Calling all Creative People!
Alright, guys, I am in major need of some holiday creativity! Just realized that my kids are now at the age where they can take part and really enjoy holiday traditions and I want to establish fun, meaningful activities for us to do together. I actually just found a book by Shirley Dobson and Gloria Gaither (haven’ t heard those names in awhile, huh?) from 1983 called Let’s Make a Memory. It is well-worn and filled with my dear mom’s underlines and notations. I am amazed, inspired, and humbled by how much work my mom went into establishing fun and creative things for us to do growing up. She was (and is) amazing! Yes, the book is 27 years old, but a lot of the ideas are totally doable today!
So, I’d like to post a few, and hopefully actually follow through and do them. But first, for those of you creative and crafty types out there, can you please share with me what holiday traditions you do with your children or family? Please share! I want ideas and I know you have some. Thank you!
Distorted by Insecurity
Ok, can I get a show of hands who think that it is just ridiculous how much insecurity we still carry with us into adulthood?? I mean, seriously. I thought that was supposed to go away with adolescent acne, but unfortunately in my life both seem to hang on with besetting tenacity.
I don’t have a lot to say about it, other than this: It can distort our view of reality. It can cause us to look at situations, circumstances, relationships with a distorted view of reality. And, it makes us preoccupied with self, which blinds us from seeing things from other’s perspective. It is, quite clearly, a problem.
So we need God to free us from ourselves. We need to go back, once again, to the Gospel, and remember that our significance comes from being the prized and treasured sons and daughters of the King. We need to repent of our pride and need for praise and approval. We need to confess and agree with God that we have tried to build our own Kingdom instead of His Kingdom. And we need to rest in the unconditional love and acceptance that He offers us.
Ahh… there’s freedom there.
I pray today we would walk in the freedom and confidence of knowing who we are in Christ. How’s that sound? Sounds glorious to me.
I have 63 cents left
It is Friday, November 12th, and I have 63 cents left. 🙂 This was our first month doing the 41% giving challenge, and yes, it does make for an adventure, I will say that. Please hear my heart in this, I am not sharing about our giving percentage to toot our own horn or to imply that any of you need to do this. This is just what we’re doing as a fun adventure, and I’m learning some fun tidbits about frugality and I’d like to pass along. I pray that in all our frugality and giving that it is fueled by a heart of love and worship, above all.
So yes, this was a challenge. We had only $300 to cover all our grocery, household, gas, clothing, gifts, haircuts, co-pays, personal, etc. Can I just state the obvious and say that that is not very much! Again, not saying that needs to be the standard, and not saying that we will stick with that for forever, but you know what? It’s fun to see how little you can get away with living on. It simplifies a lot! A few thoughts:
God always provides. We had some unexpected expenses, specifically with gas, and we needed to do a lot of driving this month. But, I also was generously paid for speaking at a conference, so I was able to tuck that money away and use it to cover our extra gas expenses (and still have some left over to get my hair highlighted next month! Yes, I’m still a sucker for the salon.) So even though unforeseen expenses came up, we had enough to cover it.
During the first two weeks of the month there were tons of great sales at local grocery stores, so I found myself stocking up and using all my grocery money real quick. So … on October 30th I was down to … $4. 🙂 Yes, two weeks left, $4. Could we do it? Yes!! Sure there were plenty of times I thought of things we “needed” but then a little dose of creativity and asking God to stretch our food, and we ended up being fine! In fact, last night, Jeff was really sick and couldn’t sleep so he asked if I’d go go the store and get him some Nyquil. So, I went, knowing I had $4 left. (Of course I’d be willing to use my debit card if I had to, for my husband, since he’s the king of our home!). But guess what? Generic Nyquil was on sale for $3.99. 🙂 You better believe I had the biggest smile on my face and about bounced out the door and the storeclerk probably thought I was nuts.
So, all that to say that it is November 12th and we have 63 cents left. But, Monday we get paid and we’ll start over and it’ll be great. So far so good!
Here are a few more frugal recipes. This is what we ate this week when we had no grocery money left! (We were also very blessed by several friends who invited us over for dinner this week–perfect timing and we’re thankful!)
Yummy Thai Noodles
- (8 ounce) whole wheat pasta
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 zucchini, diced (I used frozen shredded from summer’s garden)
- 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast meat (I used 1 cup shredded chicken from whole chicken I roasted last week)
- 3 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon curry powder
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 (10 ounce) can coconut milk
- 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro (I didn’t have any on hand so I skipped this)
Cook pasta. Saute onions and zucchini, add chicken and rest of ingredients. Combine. Yum!
Cheap Chili
- 1 cup dry black beans
- 1 cup dry pinto beans
- 6 cups water (Soak overnight in crock pot)
- 1 cup brown rice
- 1 quart homemade chicken stock
- 2 packets taco seasoning
- 2 cups frozen organic corn
- 2 cups frozen shredded zucchini
- (optional) 1 cup pureed cooked chickpeas (thickens and adds protein and fiber)
Add all ingredients (including uncooked brown rice) and cook all day. Yum! Makes TONS, so yummy, so healthy, and so cheap.
He Desires Mercy
One of the down-sides to reading through the whole Bible every year is that the New Testament is actually very short, and I usually have to breeze through it every fall, longing to stop and soak but knowing that December 31st is on the horizon! Right now I’m being stubborn though, and soaking in Matthew, because after trudging through the prophets (with all due respect to them), and receiving quite a few kicks in the shins from James, the words of Jesus continue to wash over my like soothing balm. Jesus is so amazing! He is so convicting and so gentle, so firm and so loving. He manages to crack open my heart and heal it all at once. This Jesus is so beautiful! I pray that we never lose the wonder of how beautiful our Savior truly is.
This morning I read Jesus’ words in Matthew 12: “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice” (v. 7). He speaks this in response the Pharisees criticizing his disciples when they picked heads of grain to eat on the Sabbath, when they were hungry. I love how Jesus turns the whole thing on their heads and points out, quite snarkily I might add, “Or have you not ready in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless?” Ouch! Of course they had read the law, they were Pharisees! Can’t you hear the tinge of sharp sarcasm in Jesus’ rebuke?
Essentially the Pharisees were very busily preoccupying themselves with looking around at everyone else’s lives to see if they were good enough. They were the law-police, quick to point out everyone else’s faults. But they had missed the whole–the Son of God, the very fulfillment of the law was standing right in front of then and they were quibbling about heads of grain!
Jesus sets them straight–“I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.”
He really desires both, right? He commended the widow who gave her last two mites, he praised the woman who broke her alabaster jar of perfume and anointed his head. But the reason he commended them was not just their sacrifice, it was their heart of worship. It was that the acts of sacrifice, the acts of service, the acts of ministry, were done with a heart of love. The Pharisees knew nothing of this love, and were thus condemned by Christ.
All our loftiest aspirations of giving, service, sacrifice, ministry, are worthless without love, right? 1 Corinthians 13 tells us that we can give our bodies to be burned and give away all that we have, but if we have not love we gain nothing. Remember all that talk of eternal reward? Gone. Poof–it disappears like a vapor, if we have not love. God desires mercy, a compassion of the heart, above religious sacrifice.
I personally think it’s easier to give away my money than to have a broken heart. It’s easier to hand someone a $100 bill than it is to spend a whole day helping them or listening to them or crying with them. But God desires mercy, love, true compassion. How often my heart is cold! The words of 1 Corinthians 13:1 haunt me. Lord, give us a heart of love. Help us not to miss the point, squabbling about other people picking heads of grain on the Sabbath (or not spending their money like we think they should, or not doing the acts of service we think they should, or not _____ fill in the blank.)
Help our acts of service to flow from a heart of worship, and be marked by true love. Keep our eyes on you instead of critiquing the choices of those around us. We have so much Pharisee in us, Lord! Save us from ourselves. We love you.