Doing the best with what you've got does not just mean using  the "things" you have but what you have at any moment physically, spiritually and emotionally. We are to be more than just good stewards of what we have, but what we are also.

Do not expect too much of yourselves.
If you are sick, pray and rest.
If you are tired, pray for strength and rest.
If you are overwhelmed, pray for direction and strength, spend time with your Lord.

Always be quick to pray and work with what you have.
Always seek God's will in His revealed Word for what He would have you do.

If you are well and handling everything well pray to thank God, because without Him you can do nothing.

We must renew our spirits everyday.
And we do that in Christ.
Cling to Him...........He IS the Best of what  you've got!

Goodnight Ladies.......

Jonah....another who fled the presence of the Lord

It never ceases to amaze me how God dovetails scripture verses, songs and hymns, our experiences, our prayers in our lives with other things that further teach, encourage, convict or affirm us. Or all of the above! 

This happened to me this morning at church. Our preacher started today taking us through the book of Jonah. It was an excellent sermon in which many things I never realized or thought of  were illustrated..

In a previous blog of mine (January 31, 2013, "Be Real.....come into my kitchen") I mentioned some of the same things he did this morning though I was not talking about Jonah nor was our preacher talking about being real or my kitchen!

We both gave examples of biblical characters who fled from the presence of the Lord  because of their sin. This of course is folly. And he gave the example, as I did, of a child who pulls a blanket over his head believing he cannot be seen simply because he cannot see others. God always sees us even if we  hide----no matter in what way we hide. We both touched on  keeping our eyes on Christ. The similarities amazed me and made me think more deeply on the subject.

I'd like to share what he continued to preach. Please take this as me sharing what our preacher taught this morning from God's Word, not me preaching to you. Think of me as a friend sharing an amazing sermon and what I learned from it. Thank you.

Our preacher told us that God sent a storm that sorely rocked the ship that Jonah was on as he fled the presence of God. The mariners in the ship were very afraid. Jonah was fast asleep, one assumes, below deck. The crew prayed to "...their gods..." and began to throw things overboard to lighten their load hoping that would help. Neither helped.  The men, after the captain spoke to Jonah and also asked him to pray to his God, the one true God, decided that they would cast lots (a common practice, like drawing straws, at the time) to try to find out what was the reason for the storm which threatened their very lives. Because the lot fell to Jonah and because of his confession, the crew knew it was because of  Jonah's fleeing God's presence that God sent the storm. They became even more afraid.  At Jonah's suggestion, and after even the crew started praying to God and still fighting the storm to get to land (not wanting to have Jonah's blood on their hands), Jonah was tossed overboard at which moment the sea was totally calmed. The crew became even more frightened and made a sacrifice unto the Lord and made vows.(Jonah 1:6-16)

Meanwhile, God sent a "great fish" to swallow up Jonah and eventually deposit him on dry land near  where God told him to go in the first place. Jonah was in the belly of the "fish" three days and three nights. He describes what this was like and how he eventually came to the end of his rope as we might say today, and then remembered God.

Storms of life, trials, our preacher said, are not always because of sin and we should not always jump to that conclusion when we find ourselves or  someone else in a trial. But they are often to teach and exercise us to make us more like Christ (and of course even if they are sent for sin they teach and exercise us.) But sometimes they are because of our sin and they affect not only us, but others. Just as the storm God sent to affect Jonah put the lives of the ship's crew in danger. Our sin can do this also. And others' sins can put us in danger. If you want to know more, read more in Jonah. I can't wait to hear next Lord's Day's message from chapters 3 and 4!

These are admittedly hard times. Times may get harder or easier. We do not know. We can neither comprehend nor know ahead of time God's providential workings or the reasons why He does what He does. He does what pleases Him for His eternal purposes and glorification and our eternal good.  God will be with us in the storms of life---in the little things and the really big things. Often we, like Jonah, must reach the ends of our ropes before we cry out to the Lord.

I used to think that if I didn't stay smiling and uncomplaining through a trial but gave up and called on God begging for help, I had failed. I used to think that I had failed the "test" and so God would have to bring another trial upon me, over and over until I "passsed" it. Yet, oddly I experienced that every time I got to the end of that rope, broke down and gave up, God would take over and things would fall into place and then be over or at least better. In deeper trials things do not just fall into place and end, but may last a lifetime. But even then, we know He is with us and understands. He comforts, teaches, mourns with us, strengthens us and sees us through all our trials. What great comfort that brings.

So, when storms rage seek refuge in the Lord. Do not flee from His presence. Do not rebel against Him. Only in His presence can we experience the peace and yes, even joy, of the Lord and His strength in us to weather the storms of life.

And as our preacher ended our worship with this passage, so do I end this blog with the same:

"...thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast,  unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord."  1 Corinthians 15: 57 and 58.

Being Real
......come into my kitchen

I was going to wait to post pictures of my kitchen until everything was finished but then that goes against what I have said when I first started blogging. Will it encourage you more to see my kitchen "all dressed up for company" or as it is now, as it progresses through all the problems we have been having? I know I feel more comfortable when people are real and I can see their human frailties.
So, here goes........kitchen in progress.....

The first picture is our son-in-law hooking up the wiring for the oven and my husband, steadying the oven on the saw horses, giving advice, holding tools and shining some light in the dark oven hole. This is after they lugged the few hundred pound oven in from the bed of the truck, up several stone and wood steps and into the living room where they sat it on the floor. Sorry, no pictures of that. I was praying really hard and moving things out of the way at that time. The first clue I had that they were in the house were the manly grunts as the two of them carried the thing! Once it was on the floor I pulled tape off inside and outside of the oven and took out some of the things packed in it, while the guys figured out some wiring problems and called a few people. I was, at this point, getting pretty excited and thanking the Lord that neither of them (or the oven) were hurt!

The men regretted having put the oven on the floor when they realized how hard it was going to be to pick it up off the carpet! They sort of jacked it up by putting wood under it so it was at a better height to get their hands under and lift it while bent over. More prayers. More grunts. Quicker trip.

The oven and the men made it safely to the saw horses in the kitchen in front of the oven hole. It did not take long and the oven was installed, the breaker switched back on and everything seemed to work.

But neither did  it take long for them to discover that the oven would not fit into the hole! The cabinet was not deep enough.

The second picture is taken from the side showing how short it is from fitting all the way into the hole and the space on top.

The last picture shows the oven from the front. And in both pictures you can see the residue from the tape that was used to protect the finish on the stove.

It is usable as is, once we get the sticky, gray stuff off the stainless steel part. So, it is workable and beautiful even though it looks bad sticking out like it does.

My kitchen is very small. It became even smaller with the addition of the wall oven since it is sticking out. The rest of the kitchen became smaller also when precious floor space was used up when the needed shelf unit for the pantry items that were in our oven hole for a quarter of a century was set up.

I think it will be cute once all the problems get worked out. Still small, but cute!

I am disappointed that it all did not go well. I was discouraged that it has taken so long and yet still is not finished. I shudder to think about how long it could take until everything looks nice, as I picture it.

Certainly there are lessons to be learned from this minor trial.

I am reminded of the saying about being patient with each other because God is not done with us yet.  And we are not done with our kitchen yet. We are not shiny and perfect----and neither is our kitchen. But it is workable and that needs to be the focus. We are thankful for it despite the problems.

While I was trying to remove the gooey tape residue last night and again this morning I reflected on our human condition. I thought about how hard it is to remove the residue of the things that we think hold us together. The difficulty of removing from our minds what a godless society has taught us.  How our pretensions, the images we portray, what we do so that others will think well of us, are hard to rub off. It can be scary to be transparent, honest with each other. Not that I believe you have to give your whole life story to everyone or even every believer. But we certainly are to be more real with each other---imperfections and all. We need to learn how not to provoke others to covetousness or jealousy just as much as we need to guard ourselves from those things.

Just as we are to be real with other believers we ought to be even more transparent with God. I have always thought it was silly to not be totally honest with the Lord. He knows us better than we know ourselves, we cannot possibly hide from our Creator.  To try is foolishness. It is futile.

Since Adam fell and he and Eve tried to hide from God it has been the tendency of humans to do the same.
We are like little children who believe that because they put a blanket over their heads no one can see them. They can see no one, so no one must be able to see them. But God always sees us.

Seek God, read His Word, pray to the only One who can answer prayer. Keep Him always in your sight. He always sees you, make sure you always "see" Him.

Goodnight!
Kathi~

Over 1000 Pageviews......is this good for under one month of blogging???

Last night I surpassed 1000 pageviews on my blog and by this morning I had 1,022!
I have no idea if this is good or not.
But
I am thankful no matter what.
I enjoy doing this so much. I am learning many new things----
 slowly learning how to improve what I do----too slowly for me.
Most of the information I am reading
assumes I know too much.
Even the books whose titles include, "...for Dummies" assume I know more than I do.
The things they tell me to do are filled with words, abbreviations and acronyms I do not understand.
So, a lot of my time is spent looking things up and even then, the definitions often use terms 

I have no clue about.
Since I was in first grade I have been fascinated by foreign (to me) languages.
  I have studied a few of them and still do a little today.
There are more I would like to learn.
But I must confess computer terms, which are a foreign language to me, baffle me.
Teaching other languages starts with the bare beginnings. It assumes you know nothing.
Learning about how to blog seems to assume the new blogger has advanced
or at least some computer skills.
I have none.
However, I am determined
to change the looks of my blog
improve my writing skills,
figure out how to post better pictures
 and learn what I can legally share----for free!
I'd like to be able to recommend other blogs,
websites that I enjoy and feel would help others.
I spend time studying what information is out there, as well as writing my blogs 

on days when I have time. 

Being a child of God, a wife, a  mother and mother-in-law,  a grandmother and homemaker 

will always come first.
I am hopeful I will continue to learn how to make my blog
more inviting and easier to access.
In the meantime,
thank you for your patience.

I do hope this blog has helped and encouraged you.
Thank you for being interested in this endeavor of mine.
That makes me happy.
It has also kept me more in the Word,
in prayer and more disciplined in what I need to do at home.
Those were perks I did not foresee!
I am very thankful.......
Kathi~

Sunday

I am still not 

feeling well. 

Can't think of  

a thing to say. 

But...I do hope you had a wonderful start to your week today.
I really hope you got enough rest from your labors of last week.

And....I hope you're refreshed in both body and spirit, ready to
start all over again
tomorrow morning 

Time seems to fly
 by so very quickly
Lord,  "...teach us
to number our days
that we may gain a
heart of wisdom."
.......Psalm 90:12

Kathi~