Looking out for others needs!

… “I have no one else like him, who takes a genuine interest in your welfare. For everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.” Phil 2:20,21

I was reading a lady’s blog on the devastation of the earthquake in Asia and how she was overwhelmed with all those who have lost their lives not knowing Christ. Praise God for Christians who have a heart for the lost.

This had me thinking about our neighborhoods and the overwhelming needs right here in America. I don’t have to walk very far from my front door to encounter those who are headed to an eternity of torment without Christ. There are needs right at my front door. We don’t need to go to a foreign country to serve the Lord Jesus Christ but praise God for those who have been called to do so.

I live in a rural area but I still have neighbors. I have an elderly woman who is 93 years old that lives a stone throw from my doorway. She is in good health but is lonely. She loves to have people stop by so she can show them her newest quilt or potholder she is making. Then there is the Spanish family that speaks no English at the turkey ranch up the road just a bit. The mother works in the fields to make ends meet. She speaks no English but we are able to express our love for one another. Then there is the family around the corner that are also Spanish speaking. There are many who live in that home to make ends meet. The Mother of two of the children is in a wheel chair, 2 of the Sisters (?) are mentally challenged and the grandparents live there, too. The Father goes through the dumpster’s every morning looking for cans to earn a bit of cash. There are so many ways to minister to families such as these. Instead of saving aluminum cans that can be given to those who are in a greater need. A hot meal can be taken to a shut in. Extra eggs on sale can be given to help a family that is struggling to make ends meet. A Gospel tract can be included in each of these acts of kindness.

Even if a family doesn’t live in a farming community such as I do they can still find needs and ways to minister Christ right in their own city neighborhoods. Possibly you have elderly people who could use an extra meal or their lawns  mowed. What wonderful training for young children to learn how to reach out and minister for Christ. We have those with new babies who could use a meal or someone to help baby sit in those early months. There are those children whose parents don’t have time for them and need a listening ear. Or the single parent who could use help in so many ways.

Christ can be ministered to these situations and lives can be changed. I try to always carry English and Spanish tracts in my purse to leave with people I meet or to leave in restaurants, etc. It’s a non-intimidating way to minister the Gospel.

1 Timothy 5:9 says that a widow in the church who would be put on a list( to be taken care of by the church) must be known for her good works. This list in Timothy should be a younger woman’s goal of how she lives her life. Her good deeds should include bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of saints, helping those in trouble and devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds. Would others say of us that we are a woman whose life is devoted to good works and deeds?

We are so busy with our own interests and our own lives that we can become hardened to the needs of others. It takes a constant dying to self to look to the needs of others.  The opportunities are endless and can be fit into any Mama’s schedule.

Kitchen Duty!

I was in my kitchen most of today. While I was doing some extra baking and cooking I decided to make up a few ‘cake mixes’. My husband has a favorite chocolate cake recipe. I like to put all the dry ingredients together in a marked freezer bag to have on hand to make a quick cake. It’s like having a boxed cake on hand but costs less and tastes better. All I have to do is add the wet ingredients,bake and frost.

I have 4 large plastic buckets in my pantry that I keep full of flour, sugar and powdered sugar. Each bucket holds about 25 pounds. I also have 2 smaller buckets that hold around 10 pounds. I keep brown sugar in one and Hershey’s cocoa (for husband’s chocolate cake) in another.  By keeping these buckets full I can whip up a cake for a funeral or a visit to someone who is ill, in no time at all.

I finally came up with a meal plan to keep on hand in case I’m called on to take a meal to a funeral or someone who is ill. I’ve wanted to find an easy menu with items that I could keep on hand.  All the ingredients in the recipes below will keep for a long time on my shelf or in the freezer. That way I don’t have to run to the store before I start a meal. Planning ahead helps so much in keeping stress off of a homemaker in those spur of the moment requests.

Russian Chicken ( Seasoned baked chicken with marinade: apricot jam, Russian dressing, Lipton Onion Soup mix)

Broccoli casserole with Ritz cracker topping

Fruit Salad (Cool whip, vanilla instant pudding, fruit cocktail, pineapple, marshmallows)

Rolls (freeze)

Chocolate cake

I think all these recipes are on my website.

I also keep foil pans and freezer bags on hand in large quantity so that I don’t have to be concerned about getting my dishes back. I also have on hand a huge roll of tinfoil and plastic wrap to use for wrapping.

Another item I keep in stock is buttermilk which I freeze in 2/3 cp. portions in freezer bags. I have quite a few recipes that call for buttermilk. Freezing the buttermilk does add more water to the content but it still works just fine.

Visiting the sick and helping widows in distress and orphans is seen as undefiled religion in the eyes of the Lord. The best way to be a woman full of good works is to prepare as much as possible. If I set aside time to minister and keep my eyes open for sales to stock up on necessary items for baking and cooking then I am making God’s priorities mine.

I began a topical Word study this morning on what the Bible has to say about getting OLD and aging. The media and all it’s hype about staying young and not showing signs of aging has effected many godly women in our generation. I have known Christian women who have paid money to have the lines taken away from under their eyes. I’ve known many Christian women who have had breast implants (I’m serious!). I can see the temptation, especially if a person watches any television or reads secular magazines. The ‘youth idol’ is everywhere. Those who belong to the Lord must saturate themselves in God’s Word in order to not take on the pattern of this world.

Yesterday, I stopped by Sister Ellis’s home to pick up some items. I think I must have shared about her before. She is 83 years old and is still working for the Lord. A group of women come to her home on Friday’s to quilt. They give the quilts to the homeless and many have been sent to Mexico on mission trips and to Romania. There she was as I entered her home… in her favorite place… behind the quilting machine with her dear friend Dolores across from her. They were quilting for the Lord! There are two homeless shelters for women nearby that need blankets for the winter. She also showed me the curtains she had collected for their windows.

I smile every time I think of that picture. I can not count how many times I have walked into this godly woman’s home to see her standing behind her quilting machine, doing work for the Lord. She has told her children that as long as she has strength she will continue working for the Lord. She is truly my living example of the older woman in Titus 2.

This to me is what growing old is all about. Not about having a flawless face that looks 20 years younger… or having breasts that don’t sag …..  but that our age will serve our God in service to Him. The focus is on others and off of self and how we look to others. Wisdom comes with old age if a woman has sought after it with all her heart! Her final years should be spent, as all her years, in using all the Lord has given her to serve Him and spread His Word to those who are heading to an eternity in Hell.

I’ve collected 2 pages of Scriptures on aging… not single spaced… and there are still more that I didn’t have time to record this morning. Here are my favorites from today’s study.

I got up earlier than my husband this morning because I need to travel into the next town (45 minutes away) for some testing on my heart.

I’m so thankful to the Lord that He has allowed me time to get some Christmas sewing accomplished this week. The last couple of years our business has struggled (we’re in trucking) due to the high cost of fuel and insurances so my part has been to do all I can to make our pennies stretch. I found flannel on sale a while back at Joann’s so I’m sewing pj’s for the grands. I have 3 boys pj’s nearly done. Yesterday I worked on a doll dress for one of my granddaughter’s. I have a really cute pattern for a Barbie tote and a Barbie organizer that you hang in the closet. I have a lot of scrap material so these should not cost me a lot except some clear vinyl and binding. I also found an adorable picture of a Chinese checker quilt. I heard my oldest grandson say the other day that checkers were his favorite game. So, I checked my fabric drawer and found some material  that I think will work. I think I’ll make the checkers look like small little bean bags.

My husband has been off for a couple of weeks from driving. Last week he worked around the property. He put in drip sprinklers on a row of eucalyptus trees on the side of our property. We had transplanted them from the back field last winter. This week he has been in the shop working on repairs.

It’s turning off chilly here. I woke up so cold last night. I had added an extra thin blanket on the bed but I think it’s time to add another one. I’m going to change the mattress pad and put on the electric one instead. It works well for my husband’s arthritis.

I was thinking about our chickens, ducks and one lone goose and their need for some added protection from the weather so I plan on buying a roll of heavy plastic to put over their windows and doors in the chicken coop. My Mom and Dad did this for us last year. I have the greatest parents.

I’ve been thinking about heaven a lot this past week. So many things that remind me that this life is to temporal. We are not even promised our next breath let alone another day. I pray, as an evangelist I once heard, that God would stamp eternity on my forehead.  The Lord has blessed me with such a wonderful life compared to so many Christian’s around the world who have endured persecution. Oh, I do pray for more boldness in sharing His Word with strangers. Please pray, if you happen to think of me, that the Lord would bring a Spanish speaking Pastor to the people in our small little community. At the ‘give away’ we have a good size group of Spanish speaking families that come for food and clothing. They need a Pastor in our town that will care about them and be willing to minister to their needs. Several of these families are straight from Mexico and are very, very poor. They work in the fields.  One family was living in a garage, literally, that leaked  last year during the rains. They had a small little baby who had no coat for winter.

We have so much to be grateful for ! God bless you all and enjoy your day in Him.

Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding? Job 12:12

I found this verse last week and saved it so that I can  begin a file on ‘aging’ Scriptures. There are many challenges that await a person once they begin the aging process. I’m on the threshold… I turned 48 this year (sounds like I’m talking about milk rather than a birthday! *S*) and I find that I’m already experiencing changes in my body, mind and emotions that were not there a few years ago. My memory is not what it used to be, nor my strength or my nerves. Lines are appearing on my face and my skin is not as resilient as it once was. I feel like I’m living in an oven most days, even if the temperature is freezing outside. I’m a walking science experiment.

I want my thinking to be biblical as I approach this next season of my life. I don’t want to succumb to the worlds way of dealing with age. I don’t want things tucked, stapled,  pulled, lifted or separated. I don’t want my skin peeled or my lips pumped. I want to embrace each line and wrinkle, each gray hair. (well, I guess I can’t embrace the gray hair because my husband likes my hair with blonde highlights!) I want to be comfortable with who God is calling me to be… an older woman. How can I ever obtain this godly goal if I do everything in my power to reject aging and cover it up?  

Besides gathering Scriptures that speak to what the Lord says about our aging I also try to  protect myself  from the media’s interpretation of how a woman should look as she ages. One way is by not watching those ’makeover’ shows on tv. What a recipe for disaster!  The focus is on the outward appearance with no thought of eternity or our inward beauty.  Our lines and wrinkles are telling a story, especially to the person they are being found on. They are speaking loud and clear that my time is fading here on earth and that I am  bound for another place.. Heaven!  I can only bring glory to God in this season of my life if I conform my thinking to what His Word actually says about aging.

This Scripture also had me thinking about something else and that is how time has the opportunity to change a person’s view on some things and give them more understanding. The older a godly woman becomes the more wisdom she should have acquired. The way I look at many things today is different than I did nearly 30 year ago. The  thoughts that have been grounded in God’s Truth will never change. But, so many times we hold to a belief that we ‘think’ is God’s truth only to have it challenged down the road and realize we had put a ‘thus saith the Lord’ onto a thought or conviction that was of our own making.

When we are young parents we think we have all the answers. We feel angered if someone offers us a different opinion than our own. Yet, Scripture so clearly teaches that the older women are to teach the younger women. They’ve been there.. done that! They have hopefully learned through their mistakes. They’ve  sifted through the rubble of decisions made over the years and by God’s grace have hopefully clung to the objective in God’s Word.

I’m finding that even at the ripe old age of 48 I still find myself questioning many convictions I used to cling to as solid truth. I still have not worked it all out. Our daily trials and afflictions have a way of tearing our ideals right from our hands, which in reality is a good thing. Our beliefs should always be challenged to stand on God’s Word otherwise we have no right passing them on to others as ‘thus saith the Lord’.

I used to attend a lot of homeschool conventions during the years we ran a used book store. I came to know different speakers on a personal basis. It has been nearly 15 years since I first began selling home school books and so I’ve had some time to watch the families of the speakers (mine included) and see how their convictions played out over the years with their children. It’s interesting to see that many of us who tagged ‘thus saith the Lord’ on some of our child rearing convictions in many ways have come to challenge their validity as to whether or not they are found in God’s Word.  Not all of them… but some. Age has a way of gaining understanding if you are the Lord’s and seeking His will.  This must be why the Lord commands the older women to teach the younger women. If they are godly women they have had the experience of age to bring them wisdom they lacked in younger years. They can be a protection to the younger women if they will take advantage of their years.

I’m very sobered by this thought and I pray that the Lord will give me His wisdom to only speak where Scripture speaks when laying commands on another person. My older daughter turned 30 this year and I have many grandchildren but I do not consider myself, really to be an older woman as yet.   The older I get the more I realize how little I really know.  I still have so much to learn. So, why in the world am I writing this blog????

Blessings!
Georgene

Today was our company picnic and safety meeting! I had such a nice time meeting the families of our employees. Such precious families. I came away so thankful for God’s blessings and pray that our company will continue to prosper so we can bless these dear families even more. Most of the wives are stay-at-home mothers. I know how difficult it is these days to live on one income so I hope that we can be a blessing to these families in the future.

As I sat this afternoon and chatted with these dear young women I thought of my younger days and the struggles we had to make ends meet. We still have to watch our pennies but as your children grow and leave the nest things loosen up a bit. It’s so amazing to think back over the Lord’s faithfulness in years past. Year after year I can tell of the Lord’s provision in our lives and His untold blessings. He has never skipped a beat in providing for our family. It may have not always been to the world’s order of things but our needs have always been met. There were times when my husband’s only source of income (1 diesel) had broken down but the Lord didn’t skip a beat… all our bills were paid and there was food on the table. There was the time that my husband suffered a heart attack and was not able to work for 3 months yet the Lord had prepared a driver to take over in his truck… our bills were paid on time and we had our share of food… God didn’t skip a beat. Trailers turned over, high repair bills seemed impossible to pay, employee’s quitting with no one to take their place yet still the Lord was our source and He always provided for each and every need.

It encourages my heart to be reminded  of the faithfulness of my God! Thank you, dear Lord for your ever present help and your moment by moment watchfulness and care over my life and that of my family!

Blessings (above and beyond!),

Georgene

I’m a bit behind in this ‘blogging’ business. A dear friend of mine said this morning that she wasn’t sure she had anything of value to say in her blog. I’m sitting here tonight realizing I’m too exhausted and have nothing of value to share tonight, either.

My daughter came to help in the business office the past few days so Grammy has been watching the children. I spent most of this morning cooking side dishes for a company picnic we’ll be giving at a nearby park tomorrow. I made our family’s bean’s dish, Bee’s Salad, green bean casserole and Onion Potatoes (Lipton Onion Soup mix recipe). I’m used to making all the desserts for our family’s get-together’s but this time my daughter in love and husband just suggested I purchase them along with the meat to save on the stress. I hope they taste good. I normally don’t care for store bought desserts but these are from Costco so I’m hoping they are above the norm in taste.

I’ve been sharing some of my recent struggles to give up my own schedule for the day. The Lord has really met me in this trial. I’ve been able to meet the challenges of each day with much more peace.

Blessings,

Georgene