) who clean up their messes along the way.  You'd never know that they were facing any sort of spiritual challenge or even having a bad day because they live by the motto of, "It'll all be okay."  They may be smiling through their tears as they're wiping up the little messes along the way, but they repeatedly smile through it all and TRUST that it really will all be okay.

Nope.  We don't see all that.  The mess.  The hard work.  The tears. The brownie batter a-flyin'.  All we see is the perfectly delectable, warm, gooey goodness.

So the next time when you're looking at another Christian sister and thinking that she has it all so perfectly together.  Remember the true beauty of brownies, and ask her how she's able to keep it all together.  And maybe, just maybe, offer her a brownie...and smile.

Until the next whisper,

Em

A Little Place Called Restoration

Do you ever have those moments when your trash can just stinks?  And I mean the kind of stink that's so bad you catch yourself gagging?

I had one of those moments this morning.  Now, I try to rely on my husband to take the trash out without my direction, but you know what?  Sometimes it just doesn't work out that way.  So this morning when I walked out to the garage, I was just hit with this wave of straight up STANK!  Truly, it was that bad.

I bundled up the trash bag and recognized the culprit...the leftover shrimp, sausage, potatoes, and corn from Saturday night's Low Country Boil.  The wave of regret hit me just as bad as the stAnk did.


Why didn't I just ask my husband to take the trash out that night?  Heck!  Why didn't I just take it out myself since I'm the one who threw all that mess in there in the first place?

I caught myself laughing as I walked outside to throw my stinky white Glad bag in the over-sized green bin.

The times God chooses to whisper to me just amaze me sometimes.  Today was one of those times as He whispered right when I threw the trash in and heard the lid slam shut.

Aren't you glad my love is like that?  Aren't you glad I can look at you through all the stink and the muck and still love you?  Aren't you glad that you can turn it all over to me and I can restore you with my love and close the lid on the rest of it?  


Yes, God.  I am so SO glad.


Saturday was a perfect example of that amazing love, and it was the whole reason for the stinky mess left behind in my trash bag.  Our son was baptized at our pastor's house and so was an old friend, so we chose to celebrate their brand new walks with Christ by cooking up a classic Southern Low Country Boil.  Yum!

Even though my trash was what brought back the great memories of that day, I'm thankful that it did because it gave me the chance to thank God for the amazing journey He's placed our family on during our last year or shore duty.

A little place called Restoration has been exactly what we've needed...Restoration Church, that is.  That church has been the place where I've really felt God's awesome restoring love as it shut the lid on the stinky parts of my soul and allowed me to start fresh.  It's also been the place that's redeemed a broken friendship and restored it to what it was (actually BETTER than it was).

Acts 3:19-21 says, "Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may sent the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets long ago."

Just like I have to take my trash out again and again (even if it means gagging a little bit), we must turn to God again and again and allow His awesome love to restore us.

If you don't have a church that's restoring your faith, your family, and your relationships, I pray that you'll seek one with your whole heart.  They're hard to find, but the perfect church is certainly out there somewhere for you.  If you're in the process of searching for one, keep searching.  If you're at a church where you aren't being constantly restored, I pray that you'll seek God's direction and guidance to lead you to the place you're supposed to be.

Thank you, Lord, for stAnk trash and how it reminds me of your awesome restoring and redeeming love.  Thank you for churches that help us to restore ourselves in you.

Until the next whisper,

Em