Thoughts...

I must admit, I haven’t done a daily devotional probably since high school, or at least my freshman year of college. I can’t even say that I’ve thought about it, or missed it, or wished I had been doing them. However, some recent events have prompted me to go back to it, as I find myself needing daily encouragement and words to help me get through the day. I’ve struggled with finding the right time for me to do this, but I think I’ve started to figure out that starting my day with a devotional will help prepare me for the day, and I can constantly remind myself of what I’ve read and refer to it throughout the day.

A while back, I bought a 366 Day Daily Devotional book called “Streams in the Dessert” by L. B. Cowman, edited by Jim Reimann. I couldn’t tell you when I bought it, but I can tell you I most likely purchased it because it’s an “updated edition in today’s language”. I have My Utmost for His Highest, and sometimes the language is a little over my head, but “Streams in the Dessert” Revised seems to speak to me.

Today’s devotional talks about the refiner’s fire. The verse is Malachi 3:3 – “He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver”. It talks about how God is like a metallurgist; the metallurgist knows that only a refiner’s fire will melt the metal enough for it to finally be molded to its perfect shape. Similarly, God knows that we all need to essentially go through a “fire” to come out perfectly shaped and molded on the other side. It’s almost like life is a series of “fires”, because in my opinion, while we strive to be perfect, and that’s God’s sincere goal for us, we will never achieve perfection in this lifetime. He’s getting us ready for what’s after this lifetime.

The line that really struck me the most from the devotional is “It is with the most precious metals that a metallurgist will take the greatest care”. I haven’t really been feeling like a very precious “metal” lately. I’ve been disappointed in myself and have felt that others have been disappointed in me too, or that others deserve to be disappointed in me. Everyone makes mistakes, but recently I’ve had a hard time understanding that God wants you to make mistakes. Because ultimately, in the end, it’s those mistakes that will make you who you are (which is who He wants you to be). And they’re “planned” mistakes, meant for a purpose. While what you’re going through may not be perfect to some people, and it’s hard to see while you’re right in the middle of it, that’s the fire that’s melting you so that you can become the person God wants you to be. I’ve just been struggling with feeling “precious”. It’s hard for me to feel like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel when I’m in the middle of the “fire”. But reading a devotional like this seems like it’s exactly what God wanted me to hear.

It goes on to say that while the metal is in the fire, the metallurgist doesn’t leave it; rather, he sits down next to it to watch it so it isn’t overheated and the fire won’t harm the metal. In this same vein, God made choosen to put me “through a fire”, but He will never leave me and doesn’t want to see harm done to me; rather he wants to make sure I get exactly where I need to be so I can be molded to be perfect.

To pick up a random devotional book that I haven’t looked at in years, and have this be the particular passage I’m “scheduled” to read when this is how I’m feeling, can only be explained by the simple fact that God can see and hear my fears and knows that I need comfort. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and this “fire” I’m feeling will pass and will only make me a better person at the other end; the mold of what He wants me to be, perfect in His eyes. It’s just hard for me to be in the fire, but it wasn’t meant to be easy.

Excerpt from a poem by Arthur Tappan Pierson –

And the gold grew brighter and yet more bright,
But our eyes were so dim with tears,
We saw the fire - not the Master’s hand,
And questioned with anxious fears.

There is more before and after that section, but that part sticks out the most for me. Like I’ve said, it’s hard to be in the middle of the fire and see that there’s something good that will come out of this, or to understand that we’re going through something for a reason. And it’s easy to cry and have anxieties and fears and question your life – I’m just glad that I have this devotional today to help remind me that it’s all for a greater purpose, and while it’s not up to me what happens, God is in charge and is keeping an eye on the “fire” and he knows what he’s doing and when we’ll be ready.

Should we think that is pleases His loving heart
To cause us a moment’s pain?
Not so! For He saw through the present cross
The joy through eternal gain.

Amen!!

*On a side note – I took a page from my dad’s devotional “playbook” and brought my devotional book into work this morning, since I knew I’d have a least half an hour to myself before people started to arrive. Shortly after arriving though, a co-worker of mine also arrived and I thought my plans would have to wait. However, she left the office for what I thought was a quick run to the kitchen for coffee, so I thought I’d just read through today’s passage in the 5 minutes or so she’d be gone. But…I was able to spend the next 35 minutes reading and reflecting on the passage and she never came back. As soon as I was done, my boss arrived for the day.

How’s that for God’s perfect timing???!!!

Dallas Area Dallas Stars fans!! (And coffee fans!)

Dallas Area Dallas Stars fans - my brother is selling $5 raffle tickets (or 4 for $15) for a chance to win 2-$100 Dallas Stars tickets vs. Atlanta on January 15th! They will draw the
winner on December 11th, and add more tickets the more entries we get! They are also offering discounted tickets to other games - anyone interested?? Let me know and I'll get you their info!

He and my sister-in-law (see their story here) are working on adopting children from Ethiopia, and every little bit helps! They are also selling African coffees, with $5 from each bag going to their adoption!! If you love coffee, check these out! --> Buy coffee to help adoptions!

Fall Decorations

Can't say it would blow an interior designer's mind, but I'm pleased to have some fall decorations in my home!

What you see when you come in - I made that larger cross-stitch in the middle saying "think autumn".

Here's the guest bathroom in the entrance hallway, some pumpkins and Jack-O-Lanterns (thanks to Mom!)

My mom made this for me a while back ... this will be out until Halloween until that passes, then it goes on to the next pillow!

This one my mom also made, but it's good until Winter!!

It's not a lot and it's simple, but I think my fireplace is cute! (But much better for Christmas though!!)

More Adventures in Cooking

Just wanted to share a few more culinary accomplishments for me...

Broccoli and cheese quiche!! This consisted of half full eggs and half egg whites, but it was good. The bad news - I used too much broccoli, and after about 3 days, it started smelling like it went bad. So I couldn't finish it. At least what I tasted was good! But lesson learned...use less broccoli!!

So this isn't a feat of culinary accomplishments, but it was AMAZING and I was stuffed until about 2 pm!! These are breakfast burritos...3 eggs whites and 2 turkey bacon slices (split between the 2 burritos), high fiber tortillas, fat free Cheddar cheese, and I poured about 2 tbsp of Salsa Verde over each before rolling them up! And I also tried the Fruit2Day drinks I've been hearing about - the juice is great, but they put pieces of fruit in them, and I really can't stand that. It really bothers me to have to chew my drinks. So I won't be getting them again. But...that doesn't mean you shouldn't! Like I said, the juice was good.

Adventures in Cooking

September has been a month of cooking/experiments! Check out some of my creations below!!

A nice acorn squash with salt, pepper, and roasted pumpkin seeds. YUMMM!!!

Then, Justin wanted a Weight Watchers meal (you probably heard me gasp around the world)...so I made a healthy pizza - from scratch. Whole wheat crust, fresh tomatoes, fresh cilantro, mozzerella and pizza sauce. Also YUM!!!
And I had purchased some butternut squash at a Farmer's Market recently, and I wanted some soup so I improvised. See the amazing recipe below!!

Butternut Squash Recipe:

1 large (or 2 small/medium) butternut squash
1 cup Fat Free Milk
1 cup Fat Free Cream cheese
Garam Masala spice
Curry spice

Peel and cut all the squash. Boil over the stove for 20 minutes, or until squash is soft enough to smush with a fork. Drain the pot, and mush all the potatoes to as smooth or lumpy as you'd like.

Put all the mashed squash back in your pot and put the stove top at about medium heat. Add the milk and cream cheese, and stir until all the cream cheese has melted and you reach desired consistency. Add the spices to your taste preferences. (I just did a dash or two until I got it right where I liked it).

This recipe will make a very thick soup, almost like a paste. But I looove really thick soup. You can slowly add more milk to make it thinner until it gets to your preference. And I just picked those spices because I love Indian food!

And I made sure I picked fat free cream cheese and milk because I'm on Weight Watchers. But it reallllly tastes yummy!!

Update for Accountability

Well, unfortunately, I had another weigh-in yesterday, and I gained back almost as much as what I lost the first week. So I'm not sure where I went wrong, but I'm going to try 10 times as hard this week!

I made sure I had a WW meal for lunch, so it could be easily counted, and I picked a healthy frozen stir-fry option with lots of veggies for dinner. I also got some WW desserts so I could still feel "bad" but still stay within points. I will have 2 points over after dessert, so I'm doing good for today!! (I hope this shows up next Wednesday in my weigh-in!)

Weekend Update

Boy it was a busy weekend!!

Friday:
I got home from work and Justin called from his office and invited me to go downtown with a bunch of his co-workers. Fortunately, I had already fed Bailey, so I left and met up with them downtown. We hung out at a few places and headed to our final destination because a girl we were meeting wanted to do karaoke. So Justin and 2 of our friends, Kyle and Amanda, all drove back to our place and hung out for a few minutes first, while Justin changed out of his work clothes. We then headed over to Hatch Cover and met up with Megan and Mike, and it was a great time!! We ordered a bunch of food and it was like we had a buffet at our table! We never actually ended up doing any karaoke (thank goodness!) because it was the conversation was great, and it was extremely crowded, but we did pick a bunch of songs on the jukebox and it was a blast!!

On a side note – Amanda LOVES Hindi movies almost as much as I do! At my place, we had a blast going through my movie stash and I explained plot lines, gave recommendations, etc. Plus, the girls drove home separately from the guys, so Amanda and I rocked out to some Hindi soundtracks I have in my car. We made plans for when the boyfriends go on a business trip later this month to go to a local Indian restaurant for lunch and then go back to my place and watch a movie! (Or two! Or three!)

Saturday:
I managed to get up around 6:45 am and shower and meet up with my parents at Panera Bread at 8! They go each Saturday at 8 am – it’s a “tradition”! I brought Bailey with me, and they brought their puppy Cody, but they had errands to run, so they left and Bailey and I went to the dog park – go figure, right? Plus, the weather was still pretty nice and wasn’t miserable yet, so it was nice.

Then I had a quiet lunch at home while Justin was out fishing and I watched a new Hindi movie on Netflix called “Welcome”. I say “new”, but it came out in 2008, but Netflix just made it available to add to your instant queue, so I could watch it on the Wii without having to wait for them to ship a disc. I definitely won’t buy the movie, and I didn’t really enjoy the music all that much. But, you win some; you lose some. It was good and funny in some parts, and it was a Bollywood movie, so that much I enjoyed.

I wanted to watch the UT game, but it wasn’t televised in my area. Booo!!! I ended up just watching some documentaries on the History channel about 9/11 and then went to bed.

Sunday:
I got up somewhat early, and realized that I had a TON of laundry that I forgot to do Saturday, so I was a “Laundry Queen” all day. I think there were about 3 or 4 loads of laundry total. Whew!! Around 11, I ran some errands with Justin and got some brats for NFL Kickoff Weekend!! We also bought ingredients for homemade chili on Saturday, which has become a football Sunday tradition. That bad boy started in the crockpot around 9 am and kept it nice and hot all day long! YUMM!!! (And it’s like 85% veggies, plus beef, so I could still enjoy it and stay on WW!!)

Football Sunday consisted of watching the Broncos lose, then the Eagles, then finally the huge disaster that was the Cowboys/Redskins game. Not a good day for us. I started to watch another Hindi movie in between games, but I wasn’t really focused so I’ll have to finish it tonight!