Just Enough

Too many times I've forgotten to check the ingredients before preparing a recipe only to discover I had "just enough" of something. What a relief that often is, especially when you're far into the recipe, the items are costly, and guests are on the way.

And "just enough" describes how God often deals with us.

For the Israelites, God provided "just enough" manna for the day. Hoarding reaped gross consequences. They had to trust the Lord would provide.

I know what it is to have just enough gas for the car until payday or just enough money to pay the bills.

I'm thankful when things last just long enough to replace them. The water heater. The car with over 200,000 miles. The years-old dishwasher. The worn clothing.

I'm thankful for just enough strength to not grow weary at the end of a long day, or in the midst of an overwhelming trial.

"Just enough" is a most fertile soil for growing faith and cultivating gratitude. It's a prime spot for worship.

When we have "just enough," our eyes stay fixed on Him. We remember Who provides. We remember how fragile our frames are, and how great our God is. 

In our mixed up world, "just enough" is considered not enough, and it sure isn't how we would describe abundant living. We want to be prepared for years to come, know how things will always turn out, and stuff our pockets full of self-sufficiency.

But God's economy is different, and in giving us "just enough" of what we need each day, He offers us truly rich living. Rich in faith. Rich in thankful hearts. Rich in complete dependence on Him. And His provision always leaves us satisfied.

What encouragement!  No matter what our trial, our heartache, our need, God will provide, and His "just enough" will always be plenty.


With love,
Trisha

Because Mothers Are Always On Call

“Mothers are always on call, expected to have all the answers and limitless energies. They’re supposed to do everything; it’s taken for granted. How can you be and do everything expected of you? What you need is a habitual sense of the presence of God. Think that Almighty God, who created the stars and keeps the seasons revolving in perfect rhythm, is there in your kitchen, in your bathroom, in the laundry room, in the grocery store. Mothers, be prepared for an arduous struggle. Your calling is impossible without prayer, the comfort and instruction of the Scriptures and fellowship in your church.”

~Elisabeth Elliot

5 Stumbling Blocks to Obeying God's Will

Lately I've been pondering life changes and wrestling with difficult circumstances and understanding God's will. And though some things are still unclear, and fear keeps creeping in, I understand a bit better why our decision making  gets so tangled.

1) God's will doesn't always feel good. We're in deep with the world and its belief that we should only do what feels good. But, as Christians, we're still at war with our flesh, which means obedience brings resistance. It feels good to obey God when His plans line up with ours, but what about when His will means the surrendering of our hopes and dreams?

2) Some of our friends will tempt us to take the road often traveled. This is the friend who cares more about comfort and ease than about sanctification. This is the friend who lives in "deserve" mode. Life is all about deserving a break, not about dying to self. She'll list your many sacrifices, as though sanctification is accomplished in 10 Easy Lessons instead of a lifetime of daily taking up one's cross.

3) We equate obeying God's will with a "good outcome". After Paul is blinded on the road to Damascus, and Ananias is told to minister to him, God declares that He is going to share with Paul the things he will suffer in Christ's name. The things he will suffer. He didn't say, "Paul has obeyed, and there will now be no hard days or challenges or pain." Obeying God does bring blessing, but it's not always the blessings we think of. Obedience doesn't always bring reconciliation or peace or more money or a bigger house or less difficult people in our lives. Sometimes the blessing is the gift of resting in the joy that you are honoring God and being made more like Christ even when everything around you is unpleasant or downright hard.

4) Our hearts are deceitful. I've sometimes clearly known God's will about something, not because I had a vision in the night, but because I read His Word and cried out to Him in prayer, and yet, I still resist doing it. My heart whispers that I must be the exception and the surely God wouldn't want me to have to work so hard. My heart lists all the reasons I can't obey, when the truth is that I don't want to obey. Perhaps our struggle with knowing is more of a struggle with obeying.

5) We leave no room for faith and trust.  My life is one big Ebenezer of God's providing in the most unexpected ways. And yet, I'm still tempted to listen to the naysayers who plan everything out and have no time for faith and trust. They think they're simply being prudent, yet all of their plan-making is often a cover for not believing God will wisely direct their paths. How does our faith and trust increase if we never take that step into the unknown? Why do we cry out for daily bread, but put our confidence in the world's wisdom or our preparations or our bank account?

The good news is that God is faithful to give us wisdom when we cry out for it. We have His word right before us, and we have His ear. And though obedience might not bring joy and peace right away, the surrender eventually becomes sweet, and we're able to praise Him for keeping us from leaning on our own understanding.

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths." (Proverbs 3:5,6)

With love,
Trisha

So Much Home-Work

Spiritual pride is very apt to suspect others; whereas a humble saint is most jealous of himself; he is so suspicious of nothing in the world as he is of his own heart. The spiritually proud person is apt to find fault with other saints, that they are low in grace, and to be much in observing how cold and dead they be, and crying out of them for it; and to be quick to discern and to take notice of their deficiencies: but the eminently humble Christian has so much to do at home, and sees so much evil in his own heart, and is so concerned about it, that he is not apt to be very busy with others' hearts; he complains most of himself, and cries out of his own coldness and lowness in grace, and is apt to esteem others better than himself.
~Jonathan Edwards

Either a Mercy or a Wonder

To be thankful doesn't mean we're denying hard providences or pretending our lives are problem-free. But it does mean we're obeying, and we're trusting that God is keeping His promise to use all things for our good. 

I'm thankful for God's current means of sanctification in our lives:

Mountain Man's prolonged recovery from dental work--infection, dry socket, continued pain.

The painful work that must often be invested in our relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ --to be at unity with one another isn't optional, but it is God's will, even though it often doesn't feel good and requires more effort than I want to give.

That daily battle with the flesh and the reluctance to put off the old 

and put on the new.

And I'm thankful for those daily wonders that refresh us:

The oldest and youngest taking a walk

Finally! Ink's graduation feast

Happy faces

One BIG strawberry shortcake

Guys in bowties

An amazing shot of the moon captured by Luke

The Littles breaking in our new couch with some book-time

Hashed Potato Pie

A single serving of deep dish chocolate chip cookie ready in five minutes in a microwave oven 

"Yeah, I'm cute" expressions

Brother helping brother

And the unseen gifts of forgiveness and repentance and daily provision of all we need to glorify the Lord and grow in grace

There is never a providence of God, but has either a mercy or a wonder in it.

~Thomas Watson, All Things for Good

With love,

Trisha

No, Look This Way, Brother

Before He Leaves

She rises up 

as morning breaks

She moves among these rooms alone 

Before we wake

And her heart is so full

It overflows

She waters us with love

And the children grow

So many years from now

Long after we are gone

These trees will spread their branches out

And bless the dawn.

~Andrew Peterson, "Planting Trees"

******

I wasn't listening very well when older and wiser Mamas shared how hard the leaving would be. Perhaps as in so many cases, I thought I'd be the exception, or perhaps I simply didn't know how quickly my time would come.

His fingerprints disappeared from our walls a long time ago, and as I write this, I have approximately 63 days left with Ink. He'll start a new chapter of his life, in a different state, with beloved friends of ours. God-willing, he'll return for one last Thanksgiving and then pack up his belongings and move to the place where he'll set up his own first home.

I have a countdown clock on my computer and an ever-growing to-do list. Now, don't think me morbid; these are simply tools to help me redeem the time.

A few of the things to do before he leaves?

1) Bake more fruity snacks--pies, muffins, scones.
2) Purchase fine stationery to write him letters while he's away.
3) Take one last family picture with him.
4) Have him inscribe all of the books he's given me.
5) Send a list of his favorite things to the dear family who will be spoiling  hosting him.
6) Buy a photo album and fill it with pictures of us.
7) Watch as many movies as he wants me to over the next couple of months.
8) Snatch as many hugs as he'll let me over the next couple of months.
9) Make his favorite meals, such as seafood chowder, barbecue ribs, stuffed peppers.
10) Schedule dental cleaning.
11) Focus on any last-minute life skills.
12) Measure his height on the door jamb one last time.
13) Take a picture of him standing next to the tree we planted for him in our front yard.
14) Have his siblings write love notes to him.
15) Make a list of care package items to send him.
16) Take one last family trip together.

Samuel Johnson said, "Value is more frequently raised by scarcity than by use. That which lay neglected when it was common, rises in estimation as its quantity becomes less. We seldom learn the true want of what we have till it is discovered that we can have no more. ... There are few things, not purely evil, of which we can say, without some emotion of uneasiness: This is the last." 

How happy we are for Ink, as God has answered our prayers abundantly, in ways we could not have imagined. The leaving is on good terms and is for the embracing of good things. And yet, my heart thinks much about the "lasts" of these days, and how the leaving of one family member shifts the entire dynamic of our daily living.

As I was making my list, I was deeply grateful that there were some things I didn't need to add. These are the things that God, in his grace, has kept me doing over these past 18 years. I don't have to scramble to teach Ink about God or the Bible or the Gospel or walking in wisdom's way. I don't have to teach him to work out his salvation with fear and trembling or give thanks to God for His mercies or to repent and forgive. No doubt, we're always growing in these areas, and Ink will be challenged and afflicted as the Holy Spirit faithfully makes him more like Jesus, and there are certainly things I wish we could do over as his parents, BUT, the foundation has been laid.

Don't give up, my fellow Mamas. It's so easy to forget about eternity and live only for now. But one day you will reap the beautiful fruit of faithfulness and obedience or the rotten fruit of a life lived unto Self instead of unto Him. And though nothing is impossible with God, and He brings the prodigals home, why not be the best steward this very day and the next and the next, of these precious souls He's given you, praying that when the leaving comes, it comes with joy and thanksgiving.

With love,
Trisha

Celebrate the Small Things

We often take for granted the warm body sleeping beside us, 

the quiet, uneventful evening, or the too quickly passed cacophonous ones

 if we're in the season of life known as the child rearing years. 

Take time to celebrate the small things that make us fall in love, 

and stay in love, and weave us strongly together.

~Dr. George Grant

Always Second Guessing

"Strong passions without a settled judgment, commonly produce weak resolutions."

~Matthew Henry

"Thoughts ripened into resolves by serious consideration are likely to be 
kept always in the imagination of the heart, whereas what is soon ripe is soon rotten."
~Matthew Henry

*****

You've been having family worship for a long time now. It's crazy sometimes, but in a world that encourages family members to live independently of one another and to forget the One who gives them every good thing, this concentrated family time of singing and prayer and Bible reading ties heartstrings and keeps you focused on eternity.

Then you read THE article. The one telling you that there's nothing in the Bible that commands us to have family worship. It's enough to talk with your children about the Christian life throughout the day.

You've finally settled into daily times of Bible reading and prayer. You're amazed at how much you hunger for the Word now, and even on those mornings when your start is slow, you're thankful for the habit you've made to hear His words first.

Then you read THE article. How silly for Christians to put themselves in such bondage to a completely unscriptural principle as the "quiet time." Free yourself!

You love to care for your home. You delight in the smell of homemade bread and watching little people rush to devour the work of your hands. You linger over a freshly cleaned kitchen, and you're amazed at your daughter's skill with a sewing machine.

Then you read THE article. The one that mocks mothers in their aprons making homemade bread, accusing them of forgetting grace and looking to the domestic arts for their salvation. Don't you know salvation is by grace, not by a Kitchen-Aid mixer?

Though many of these articles focus on a legalistic attachment to some of the things we do, all too often, we interpret them as a solid case AGAINST a practice or perspective. We worry that we've been wrong to have family worship all of this time (and actually teach our children that they should do this with their families), or train our children in the habit of independent time in the Word each day, or bake our own bread while wearing an apron. 

This is why it's essential to know why we do what we do and to teach the WHY to our children. When our practices are not thought out, but are rather the product of what's trending on the internet or in books or magazines, we're building our lives on a shaky foundation that crumbles in the presence of any opposing views. We find ourselves habitually changing course and chronically second-guessing everything we do. What kind of legacy is that to pass on to our children? 

Second-guessing is an inherent complication of information overload. It's the result of having too many opinions in our faces, and our relying too much on others to think for us.

It's not so much a reflection of a teachable spirit, but instead the consequence of lazy reasoning. Because we haven't thought our practices through, we're easily swayed by the next eloquent writer who comes along, being tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine or some woman's declaration of "freedom" from ____________ (fill in the blank).

Instead of spending more time second-guessing everything we're doing, from family worship to quiet times to modest dress and more, let's spend time making sure we know WHY we do what we do. Let's dig deep in the Word and think through our principles and convictions and preferences. And then confidently, without apology, teach them to our children.


With love,
Trisha