My First Temptation....

No, it not the first temptation that has been set in front of me, I have those all of the time.  But this morning had my first temptation that I was able to resist.  I don't know when the last time I walked away from food when it called my name.

I did the Flylady thing and prepared my lunch the night before, grilled chicken breast, a little bit of bbq sauce and cauliflower.  Now it's the morning of, I reach in to grab my lunch and it's not there.  Now if I didn't have a million containers in the frig that ALL look alike maybe I could find something easier but that's another post.  

As I am opening each and every container (you can see through these container but yet I couldn't seem to figure out what was in them with out lifting the lead.  Some I wished I would have left closed - guess I'll be cleaning out the frig this weekend).  Anyway, I opened a container that had left over sausage from Saturday's breakfast.  Oh the aroma, it smelt soooo good, even cold.  I remembered back to Saturday morning when we had them and how good it tasted.  

Please don't tell me I'm the only one that goes back in time thinking about the food I love.  

All of a sudden I had the bad Sheryl on one shoulder holding a red pitch fork saying "go on, throw it in the microwave, no ones home, who'll know".  On the other shoulder was the good Sheryl dressed in white saying, "don't do it, you don't even know who to count the calories or fat in it."  

I picked up a piece, closed my eyes and stuck it in my mouth.  The bad Sheryl was jumping for joy as I was savoring that piece of sausage. The good Sheryl grabbed the container, slammed the lid back on and threw the container back in the frig.   


I stood up and what do you think I found starring me in the face, my grilled chicken now sitting on the top shelf, easy to reach.  I'm just sure it wasn't there when I started this who temptation thing.  


With one more pound to go before I hit the 20 pounds lost goal, I'm glad I didn't let the bad Sheryl win.  


Thank you dear Father, I know when we are faced with temptation you always provide a way out, we just need to look for it.  Thank you for helping me to win this particular battle with food.  You gave us great food to enjoy not to abuse as I have done.  Amen.

Why Go To Church

Here is another great e-mail I received:

If you're spiritually alive, you're going to love this!
If you're spiritually dead, you won't want to read this.
If you're spiritually Curious, there is still hope!

A church goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. I've gone for 30 years now, 'he wrote', and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons.

But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all.'

This started real controversy in the 'Letters to the Editor' column, much to the delight of editor.

It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:
'I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this, they all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals I would be physically dead today. Likewise if I had not gone to church for nourishment I would be spiritually dead today!'

When you are down to nothing...God is up to something! Faith sees the invisible, believers the incredible and receives the impossible! Thank God for our physical and our spiritual nourishment!

Getting on our knees

Lent is marked by a time of prayer and preparation to celebrate Easter.

Since Sundays celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, the six Sundays that occur during Lent are not counted as part of the 40 days of Lent, and are refered to as the Sundays in Lent. This I did not know until I started actually questioning what Lent really is.

The number 40 is connected with many biblical events, but especially with the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness, I think I knew that one.

Lent has traditionally been marked by prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. By the way, what exactly is almsgiving? To be honest I had not even heard that term until I was sitting in a Catholic baptism this last Sunday. For some reason I couldn't let this term go undefined. According to the Crossmap Dictionay: "Alms" is anything given gratuitously to relieve the poor, as money food, or clothing, otherwise called charity.

God uses all sorts of ways to get our attention, to speak to us, and to teach us - we need to listen.

To put it in simple terms (because I usual need the simple version) Lent is the preparation to celebrate God's wonderful redemption at Easter, and the resurrected life that we live, and hope for as Christians.

In her blog Jumping Tandem, Dee asks the question, "So much space between me and the holy. The sacred. How did that happen?" How does that happen I ask? Part of itis the enemy and the busy life we think we must lead - but that's just my opion.

Dee reminds us of the spirtual disciplines - Inward, Outward, and Corporate, holy experiences, and sacred pathways. Folks, it's time to unplug, yes enven from blogging for a while, to shut off the cells phones and Ipods, the television, and other distractions in our lives. It's time to get on our knees and give thanks to The Holy One, the one who offers grace and forgiveness when we don't derserve it. The one who gave his only Son so that we may have eternal life. To the one who made the ultimate sacrifice.

It's time we stop making excuses and narrow that gap between ourself and the holy, the sacred and it all starts with getting on our knees.

To God Be The Glory

I attended the baptism of the granddaughter of some very close friends of ours this weekend. This was a Catholic service and very different for me, I have been Baptist for many many years and have never attended a Catholic baptism. I mean no disrespect in any way, but I am sure God was laughing his head off where my H and I were concerned.

The kid in front of my was wearing a baseball cap (backwards), I didn't give it a second thought. An older gentleman came up from behind, sounding disgusted and asked him to remove his hat while he was in church, the hat was removed and that was the end of it. Part of me thought, does it really make a difference? What matters is what is on the heart not on the head.

It was a beautiful service of baptism, different for me, but beautiful. However, Gods humor did not go unnoticed. We were sitting with the family. At one point in the service the family started to get up and go to the back of the sanctuary. I felt a tug on my arm and was being told to "come on". Now mind you I wasn't necessarily paying as close attention as I should have and had no idea where or why we were going. Women were taking their purses so I grabbed mine. The lady beside me left her gloves in the pew, not knowing where we were going I grabbed them for her - bright red gloves no less.

While getting out of our row the owner of the gloves lost one of her shoes, tripped over it and kept walking. My H didn't know whether to pick it up, kick it under the pew, or just leave it until we came back, at least he knew we were coming back to our pew and wasn't carrying bright red gloves. Our group stopped - great we just went to the back of the sanctuary to the baptismal. There I stand with these gloves, quite obvious that I have no clue what I am doing. I handed them to the owner and just pleaded stupidity. Thank the Lord she was the mother of our good friends.

In our church I am used to sitting during the prayer so when the priest said "lets us pray" I bowed my head only to realized a couple of seconds later everyone else was standing up. I quickly jumped to my feet, my H got a good laugh out of that one.

The Lords Prayer is also said a little differently then I am used to, we got to a point towards the end and everyone stopped, everyone that is except my H and me. We continued to finish the prayer for a few words until we realized that no one else was.

The communion service is a lot more ritualistic then I am used to. I sat and wondered if all that was necessary. Then I thought what honor, glory and respect those rituals are meant to give to God.

To be honest I am not into the rituals but it did make me think about the honor that was given to God. I started to think about this during the service and have continued to think about it through out the day, how do I show God honor and glory? I don't have a quick answer to that right at this moment. I'm sure some ways are obvious and some are not so obvious, but I am definitely going to give that question a lot of thought and meditation.

How do you show God honor and glory, by removing your hat in church? Now when I look back at that hat situation, yes it did make a difference, by removing the hat it shows respect, honor, and glory to God.

Man's Best Friend

This is Jake, he came to live with us in February of 2007. He was rescued from the Capital Humane Society. Yup, Jake's a pound puppy. He started out as my dd's dog (and still is, and one day I am sure he'll move out with her, sad day) but he has won a spot in all of our hearts. When Jake came home with us he weighed about 20 pounds, today he's a 60 pound lap dog.

Jake appreciates the little things in life, a romp in the snow, a nap on a warm blanket, a tummy rub, and a good bone. He lives in the moment and doesn't worry about tomorrow.

He shows unconditional love when we come home, sometimes too much love, and is quick to forgive us when we get mad at him. He is a protector, always on guard listening to every sound and alerting us to potential intruders. We do need to teach him that every car door he hears is not for our house nor does he have to tell us when ever someone walks by.

And how is it that dogs can always sense when you don't feel good. They lay beside you, give you a loving nudge and even lick your face and wake you up once you've finally fallen asleep :)

Jake has ate several blankets, comforters, and pillow shames. He's had accidents in the house and barks his fool head off at nothing in the back yard. And we won't even talk about what happens when he get loose in the front yard, let's just say he stretches his legs. Basically, Jake is a good dog that does naughty things once in a while but we still love him.

As it is with God, sometimes we do naughty things but God still love us. He has an unconditional love for us and blesses us more then we could ever deserve. He is our protector, our savior, and our redeemer; He is slow to anger and quick to forgive.

God is in the little things of everyday life. He is in the snow that is falling, the flower that is blooming and the smile on a young child's face; we should enjoy the beauty of that snow, the wonderful fragrance of the flower that only God can create and strive for the pure joy seen in that child's smile. We need to stop worrying about tomorrow, as it says:

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:34,

So, learn to bloom where you're planted and appreciate what God puts into your life. Look at Jake, he had absolutely nothing to say about being adopted but yet he has adjusted and has made our home his home.

Over the last 2-3 weeks I have come to love and have faith in the following verse; thank you Susan for showing it to me.

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11

Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.