The Devil is in the Details--I think NOT!!

Every little girl loves a wedding. We love to dress our dolls and walk them down the aisle to their Prince Charmings. When I was 6, the neighbor lady had made three Barbie wedding dresses and she asked me which one I liked best, saying she had a niece about my age and wanted to know which one to give her. When Christmas came, the dress I had picked, along with a bridesmaid's dress, was her gift to me. I was so thrilled. It was a lovely dress with a satin bodice, a princess waistline and a shimmery opalescent skirt.

When the time came for my own wedding, a day I thought would never come, quite frankly, as WHO would have ME? It was spring and we had planned a December wedding, and I was a large size, not exactly easy to find affordable ready-made wedding dresses. They were to be found, but were expensive. I had pretty much resolved that I would have to make my own. In June, when we asked our pastor if he would marry us, he said, "Sure! When were you thinking?" We told him December. He looked at us and said, "How about next month?" Uh, right. One month to plan a wedding, sure!!

Well, actually, it wasn't that hard, we had the pastor and the church. We just needed the cake and the clothes. The clothes....The DRESS!!! No time to make one, no money to buy one, what to do?

One of the most blessed gifts ever given to me came in a little white envelope with these words neatly printed in my best friend's tiny handwriting, "For your wedding dress" And inside was $60 cash that she had earned babysitting. Now, that was over 20 years ago, and babysitting was not exactly a high-paying job!! This gift, to me, in its extravagance, is right up there with the perfume that was poured on Jesus' feet. (Every month when I give my tithe, I ask God to multiply it, like he did the loaves and the fishes, and there is no doubt in my mind that a similar prayer was spoken over that little white envelope and its contents.)

I remember thinking at the time, "How far will this go?" But Gary said to me, "I just did an inventory and they had lots of plus-size dresses on sale, after the proms." So, in a very untraditional move, my groom took me shopping for my wedding dress. We narrowed it down to two and he picked one. It had a taffeta-like underskirt with a sheer top skirt that had little opalescent broken hearts all over it. And the price? You know it, $60.

I have always loved the story of the money, and how my groom picked out my dress. But what I didn't realize until recently, although I'm sure God knew it all along, as I think God provided that dress, is that it had a hint of the first wedding dress I ever loved, when I was a little girl. The opalescence.

If you ask me, it's God who is in the details!!

Cracked Pots

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which she carried across her neck. One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walks from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water. Of course , the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.

After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream, 'I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house.'

The old woman smiled, 'Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table.
Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house.'

This is one of my favorite stories. Many of you know the struggles I am going through right now with my vision. We all have thorns in our sides of some type. I think the point is not that we be perfect, but that we let God use us as we are. After all, He made us, and he knows where we are broken. Best of all, like the woman in the story, God will use our weakness to bring beauty into the world, if we will let Him.

Of Toilet Paper and Mice

Guest post from Laura:

Of toilet paper and mice...

by Laura Else on Friday, January 14, 2011 at 11:01am

Mom and I went to see the new Narnia movie recently, which really has nothing to do with toilet paper or mice, unless you count dear Reepicheep. On our way there we picked up some gifts that my parents had recieved, which included toilet paper. We started discussing how God meets all of our needs, just not always the ones we expect.

We were talking about how Mom needed toilet paper and was wondering how she was going to get toilet paper home on her bike, in the rain, or if I would have time to drive her. Enter the package of toilet paper. We laughed because He had not only supplied the actual need, but also the means of transportation with it. So we started talking about How God is faithful to supply our needs, and our desires, no matter how small. Now come the mice....

I have said many times that i despise mice. Well, I do. They have made my stove stink. It smells nauseatingly horrible when I use the oven because of the mouse pee in the insulation and under the stovetop. I also have the most amazing inlaws ever! We are redoing our kitchen, and we have a new sink, new countertops, and we'll have new cabinet fronts. I was quite happy with all the new things, and then I was asked if I wanted to go stove shopping. I had mentioned that my stove smelled, but figured that I would just have to live with it until it was a need, not a desire. Like I said, I have the BEST in laws! Oh, and we have new fridge too! I'm so spoiled!

So, this may seem like it's just nice, and not really anything that has meaning. But that"s where you have to look a little deeper. We are told that God is faithful to meet our needs, and that when we delight in him, he will give us the desires of our heart (Psalm 37:4). Now how many times have I not gotten my hearts desire? Only when i have not be "delighting" in Him. I often get what i desire, just not how or when I expect. My struggle for the past couple of years has been children. Why do I want them so badly if i can't have them? I can't get pregnant, there's just as much of a chance that I will have a repeat experience as there is that I won't, adoption doesn't seem likely as we would have a very hard time qualifiying, and many agencies will take you off of the list if you get pregnant. So i have this overwhelming desire with no real possibility of fulfilling it, and no reason. So where is this promise about hearts desires? You put this desire in my heart and tell me no, sorry, you just have to live with it?! If it can't happen, why can't the desire subside?

The answer is I got a new stove. It wasn't needed. It was genuinely desired. So what does that tell me? That my desires are heard. The really big ones, and the seemingly insignificant ones. Even if it won't happen on my time, it's not ignored.

This brings me to my part now. Accept that God knows the desires of my heart, and that if i genuinely follow him, the desires of my heart will align more closely to his desires for my life, and I will have the desires of my heart. So when I wanted so badly to be married, I had to step back and let God make me the woman I needed to be, the kind of woman that would be able to run a household, and make our home a place that draws Justin in, and provides him with an escape, not a place that he wants to escape. Granted I'm still learning how to do that, and will probably never finish learning it. With regard to children, I need to let God be God, and let him mold me, and not miss the kids he HAS given me. I am surrounded by kids that I can love, and show God's love to, and if I'm lucky, I'll get to play a role in their lives like many people have played in mine. My hope is that I can speak God's love to them, but also that I can show them God's love played out in my life. A lofty goal, I know. I heard once that the purest gold is actually almost clear. There are many references in the Bible with us being likened to gold being refined. I've always thought of us eventually being pure and shiny so that we reflect God. But if you think of pure gold as more transparent, then we aren't merely reflecting God as we go through trials and are purified. We become transparent so that anyone who looks at us sees right through us and sees Him IN us. Not reflected. Not on the outside bouncing off of us, but shining clearly from the inside. It's a cool thought, isn't it? Oh how I pray that I will become more transparent so that others will see more of God and less of me.

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  

  Write a comment...

Facebook © 2011 · English (US)

About · Advertising · Developers · Careers · Privacy · Terms · Help

The Story of Soap

(Susie, wonderful mother-in-law to my daughter, this is for you.)

Disclaimer: The following may or may not be how it actually happened, but I like the story.

Years ago, our homeschool group went to a soap-making company and learned how soap was made. While I'm sure the chemical process is somewhat more complicated, the basic process is that lye and tallow heated together become soap. That's all the chemistry you need to know for the story.

While we were there, I wondered aloud to the proprietor, "How did people ever figure out how to make soap in the first place?" This is what she told me.

Long ago, people used to go up to the mountaintop to make animal sacrfices to God. They would build altars of stone and build fires with wood underneath, and burn the animals. Much of the flesh would be burned off, but the fat would melt and drip down into the ashes. We get lye from wood ash. So over time, lye would develop, then the fat would drop down into the warm ashes and get stirred up and make a rudimentary soap. When the rain came, the soapy run-off would get into the streams and the people living downstream noticed that things got cleaner with water closer to the altars. Eventually they figured out why and refined the soap-making process.

Granted, this might be a stretch. BUT it does not change the fact that soap to cleanse the body is a by-product of the process God gave man to cleanse the soul. Years ago, when I related this story to my friend Dr. Root, he commented that it was very typical of God to be concerned about the WHOLE person.

I don't think of soap as just soap anymore. Whenever I wash my hands, I consider that the product I am using to stay healthy in the body is derived from a process that God designed to keep us healthy in the soul.

At this time of year, we celebrate the birth of Jesus. Hebrews 10 tells us that the priests had to make sacrifices again and again, year after year, because the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away our sins, but we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Because of this, God says of us, "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more."

We do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.

Now, I dare you to wash your hands with soap and NOT think about the One who was sacrificed for you. and I dare you to wash your hands without giving thanks That because of His sacrifice, God remembers our sins no more!!

Walking by Faith versus Walking by Sight

As I was walking across my leaf-coverd path today, I realized that Iwas walking by faith. . I can't see the uneven ground beneath the leaves, and even the leaves I CAN see are rther blurry in the overcast, almost-evening light. I realize that I literally actuallyhve ben walking by fatih a lot in the past months, because I can't see ground clearly and in the dim light, I can't really see at all. Friends walking with me will often verbally try to guide me, but in the end, they usually just grab my arm and we walk side-by-side.

I read a journal entry I wrote less than a year before I got married, that said roughly, "I don't care what Gordon says, I don['t believe God has anyone for me." Gordon is always teling us that when we pray for each other, we have faith for what the other might not have faith for. Twenty-three years ago, Gordon had faith for me that I would marry. And I did. Having faith for each other is kinda like walking arm-in-arm, lending sight (or perhaps vision) to the one who doesn't have it.

Another aspect that occurred to me was that when we can see clearly, we walk confidently and often directly and quckly from place to place. But when we walk by fatih, we often stumble, don't know exactly where we are headed, perhaps wander a bit, and walk more sloly and tentatively.

We often compare outselves to others, our lives to others' lives, our work to others' work, our homes to others' homes--and we often fall short. But you know, getting a lot done, having a perfect home, having a neat-tidy life, doesn't necessarily mean that a person is on the right path. Perhaps they are walking more by sight than by faith.

But you know (spoken from one who by nature is competetive), life's not a race. Close your eyes so you don't see you neighbors's life to compare to your own. Close your eyes and take God's arm and walk by faith. Who cares wher w end up or how meandering the path is--it's the company that counts.

Gary speaks cat!

We have been cleaning, sorting and boxing things to kind of make up for not having built a closet yet or even finished our bathroom remodel. Gary has gone through and repacked just about everything and the wall is lined neatly, nearly to the ceiling with boxes. Apparently, Mermott was overseeing all of this.

When Gary came out for dinner, he inadvertently left Mermott in there, fast asleep on the shelf on the wall. When we heard an enormous crash and the sound of fragile items smashing, he remembered Mermott was in there. When we went to check it out, boxes were overturned and there was almost no entry into the room, and though I called, Mermott was nowhere to be seen.

Gary and I started in immediately on cleaning up and after about 10 minutes, Mermottt appeared from some hiding hole, apparently satisfied that the crashing was now over. I picked her up and petted her and asked her if she was okay. She chirped at me and Gary translated confidently, "Milk please, and make it a double!"

Mermott and Cain

My cat Mermott, eldest daughter of Queen Nermal, only kitten in her litter. has been a little haughty lately. She has this household figured out. She sits on my desk every morning for her pets. After the dog is put away for the night, she calls me into the kitchen, chirping as she leads me along, looking back frequently to make sure I am following, and when we get to the kitchen, looking at the refrigerator and very politely and clearly saying, "Milk?" She is comfortable. She has my attention.

The problem is that she thinks her position is a one-cat-only position. Nermal, always sits at my feet. That's okay with Mermott, because she has a "higher" spot, on my desk. The other day after petting WrongWay (Mermott's niece), I put her on the back of my office chair, and when Mermott entered the room and saw that there was someone occupying a position as high as hers, oh the tone of voice she used! I'm sure I don't have the vocabulary to translate THAT.

But from MY standpoint, I enjoy all my cats. I feed them all. I care for them all. So why does Mermott think she needs to have something no one else has? The truth is, each relationship with each cat is unique, simply because each cat is unique. Susie comes in, eats, and goes out as if this were a fast-food joint. She will allow me to hold her and pet her outside, especially int he hay barn, but not so much in the house. Nermal is at my feet no matter where I go. Mermott is the only one who asks for milk. Buster keeps my chair warm. So why does Mermott think no one else should get pets or a spot by me, it doesn't take anything away from her uniqueness. There is no shortage of attention for Mermott because of any of the other cats, no shortage of food....What's up with wanting to be high mucky-muck?

“Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? ⁷ If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”

I suppose no one, not even me, expects a cat to overcome the sin crouching at the door. But I find it interesting that most of MY relationship problems come directly from my similarity to Cain. When my friend is favored by God, I should rejoice, but instead, I'm jealous. I am SO Cain. How do I get out of THAT?