Shortly before we moved we bought a bread maker because we found out that Wild Man was allergic to soy as well as dairy. Finding dairy free bread is a little tricky but finding bread without soy lecithin is a miracle and usually costs about $4-5 a loaf. I spent several months trying different recipes and finally found one on line that I tweaked until it worked for our family. It's a honey whole wheat bread so no sugar and we use coconut oil because, get this, vegetable oil is just soy bean oil!!! I know! My world was turned upside down, too. Plus, coconut oil is awesome, that too. And, yes, that jar is our coconut oil! It stays melted because I'm storing it above the fridge and that cabinet stays toasty. Any who, Hurricane is working on learning how to use the bread machine so that when this sweet babe is born she can take over baking our sandwich bread for a little while.
We have a horrible time loving one another biblically. All of us. It's just more obvious in children because they don't have the self control to hide it yet. When they "insist on their own way" if comes about with shouts and crying and maybe even hitting. Adults have learned how to quietly manipulate to get exactly what they want. Either way, you are loving yourself more than others. So, in our home, we are memorizing 1 Cor 13:4-7: "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." Wait! Go back and read it again. The odds are you've seen this passage all over kitchens and on throw pillows and heard it repeatedly at weddings and because of that you skim over it. Or you view it as soo pretty and poetic, and so you read it like it's an entertaining song. If you really pay attention to it that is when you will realize that you are TOTALLY unable to love that way. Every night during family worship we have been looking up key words in the passage in the dictionary and thesaurus. Did you know that patience is defined as enduring trials and hardships without complaining? And that is more than sitting in the van waiting on your wife to finish her hair so that you can officially be late to church. It means you are patient, enduring ALL things, and bear with her for YEARS while she works on her sin of nagging you. It means that you don't complain even though it's the 50th time you have had to remind your son to sit properly at the table. Despite what the world, tv, and movies tell us, love is not something that comes naturally and out of no where. We do not "fall in love" and then are able to do these things because love happened to us. Love is a verb and it is a choice. So when you choose to keep loving your unbelieving husband and you seek to love him the way Christ loves us, this list is what you aspire to. No wonder we fail at it. This passage, in my opinion, is one of the hardest most convicting in the Bible. It is a laundry list of all the ways you WILL fail your loved ones. So we pray with one another everyday for the grace to be able to love one another the way Jesus loves us. And so we come to the Love Jar. Robert will be in seminary full time so eating out will be a thing of the past. Right when we moved here we went to Sweet Frog which is a yogurt bar and so good! In my opinion, it is better than others because it has marshmallow cream sauce AND hot fudge (note: hot fudge is different and far superior to chocolate sauce i.e. hershey syrup). Also it's christian owned. Anyway, we decided we would start a jar for saving up money to go to Sweet Frog. It costs our family about $35 to go to any yogurt bar so that is our goal. Each time we witness someone loving biblically (in a way that is not easy for them) then we put 50 cents in the jar. So for instance, Tender is naturally kind but may struggle with other characteristics of love. So she doesn't get 50 cents for what she already does so well, she has to be stretching herself. A good example of someone stretching himself is Wild Man not insisting on his own way. He has actually gotten quite a bit of money in our jar for agreeing to something without screaming. The Boy got some money for making his little brother's bed without complaining and with a joyful attitude. This is also great because no one is allowed to boast(love does not boast)! They can't come to Robert or I and announce how loving they just were. Someone else has to report it about them. So the kids are now looking at one another to find good things to brag about instead of tattling for bad things. (ahem, love covers a multitude of sins, love does not rejoice in wrongdoing) It's so fun! So there is the update. And on a lesser important note if you are not pregnant: the gas station that is closest to us has a fountain drink machine with an ice dispenser that has a button for you to choose between cubed ice and shaved ice!! I think I gasped audibly when I discovered it one day about a month ago. AND, if I bring my own cup they let me have a whole cup of ice (I cover it with some water, but at this point in my pregnancies drinking water is just a means to getting to the ice) for free! So basically when we go anywhere I run in there and get ice water! I think they will regret allowing me to have it for free... I mean, really, I'm going in there often. I wonder if they will wonder what happened when I seem to drop off the face of the earth in a couple of months. Because truly, when this baby exits my body I will care for ice about as much as I care for grass. OH!! And Silas is gaining weight again! He eats table food like a trucker and is still nursing a few times a day. He hasn't gained an ounce since he was five months old, so this is a big deal and we are very happy.
3 Comments
Kim Cover
8/7/2015 08:36:26 am
I love you Lindsey!!!! You challenge me and I can so hear and picture you saying all of this!!! My heart overflowing with thankfulness & graditude! Happy to be in Gods family with you!
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Andrea
8/7/2015 09:04:32 am
Thanks for the belly shot! The kids were like - oh mommy your belly is bigger than hers! Ha! I think we are just carrying differently. I am all belly from top to bottom and from side to side. And yours is like a cute little basketball. Thank your for sharing God's truth about truly loving one another. It is our families struggle also with this and it is so convicting!
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Sue
8/9/2015 02:43:57 am
I'm always so glad to see your updates. We love and miss you all so much so it is a little like seeing you all. Please remember me. I fell and broke my foot 2 weeks ago. I had surgery a week and a half ago. So now I'm in Bonham doing rehab. Love you all, Nannie.
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