In ALL We Do

He won't relent until He has it all, my heart is His. 


Not only my heart, but my soul, my spirit, and my body. It's all His!


Something that God put on my heart years ago is something that's very much at the front of my mind at all times. And that is taking care of His temple. Our bodies are His temple, so we not only have no right to trash them, but it's just downright disrespectful to our God to not take excellent care of His dwelling place.


You can see the temples of idols lined with intricate designs of gold and precious stones, flowing with fragrant flowers and incense... but the temple of the one true God? How many of us actually treat our bodies like temples? And I don't mean with extravagant decorations and perfumes.


There has up to now only been one solid year in my life during which I respected the house of God with the respect, love, and discipline that He so deserves. That year was not this year, nor the last. Since God has put this so hugely on my heart, I have not stopped thinking about it, but I stopped fully doing it. 


It's time to get back into the place of my calling. A worshiper who comes before God proving her love to Him through her service of caring for His house. I don't wish only to be a Proverbs 31 woman, I will strive to be a Proverbs 31 worshiper.


I don't know if this is something that God has particularly put on your heart, but if so, I would like to invite you to join me in becoming a Proverbs 31 worshiper.




^10 [b]A wife of noble character who can find? 
   She is worth far more than rubies. 
¹¹ Her husband has full confidence in her 
   and lacks nothing of value. 
¹² She brings him good, not harm, 
   all the days of her life. 
¹³ She selects wool and flax 
   and works with eager hands. 
¹⁴ She is like the merchant ships, 
   bringing her food from afar. 
¹⁵ She gets up while it is still night; 
   she provides food for her family 
   and portions for her female servants. 
¹⁶ She considers a field and buys it; 
   out of her earnings she plants a vineyard. 
¹⁷ She sets about her work vigorously; 
   her arms are strong for her tasks. 
¹⁸ She sees that her trading is profitable, 
   and her lamp does not go out at night. 
¹⁹ In her hand she holds the distaff 
   and grasps the spindle with her fingers. 
²⁰ She opens her arms to the poor 
   and extends her hands to the needy. 
²¹ When it snows, she has no fear for her household; 
   for all of them are clothed in scarlet. 
²² She makes coverings for her bed; 
   she is clothed in fine linen and purple. 
²³ Her husband is respected at the city gate, 
   where he takes his seat among the elders of the land. 
²⁴ She makes linen garments and sells them, 
   and supplies the merchants with sashes. 
²⁵ She is clothed with strength and dignity; 
   she can laugh at the days to come. 
²⁶ She speaks with wisdom, 
   and faithful instruction is on her tongue. 
²⁷ She watches over the affairs of her household 
   and does not eat the bread of idleness. 
²⁸ Her children arise and call her blessed; 
   her husband also, and he praises her: 
²⁹ “Many women do noble things, 
   but you surpass them all.” 
³⁰ Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; 
   but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. 
³¹ Honor her for all that her hands have done, 
   and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.


It sounds like hard work because it is hard work. The question is, does He DESERVE us to love Him with this agape love? And the answer just for clarification, is YES. Absolutely.


One of the practical ways I'm loving Him during these next couple weeks is joining my church family in our annual Daniel fast. For prayer I will simply and passionately be praising Him, even when I don't feel like it. For the fast, I have already started experimenting with new recipes to add to the list from back when I was vegan.


Here are a couple different granola bar recipes:

Apricot Oatmeal Squares


*Make sure that you read labels when purchasing ingredients and make sure the product has no ingredients other than the one you want, such as sugar, sulfur, flavors, and preservatives*



2 cups water
5 cups old fashioned oatmeal
1/2 cup raw almond butter
1/3 cup raw+organic honey (the FDA has approved honey industries to add corn syrup to their honey WITHOUT declaring it on the ingredients list unless it is sold as raw AND organic)

3/4 cup raisins

1/2 cup dried apricots

(or any other nuts/dried fruit you prefer)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Bring the water to a boil in a large pot, then add only 2 cups of oatmeal and stir. Let boil for 3 minutes, and then allow to simmer for an additional 5 minutes, or until the oatmeal is extremely thick and pasty, stirring often. 

3. Scatter 2 cups of oatmeal on a cookie sheet with raised edges (so as not to spill oatmeal in your oven), spreading the oatmeal as evenly as possible. Toast in the oven for about 5 minutes, or until it begins to smell like it's toasted. A little golden brown is ok, but be cautious not to burn the oatmeal.

4. Melt almond butter and half of honey (1/6 cup) into the boiled oatmeal and stir well.

5. Stir in raisins, and then stir in the toasted oatmeal.

6. Divide mixture into 8 evenly sized balls, and then shape into thick squares.

7. Roll one side and all of the edges of each square into remaining oatmeal, leaving the top of the square bare.

8. Slice apricots into long, thin slices, and decoratively place on top of squares.

9. Drizzle remaining honey over apricots to keep them from falling off. 

10. Bake for 20-25 minutes on parchment paper on top of a cookie sheet, and if you see the apricots beginning to brown, get those squares outta there!

11. Cool and store in the refrigerator.

Also eat them. But not all at the same time... that could cause problems.

Tropical Granola Bars

*Make sure that you read labels when purchasing ingredients and make sure the product has no ingredients other than the one you want, such as sugar, sulfur, flavors, and preservatives*

6 cups old fashioned oatmeal

1/2 cup raw+organic honey (the FDA has approved honey industries to add corn syrup to their honey WITHOUT declaring it on the ingredients list unless it is sold as raw AND organic)

5 bananas

1 cup dried unsweetened pineapple

1 cup dried unsweetened mango

1/2 cup macadamia nuts

1 cup dried unsweetened coconut flakes

1. Heat oven to 350 F.

2. Scatter oatmeal on a cookie sheet with raised edges (so as not to spill oatmeal in your oven), spreading the oatmeal as evenly as possible. Toast in the oven for about 7 minutes, or until it begins to smell like it's toasted. A little golden brown is ok, but be cautious not to burn the oatmeal.

3. Puree bananas and put into large pot with honey

4. Heat the pot just enough to melt the honey, and stir honey and bananas together

5. Chop all dried fruit and nuts into small pieces, and stir into banana mixture

6. Stir in toasted oatmeal (if the mixture is too dry for shaping, add more banana)

7. Divide into 12 balls, and roll each into a cylindrical shape

8. Roll bars in coconut, and place on parchment paper on a cookie sheet

9. Finish shaping into rectangular granola bars

10. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until coconut begins to brown

11. Cool and store in fridge

And enjoy!

I hope that these are helpful whether God is speaking to you about caring for His temple or not. They're certainly tasty either way!

Here's to being a Proverbs 31 worshiper in ALL we do.

Conspiracy to Immobilize

Have you ever simply cuddled up to a warm kitty and burrowed your face in her big fluffy belly? Maybe that's a little unsanitary, but I don't really care.

Or have you ever sat in bed with a journal and a cup of tea, but nothing to write?

When was the last time that your primary obligation was to do nothing at all?

It has been much too long for me.

Before returning to Vegas, God was speaking to me about rest. Resting in Him as well as just resting in general. I knew He was telling me to take it easy, to not load my plate with a hundred different things to do every week, and I planned on doing exactly that... not much. As soon as I arrived though, the calendar was whipped out and the reminders were set. I told myself that I could rest between errands and appointments, but I knew I was only trying to fool myself.

But God drew me still nearer.

As soon as I moved home from the YWAM base, I was hit by a bug. It wasn't too bad, so I tried to pretend that it was not there so it wouldn't slow me down, but then my car went into cahoots with my immune system and decided not to work anymore. So Cornelius (my car) has been at the shop all week, and I have been trying to get along without it. After devising transportation plans for the rest of the week, my body decided not to let me leave the house either! At first I was frustrated, until I laid down to REST. Then it really clicked inside of me that I was ACTUALLY supposed to be resting! Not theoretically or planning to sometime in the future, really resting, right now.

Today I sat on my dad's bed as he worked and I studied and sipped on green tea. It was paradisiacal. I don't remember the last time I melted into a mattress and just... was.

Tomorrow I look forward to some awesomely restful time with God. And kitty cuddling. Can't leave out the kitties.


Hopefully since I've learned my lesson my car will be functional now. Eh God?


<3

Crocodile Dreams

Last night (Jan 7-8) I had quite the vivid dream.

I wouldn't go so far as to call it prophetic, but I haven't been able to stop thinking about it all day. In fact I would say that it was more of a reflective sort of dream, even though to even say that one would need to be quite creative.

I even miss my babies that I adopted in my dream. They were so real! I have no clue what else to say about this dream. It was strange and vivid, not entirely pleasant, but I want my babies from the dream back. So weird.
__________________________

I was on a mission trip in Nepal with Joshua and Stacy, and we were driving somewhere in their new red convertible. Nepal at this point looked exactly like suburban America. There were extensive instructions on how to merge onto the freeway painted on the road of the onramp. Joshua got distracted reading the instructions and didn't notice the car right in front of him stopping suddenly. We rear ended the other car, and there was a big explosion that turned the cars to shrapnel and the road to rubble. 

We were all ok, but there was blood oozing into the mud from under Joshua's legs. He got up and was fine, but there was a badly mangled and obviously dead young Korean girl sinking in the mud. I got out of the car to help her, but the piece of road (which was about the size of my actual car) I was standing on fell away from the rest of the road. I fell down the hill, and the piece of road flattened me like roadkill. When Joshua and Stacy asked if I was alright, I said I was and came back up to help. 

I pulled the Korean girl out along with her parents, and the parents were unconscious but alive. I yelled for Meredith to come pray for them, but she wasn't around so the three of us prayed. The parents woke up, but it took a little longer to bring the girl to life. She came to life though, and we all went our separate ways.

Later while in a village-y sort of place, there was a strange supernatural disaster that killed all but 46 of adults who lived in Nepal (there were people being lifted into and dropped from the sky.. It was just plain weird). There were thousands of kids still alive though. I found two Nepali boys, a Nepali girl and an American girl who needed a home, so I asked them if they wanted me to be their mother. They all said yes, but the American girl had an abusive older brother who was very angry about it. He called her across the river and she went to him, but when he started yanking her around I told the other children to stay put while I swam across to fetch her. I had a hard time getting her back across, but we made it. 

When I got back, I just looked intently into the eyes of my new babies, not wanting to mix up their names or forget what they looked like... Also cherishing this moment when I first became a mother. The boys were about the same age, maybe 6 or 7. One was slightly darker and heavier, and he had his right eye injured in the disaster. His hair was meant to be short, but it was getting kind of shaggy. The other boy wasn't light, but lighter than the first. His hair was the same, but the opposite eye was injured and he was slightly leaner than the other. The Nepali girl was about 8, she was very dark and had corn rows in her shoulder blade length hair. She never stopped smiling, and had genuine joy just bubbling out all the time. The American girl was extremely small, as if undernourished. She was about 5, but was the height of a 2 1/2 year old,  and even smaller around. She had short, thin, straight, blonde hair that was held up with two pigtails.

Soon after there was a program put in place by foreign missionaries for the Nepali children. Families would move to Nepal and take in about 4-5 children and raise them as their own, and as responsible Nepali citizens, but with a foundation in truth about the one true God. 

There was a summer camp sort of thing going on, and so I took all my babies to stay at a cabin with me there. When we arrived, my sister was there! She was staying with my mom and a different family in another cabin, but she spent most of her time with me. She brought all of her clothes and luggage over to my cabin as well. She was somewhat excited to be an aunt, but was sad that I didn't have as much time to hang out with her. She would skip camp activities to just chill at my cabin while my kids were at the activities. We Skyped Dad on my iPod, and got frozen yogurt, etc etc, but she got in trouble one day and my mom was angry at me for taking her away, so she had to go back to her own cabin.  

The night she left, she left her stuff at my cabin, and tried to leave out the back door. I had a bad feeling about that door, so I told her to go the front way so I could watch and make sure she was safe. She was embarrassed but did it anyway. Up her steps she fell over and was even more embarrassed, but I waved to her goodnight, and she smiled and waved as well. I looked out the back door to see what was out there, and the back door was a very insecure door held by plastic rope and chains behind my dresser. When I looked out, it was a straight drop into the river! Just at the time when I was looking out, I saw a crocodile swim past. Even though I had embarrassed my sister, I was glad she was safe.

Seeing the condition of the back door worried me, so I tried to close it a little more securely. I went around closing all the doors and locking them, but eventually found that an entire wall was missing! I moved my babies into a room that was "secure", grabbed my camera and iPod, and slept in there for the night. I laid awake for hours that night, praying for my sister and my babies. I finally fell asleep, and that's when I woke up.

________________________________

Weird right? I know I haven't posted much of anything about the actual trip, but this just felt so important. I guess dreams are just strange like that.