#43 Eat Locally {52 bites}
So … if you’re new around here it’s time you knew the truth: I’m a crazy locavore who loves supporting local farms and eating organic produce, raw honey, grass-fed beef, and those awesome brown eggs with dark yellow yokes. (Can we still be friends? I’m cool with your Captain Crunch if you’re down with my chia seeds.)
Perhaps you like to eat this way too? But the difficult part of that diet is fairly obvious: It’s really expensive to eat that way. But since I’m also a frugal-fanatic you better believe I was out there like a hound dog sniffin’ out some ways to make this work.
I found one way: The Full-Diet CSA through Afton Field Farm.{Read the rest over at Frugal Living NW… thanks!}
*Don’t live in the Willamette Valley? Check out LocalHarvest.org to find local CSAs near you. Also see ideas on starting your own garden.
When you feel the tug of war inside…
I said yesterday you were freed from the flesh.
I know, I can hear you: Freed from the flesh, huh? Is that what you’re saying? Freed from the propensity to sin? Freed from envy? Fear? Worry? Freed, once and for all? Fat chance!
I know, I know, it’s true: As long as we have bodies of flesh we will have battles with flesh. We will never perfectly “arrive” to never face another battle of the flesh. We won’t be 100% freed from this battle until we wake up in glory, but the key here is that we can walk in victory in the midst of the battle.
And how are we victorious? By walking by the Spirit. “Walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). There is the “how.” I want to stop sinning! I want to be freed from this bondage to sin! This is the primary hindrance in the Christian life, and the answer is Walk by the Spirit. Why? The Spirit is what “drives out” the flesh.
Erasmus said it and Ann Voskamp reminded us of it: A nail must be driven out by another nail. Habit is driven out by habit. We cannot just remove something, we must drive it out by a greater force. Sin must be displaced in our lives. We fight sin with superior pleasure. NOT by focusing on it. Like being on a diet and focusing on “no sugar, no sugar, no sugar!” If we do that, then what do you want?? Sugar, of course.
We don’t fight sin by focusing on it, we fight sin by replacing it with something of superior value.
Galatians 5:17 says the desires of the flesh oppose the Spirit and vise versa. They never agree. They are at war and and this battle is very real, because the flesh and the Spirit are literally at work in your body. And they both manifest themselves through: DESIRES.
Notice that both the compelling force of the flesh is referred to as “desire” and the compelling force of the Spirit is referred to as “desire.”
James 4:1:1 says, “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you.”
We have a battle going on in our bodies because we have a Spirit that wants to follow God and a flesh that wants to do its own thing.
Have you felt it?
Me too.
Romans 7:21-25 says it like this:
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Anybody ever been there? Can you feel the tug of war? How can you displace sin by superior pleasure today? How can you ENJOY God today? He is the greatest pleasure that trumps all else.
{Battling alongside you … Thanks for reading.}
What does freedom look like … for you?
What is freedom?
We discovered here that the gospel is freeing. Great! Now what? In Galatians 5:1 we read that for freedom Christ has set us free. Now even that can be confusing. For freedom we are free. What? That’s like saying, “For retreating we have retreated.” Um, ok? Can someone please tell me a little more about this freedom? Because if don’t understand what this means we’ll never actually experience the victory and the change that God wants in our lives.
The real question then, is this: What are we freed from and what are we freed for?
Galatians 5:13 says“Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh but in love serve one another.”
We’ve been freed from slavery to our flesh.
Our freedom is not license to sin it is liberty to do right.
See if we don’t understand true freedom we’ll get it all mixed up. When I was a freshman in college I struggled with what some would call an “eating disorder” – I would just call it sin. I took a good desire–wanting to lose weight–and turned it into an obsession, wanting to be skinnier and skinnier and skinnier until it was unhealthy and dishonest. So at the end of my sophomore year I had a radical breakthrough where I confessed and was honest and sought help and received radical deliverance from this bondage. And I believed that I was now “FREE” – great.
Free. Now I was free. No more bondage. No more obsessing over being too skinny. No more starving. Free!
But what did that mean? I wrongly believed that since I was “free” I could just do whatever I wanted. So I ate. And ate and ate and ate and ate. Because I was free! Free! Didn’t it feel good to be free?
Not really. Because after I’d eat and eat and eat I still felt terrible. Even though I wasn’t starving I still wasn’t walking in the true freedom of Christ, in freedom from the flesh, freedom to glorify God.
True freedom is freedom from bondage to the flesh. If you are in Christ you are no longer a slave to the flesh. Meaning, you are no longer obligated to obey your flesh’s sinful desires. In my situation, freedom meant I could eat when I was hungry and stop when I was full. I didn’t need to hide or be afraid. I didn’t need to turn to food as an idol or comfort. Freedom is real freedom.
For example, we are free to eat a scoop of ice cream and not the whole carton. We are free to see a beautiful woman and not feel envious. We are free to rejoice over another person’s successes, free to be genuinely happy for someone who’s kids are thriving while ours are struggling. Free to be genuinely patient when our kids was pushing our buttons. We are free to love someone who hurt us, instead of harboring resentment. We are free to be happy and joyful, instead of in bondage to moodiness or cynicism. We are free to wear older clothes or have an old car or live in an old house or apartment, we’re free from having to keep up with the Joneses because we’re free from rivalry and strife.
What’s your thing? The thing you want God to change.
What would I freedom look like?
Think about it. Envision it. Ask God to show you what freedom would look like, then begin praying toward and taking steps toward that.
Are you willing to share? What would freedom look like for you? Describe it with confidence and believe that God can give you the power to walk in that freedom! Share with us and let us pray for you! We’re cheering for you, sister. Thanks for growing with us… and for reading.
When you're mad at your kids and don't know why…
Last weekend, as we lay in bed, Jeff asked me how I felt. I replied, “I feel like a rubber band that’s stretched out so tight it’s just about to snap.” He knew enough to put his arm around me and just stay quiet after that. (love that man.)
Someone please tell me they’ve felt like that too?
My confession is this: I’ve been mad. Not all the time, but more often than I like to admit, I’ve been struggling with just getting so angry with my Littles. Sure, there’s a time to be mad, to get angry at sin and to be stern in discipline. But this was more of a subtle brewing beneath the surface that’s just a slight incident away from boiling over. The kind of mad.
Ironically enough, it was the morning of Mother’s Day that I felt most angry. And it was the afternoon of Mother’s Day that I realized why.
Thanks to a glass of strawberry lemonade.
We don’t usually have juice in the house, but I knew it’d be almost 90 degrees that day, so I bought some lemonade. Jeff’s mom brought strawberries so I made a special pitcher of strawberry lemonade for the day. Yum!
In the afternoon, I went outside with the kids to play. I held in my hand a small, cold glass of icy strawberry lemonade. Of course as soon as they saw it, their eyes lit up and they asked to have some. It was the last glass, but they had asked politely and of course I wanted them to enjoy it too. So I lowered down and gave Dutch a drink. But of course his drink enthusiastically turned to gulp and when I tipped back the glass it was half gone. I turned to give Heidi a drink and she slurped away. When I held the glass back up for myself there was all of an inch left at the bottom. And then I realized…
That’s why I’m mad.
What? I’m mad because my kids drank my strawberry lemonade? No.
I’m mad because I let them.
All the time … in so many ways.
It’s not about lemonade, obviously. See, here’s the thing. Love does not seek its own. I get that. And as moms, we’re celebrated for our selflessness (which is good!), and we’re to expected to lay down our lives for our children (which is good!), we’re supposed to say “yes!” as often as we can (which is good). But I also know that on Mother’s Day it is perfectly acceptable for a mom to have a glass of strawberry lemonade without giving the entire thing to her children. It’s good for them to learn that Mommy is honored and sometimes gets special things of her own. It’s good for Mommy to respect herself, and carry herself with dignity. Part of loving them is training them to not walk all over their mother. See, we not only need clear boundaries in obedience and discipline, but also just in respecting Mommy as a person.
Do you see what I mean?
It’s beautiful for mommy to selflessly lay down her life for her kids. But that doesn’t mean she
… prepares snacks and meals at all hours of the day.
… isn’t allowed to eat a meal sitting down.
… can’t take a shower by herself.
… must give up her quiet time in the Word.
You remember the instructions we’re always given when flying with children, right? Secure your own oxygen mask before your child’s. In other words:
It won’t help your child if you’re passed out on the floor.
I might just write that last sentence on a poster and tape it to my wall.
Sister-friend, I don’t know where you are today. But could it be that a little dose of soul-care might be in order? By all means, keep loving those children sacrificially, but perhaps Mama needs a bath by herself? Or an hour away for a quiet cup of coffee? Or perhaps just …
…an icy glass of strawberry lemonade all to herself.
With love, thanks for reading,
Kari
*Looking for more help/wisdom in this area? Check out Taking Care of the Me in Mommy, by Lisa Whelchel. A great, fun, practical guide. I’m going to slip mine off the shelf to read again while I’m sipping that lemonade…