Missing the Obvious

I had another small revelation while reading Desiring God this week. In one chapter, he is talking about Scripture and has a segment of testimony from George Muller. Muller says, "...the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord." To me, that means I should go away from my quiet times with my soul satisfied in the Lord.
As I said in my last post, I am good at getting through the study, but I realized after reading the above that I am not really taking the time to be "full" in God. I lost the vision I need to take something away and have something to chew on during my day.
Well, that should be obvious, you might say. Yes, sad, isn't it? Going through the motions became one of those habits I suppose I slipped into over time, I guess. But, praise the Lord, He will be patient while we slooowwwllly change to be more like Him.

A Dried Up Peach

I am slowly making my way through John Piper's book Desiring God. I've been reading a chapter on worship and was struck by what I read this morning. "For many, Christianity has become the grinding out of general doctrinal laws from collections of biblical facts. But childlike wonder and awe have died. The scenery and poetry and music of the majesty of God have dried up like a forgotten peach at the back of the refrigerator."

I think this quote unfortunately describes me quite well. I am great at cranking out the Bible studies, but I think my wonder and awe of God have waned over time. How often am I simply in awe of God, basking in His presence? How often do I take the time to "be still" and know that He is God? (Psalm 46:10) I am usually busy doing something, and if I am still, I am engaged in an activity that doesn't involve God. That is going to be my prayer - to have my childlike wonder and awe of God restored.

Kool-Aid Pickles - yummy treat? or not!

Recently I saw in our local paper a recipe for Kool-Aid pickles. I'm not a big fan of Kool-Aid, but I do like pickles, so I clipped it. Last weekend my parents were visiting so we decided to try them (my parents have also been experimenting with pickling recipes, so I guess this was sort of an extension of that).

Basically you drain a larger jar of whole pickles, cut them in half, then mix 2 packages of Kool-Aid (or the store brand stuff, if you're cheap like me) with 1 cup of sugar and 2 cups of water. Then pour the Kool-Aid mixture over the pickles in the jar, put them in the refrigerator for 24 hours and voila! They are ready. But are they good?

None of my kids were excited about them, even my pickle lovers, but being the good mother that I am, I made them try them, much to their chagrin. Well, no one liked them. I thought they were ok - kind of a cross between bread and butter and dill pickles - surprise, surprise, but not worth keeping. So now they are no more. But my question is who thinks of this kind of stuff? Someone who apparently is far more creative with food than I ever will be.

How Much do Things Cost Me?

When I think of all the comforts I have in my life - my nice house, my bed, my books, my coffee, my occaisional chocolate, I think I have it pretty good. I have what most would call a pretty enjoyable life. I stay at home and homeschool my kids, I have time to pursue the things I enjoy for the most part, I am able to get 7-8 hours of sleep....yes, life is good.

This week I was challenged in the Beth Moore Bible study I am doing (Daniel) with living a sacrificial life. She said lots of great stuff, but I think the Lord brought one thing to my attention over the others, at least for the time being. "For something to seem priceless or expensive to us, it needs to cost something."

With that particular point, I am still mulling that over. I am looking at that point more from the perspective of what I need to sacrifice so I can make the Lord my first priority, sleep being the most obvious place to start, but what about during the day? What about as a long-term thing? I like my comforts! Yet how often do I really sacrifice any of my comforts for spiritual reasons, whether through fasting or other things? But honestly, I don't feel like I am sacrificing in that area, which may be why I don't have the type of relationship with the Lord that I desire.

And what about in other areas of my life? My weight has been an issue with me for years now and I do the typical thing - lose it, gain it, lose it, gain it. I DO want to lose weight - permanently, but am I willing to sacrifice to do it? Losing weight is a costly thing to me. I mean, look at the name of my blog - chocolate and books. I don't want to give up foods I like.

But pretty much anything in life worth doing or getting is going to cost something, whether personally, physically, emotionally, or monetarily. Am I willing to lose some comfort in my life in order to make progress in other areas? What, exactly, am I willing to give up?? What a challenge.

Chocolate vs. Global Warming

As I was adding another flavor of chocolate that I like (Baskin Robbin's Chocolate Mousse Royale ice-cream - ya gotta try it!), I was thinking, is this too shallow, to add stuff like yummy chocolate flavors? I mean there is serious stuff going on in the world that I could be putting on my blog.

But on the other hand, this IS my blog, so I guess I can do what I want, right? And enough people are already writing about global warming, so I guess that subject is about covered. Well, add flavors of chocolate tonight, cover more pressing issues some other time - maybe.