by Cathy Baker | Faith |
by Cathy Baker
Families are like fudge… mostly sweet with a few nuts. Author Unknown
I LOVE my family.
No naming names here Uncle Jim but I find this quote to be quite true, at least in my family—and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
My dad’s mom (Ma-Ma) was a master-maker of that particular type of chocolate concoction, offering up a butter-like consistency with an ever so slight crunch of sugar.
I remember Ma-Ma’s arthritic fingers carefully stirring chocolate chips, vanilla, marshmallows, and nuts in her white Pyrex bowl.
When God handcrafted our family He melded together a unique blend of personalities, strengths and weaknesses, much like He did with yours.
In God’s sovereignty, He knits us in the mother’s womb of His choosing, for His purposes and ultimate glory.
Growing up, the dreaded part of the fudge-making process was the constant stirring of sugar and milk until it came to a rolling boil. If not carefully monitored, liquids quickly scorched, leaving behind wasted ingredients.
The Waltons and other idealistic family shows left many craving that type of harmonic setting for their own families. Truth is, God has used the rolling-boil point of familial situations to teach me deeper aspects of my walk with Him, producing a peace that far surpasses that found on Walton’s mountain. In Him, nothing we experience as a family is truly wasted.
After pouring the warm sugar mixture over the dry ingredients, the fudge is blended, poured into a prepared pan, and refrigerated.
The baking process involves a variety of steps, and this final one reminds me of another family…God’s. I don’t need a village. I need a kingdom. People led by the living God who pour out truth, even if it means getting messy. We need not belong to the same denomination, worship the same way, or wear the same thing. When our desire is to put the Gospel on display, we blend beautifully.
Of course, I can’t close out a post on loving my family without sharing pictures of my favorite three-wee family members. (Soon to be four via international adoption but we can’t share pictures quite yet. Stay tuned!)
Oh yes, I LOVE my family. (Especially my Uncle Jim who has rarely failed to make us smile over the years. He’s my kind of nut!)
Your turn! Would you care to share one favorite thing you LOVE about your family?
But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD’s love is with those who
fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children– Psalm 103:17
by Cathy Baker | Faith |
Beginning Monday, February 2nd, we’ll explore all things pertaining to love. Every weekday I’ll share a snippet of something I love in hopes of stirring a spirit of gratefulness, especially for the little things within us both.
On Wednesdays, the focus shifts to the extravagant love of our heavenly Father, the One True Love.
So, why the topic of love five days a week for an entire month?
Because love surrenders a fragrance of delight in its wake.
Sometimes the release is minute, insignificant to others, but fragrant to our souls all the same. And isn’t that the sweetest fragrance of all?
I look forward to sharing this journey o’ love with you!
As we usher in this new series would you consider sharing one attribute you most love about Jesus, Love defined?
We love because He first loved us. 1 John 4:19
by Cathy Baker | Faith |
by Cathy Baker
“If you hear a voice within you say, ‘You cannot paint,’ then by all
means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” -Vincent van Gogh
Granted, Vincent probably didn’t have paint-by-number kits in mind when he said this, but I sure did.
The last time I matched colors with a number I wore pigtails and Gilbert O’ Sullivan’s Alone Again (Naturally) was topping the Billboard chart. So when I spotted the tiny print below this vintage travel trailer saying it was available in a paint-by-number kit the ten year-old within wanted to break out a wax whistle in celebration.
And then I hesitated. My “voice within,” as van Gogh put it, wasn’t saying I couldn’t paint (it’s a paint-by-number for goodness sakes!) but rather, I shouldn’t. My adult self raised every excuse it could muster as to why I had no business buying such a thing—but the ten year-old won this battle.
So what’s the point in all of this? Play time is a good thing. It boosts creativity. It helps us be more productive. It’s not a waste of time, like I once thought.
You can’t teach creativity; all you can do is let it blossom, and it blossoms in play. -Peter Gray
If you’re not into paint-by-number kits, consider these ways to silence your own cannot’s:
- Doodle
- Sing
- Knit
- Learn how to play a musical instrument
- Write songs
- Get crafty (the glue-based kind, of course)
- Explore your city
- Break out the Play-doh!
Your turn! (Because we share on this playground): What’s your favorite form of play?
by Cathy Baker | Faith |
by Cathy Baker
Today, I’d like to introduce you to my friend, Lori Roeleveld. She’s incredibly talented, downright inspiring, and a witty disturber of Hobbits.
Lori’s NEW book, Running from a Crazy Man (and Other Adventures Traveling with Jesus) was released in December 2014.
Frankly, it’s unlike any book I’ve read. Brief essays, if you will, that take aim at the soul, penetrating the heart on its way with truth through beautifully told stories. I’ve yet to sit down and be content to read just one. I double dare you to try! And I’m in good company. Check out what Jerry B. Jenkins had to say about Running from a Crazy Man:
You’ll find yourself saying as I did: just one more chapter. And one more. And one more. ~ Jerry B. Jenkins
I’m sharing Lori’s book not only because it’s relatively NEW on the market but because of her voice—her fresh Gospel-driven perspective. One moment you’re giggling like a girl and in the next, your soul is dropping to its knees in recognition of Who is truly speaking to you through these shared adventures.
I highly recommend this book (as well as Lori’s blog) for all the serious travelers of Christ out there. In fact, I’d like to share a copy with you. Simply leave a comment on this blog sharing ONE thing that stood out to you in her story, Are You Stuck in the Wrong Story?, below. I’ll draw a name via Random Name Picker on February 1st and announce it that week. If you would like it signed, I can mail it to you at the end of May (I see her at the conference mid-May.)
In the meantime, enjoy this excerpt — and don’t forget to leave a comment on the blog for your chance to win a FREE autographed copy!
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| Lori Roeleveld |
Are You Stuck in the
Wrong Story?
Following Jesus When Life Is No Fairy Tale
Cinderella knew the truth. She was intended for greater things than sweeping
ashes from the hearth.
Are you sometimes haunted by the notion that you were meant for more? You
should examine that idea. It may be from God.
My daughter got me interested in a Sunday night television show called Once
Upon a Time. It’s the story of a town inhabited by storybook characters trying
to find their way back into the world in which they really belong.
But really, it’s the gospel.
That’s probably not what the writers intended, but Jesus, in an effort to reach
His people, will even inject Himself into the primetime lineup of network
television.
In the first season, Once Upon a Time was all about the characters awakening and
remembering that they were once part of a glorious land. It features one child
who still believes in their story and is willing to take drastic measures to
remind everyone else of their former glory. Because of him, they are awake.
Now, they remember they’re not just librarians or shopkeepers or waitresses,
but they have “once upon a time” bloodlines with ancient stories full of magic
and adventure.
Even though they’re awake, they are not yet back home in The Enchanted Forest.
They remain trapped in a foreign place hostile to their former way of life.
Dark forces oppose them. An enemy works against their return, trying to keep
them in bondage to their everyday, ordinary, lesser selves—to rob them of their
redemption.
It’s the gospel, don’t you see? Can you acknowledge the playfulness of our
amazing Creator as He inserts His homecoming beacon into our modern culture and
cries out for us to remember who we were designed to be?
Doesn’t your heart cry out after a long Monday, or in the face of another Tuesday,
to be part of a greater story? Isn’t there within you a longing for a home you
don’t remember ever knowing? Don’t you sometimes feel trapped in a minor role
when all your dreams and passions create a force that threatens to destroy you
if you don’t find the role you were born to play?
Jesus created everything. His story is in His Word, yes, but He roams,
unconfined, across genres. He appears in the music we write, the movies we
make, the art we create, and the stories we tell.
He is calling to us—calling to us from every medium—to remember who we are.
For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night
or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep
awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get
drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober,
having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of
salvation. (1 Thessalonians 5:5-8)
Feel stuck inside a lesser role than you were intended to play? Wake up. Like
Sleeping Beauty, you need the kiss of true love. There is a High King and He
will free you if you come to Him. There is a rider on a White Horse coming. Can
you hear His hoofbeats?
Wake up, loved ones! You have a part in the greater story. Everything your
heart whispers to you in the night is true. There is more, and you were meant
to be part of it.
Once upon a time, there was a King who shed His blood to ransom His people back
from the grave. It is the greatest and truest story ever told.
And it is the place where you belong.
Lori Stanley Roeleveld is a
disturber of hobbits who enjoys making comfortable Christians late for dinner.
She’s authored a disturbing blog since 2009; a pursuit that eventually resulted
in her first book, Running from a Crazy
Man (and other adventures traveling with Jesus). Lori’s blog has a modest
but faithful daily readership and yet, in the past year, one post was viewed
over 1.7 million times and another was shared over 275,000 times on Facebook. Lori
has published newspaper and magazine articles, poetry, and plays. Her novels,
short stories, and Bible studies have won several awards. Besides degrees in
Psychology and Biblical Studies, Lori earned her Masters in Motherhood
homeschooling her two children through graduation. Now, she draws energy from
helping writers find their voice and see God’s vision for their work. In her
day job, Lori writes the stories of real families in crisis so others see their
strengths and values, not just their problems. You’ll find Lori at her website www.loriroeleveld.com or on her front porch writing. If not, know
she’s somewhere slaying dragons.
by Cathy Baker | Faith |
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2 Cor. 5:17
These words breathed NEW life into my barren soul as a twice divorced woman of 27. How could this be? How could a woman so fraught with sin and despair become a new creation? As our pastors at Summit Church often say—the Gospel changes everything—and so it does.
Even now, all these years later, I sometimes have to remind myself that I am a new creature, no longer led by a sinful nature but rather, the Spirit of God. Just as often, though, I have to remind myself that others deserve that same life-giving, God-speaking freedom I claim for myself.
Years ago, while in a disagreement with Brian, I brought up something from his past, a time before he knew Christ. It didn’t take long for the Holy Spirit to remind me that the Brian before Christ was gone.
How could someone who no longer exists be held to the standards of the NEW man he had become? He couldn’t, nor should he be.
Do you know someone who could use a 2 Corinthians 5:17 reminder today? Could it be you? If so, rest assured you’re not alone. The good news is we also share in a fresh opportunity for mercy as we claim this truth for ourselves, as well as others. (Lamentations 3:22, 23)
by Cathy Baker
