Okay, so at the age of 42 I am finally learning how to cook and meal plan. When I was single I just ate chips and salsa or salads or other odds and ends for dinner. Then, when we got married, Paul did most of the cooking because he’s just good at it. But in this current phase of life it makes most sense for me to do dinners and can I tell you how angsty it’s been for me to burn things and over salt things and not be able to get a meal all together at the same time? Whew. Plus feeding two hungry boys. It’s a recipe (ha!) for learning and growing and laying aside pride for sure 🤓
Four years ago my mom’s cancer progressed to triple negative and she had 2-6 weeks to live. I moved in with my parents to help my dad care for her. She continued chemo treatments during this time. I had never cared for someone who was dying. I liken it to a crash course in nursing. I felt so unqualified to the task. At one point I had a panic attack. My pastor called me within 5 minutes and helped me process what to do. I took it as a gift from my friend Jesus. Then less than a year later my daddy was diagnosed with a Glioblastoma. I was blessed to have cared for him for 200 days. I continued my newly learned nursing skills and fed, bathed, cleaned and loved the way Jesus does. It was not a skill I had. It was given to me by the power of the Holy Spirit. It was such a blessing and opportunity for me to be able to do. These new skills are not something we can do out of our own strength. If we do, we will panic and fail. I must ask the Holy Spirit to equip me to do the work set before me.
I’m a new public school junior high mom, and i was angsty all of Friday because she was going to her first dance. I imagined all the things that could go wrong, but she came home unphased and happy. There are many parts of mothering that don’t feel scary anymore but every new stage she enters is still uncharted and requires new trust. And to think Jesus was an awkward teen once too!
I was diagnosed with diabetes two weeks ago, so I'm learning how to manage this disease. I'm a beginner in this journey and it can feel super overwhelming sometimes. I can relate to the angsty feelings when things don't work out like I expected them to and having to play the game of trial and error with my blood sugar. I have to keep reminding myself that I'm new at this and each test helps me grow in my understanding of this disease. Each piece of food I choose to eat, each choice I take to move my body more, and each dose of medicine changes my results for better or for worse. It's given me a new gratitude for God's beautiful design of the human body and the delicate balance of how things in our body have to work together to keep us functioning well.
I, too, remember the beginning of our marriage. I had no clue how to cook! My mother wasn’t a good cook either; she burned every piece of meat she touched. The one thing she was great at was baking potatoes, except I was the one she called at just the right time in the afternoons to scrub them, poke them with a fork and put them in the oven. She worked full time, being a single mother. Mark actually helped me learn since he had observed his mother who was a fabulous cook.
Now, I struggle with constant, chronic pain that changes every day. It moves into different parts of my body and morphs from one type of pain to another. Just when I think I’ve got a handle on how to relieve it, it changes.
Then, I think of Jesus all grown up in His childhood home and with the disciples. True comfort was unheard of in those times! So even Jesus experienced lots of aches and pains, sore joints from sleeping on a hard bed or the ground. He got cold, which causes a pain all its own. And He got hot, making Him uncomfortable and thirsty. His body experienced lots of different types of pain, so He’s my comfort and JOY every day even when I have to cry because of the pain. Plus, I think of Him on the cross! His arms stretched out, and the pain! I have pain in my upper back, shoulders and arms; Jesus knows my pain. And His Spirit lives inside me, so He feels every pain, physical, mental and emotional that I do - that we all do! Take heart, friends! This world we live in has a lot of trouble in it, but Jesus overcame it. And someday we will live with Him, healed and whole.
Okay, so at the age of 42 I am finally learning how to cook and meal plan. When I was single I just ate chips and salsa or salads or other odds and ends for dinner. Then, when we got married, Paul did most of the cooking because he’s just good at it. But in this current phase of life it makes most sense for me to do dinners and can I tell you how angsty it’s been for me to burn things and over salt things and not be able to get a meal all together at the same time? Whew. Plus feeding two hungry boys. It’s a recipe (ha!) for learning and growing and laying aside pride for sure 🤓
Four years ago my mom’s cancer progressed to triple negative and she had 2-6 weeks to live. I moved in with my parents to help my dad care for her. She continued chemo treatments during this time. I had never cared for someone who was dying. I liken it to a crash course in nursing. I felt so unqualified to the task. At one point I had a panic attack. My pastor called me within 5 minutes and helped me process what to do. I took it as a gift from my friend Jesus. Then less than a year later my daddy was diagnosed with a Glioblastoma. I was blessed to have cared for him for 200 days. I continued my newly learned nursing skills and fed, bathed, cleaned and loved the way Jesus does. It was not a skill I had. It was given to me by the power of the Holy Spirit. It was such a blessing and opportunity for me to be able to do. These new skills are not something we can do out of our own strength. If we do, we will panic and fail. I must ask the Holy Spirit to equip me to do the work set before me.
I’m a new public school junior high mom, and i was angsty all of Friday because she was going to her first dance. I imagined all the things that could go wrong, but she came home unphased and happy. There are many parts of mothering that don’t feel scary anymore but every new stage she enters is still uncharted and requires new trust. And to think Jesus was an awkward teen once too!
I was diagnosed with diabetes two weeks ago, so I'm learning how to manage this disease. I'm a beginner in this journey and it can feel super overwhelming sometimes. I can relate to the angsty feelings when things don't work out like I expected them to and having to play the game of trial and error with my blood sugar. I have to keep reminding myself that I'm new at this and each test helps me grow in my understanding of this disease. Each piece of food I choose to eat, each choice I take to move my body more, and each dose of medicine changes my results for better or for worse. It's given me a new gratitude for God's beautiful design of the human body and the delicate balance of how things in our body have to work together to keep us functioning well.
I, too, remember the beginning of our marriage. I had no clue how to cook! My mother wasn’t a good cook either; she burned every piece of meat she touched. The one thing she was great at was baking potatoes, except I was the one she called at just the right time in the afternoons to scrub them, poke them with a fork and put them in the oven. She worked full time, being a single mother. Mark actually helped me learn since he had observed his mother who was a fabulous cook.
Now, I struggle with constant, chronic pain that changes every day. It moves into different parts of my body and morphs from one type of pain to another. Just when I think I’ve got a handle on how to relieve it, it changes.
Then, I think of Jesus all grown up in His childhood home and with the disciples. True comfort was unheard of in those times! So even Jesus experienced lots of aches and pains, sore joints from sleeping on a hard bed or the ground. He got cold, which causes a pain all its own. And He got hot, making Him uncomfortable and thirsty. His body experienced lots of different types of pain, so He’s my comfort and JOY every day even when I have to cry because of the pain. Plus, I think of Him on the cross! His arms stretched out, and the pain! I have pain in my upper back, shoulders and arms; Jesus knows my pain. And His Spirit lives inside me, so He feels every pain, physical, mental and emotional that I do - that we all do! Take heart, friends! This world we live in has a lot of trouble in it, but Jesus overcame it. And someday we will live with Him, healed and whole.