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Thursday, July 2, 2009

Where's the beef and then some!

I'm blogging over at the Internet Cafe',
here's a link to my post about being a woman
who is living her faith out loud!

Where’s the Beef?!


And here is another fun guest post by my friend Denise, click on the picture to visit her blog.



Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for
they shall be satisfied.”

It is summer vacation here on the farm with our four boys. The first day after Memorial Day Monday when I heard the other local bus go by and know I didn’t have to take my boys to school, ah, pure bliss.

I looked forward to days of beach time and fun with my boys and pure laziness….well, as lazy as you can be with four boys and a busy husband and the huge garden and baby chicks and so on and so on.

All that ended that very first day mere moments after I made my boys chocolate chip pancakes. “I’m hungry”, one of them said and soon they were all asking if they could have a snack, if there was anything to eat, if I had more cookies, what was for dessert…..

To give you an idea of how much they ate, on one morning I made them oatmeal for breakfast, they ate half a bag of apples and one and half bunches of bananas BEFORE lunch.

I am pulling my hair out.

I made my famous chocolate chip cookies and HID half of them to last for another day.

By dinner time when my husband gets home from work I am totally frazzled. Years ago, when my husband’s dad – who made all the meals for the family - was alive, I would hear how my father in law would have nightmares of not being able to feed his family of four kids. I always thought that was overkill. I suddenly understood what he had been worried about. I timed my boys, they completely cleared their plates of food (as they had for lunch and breakfast too) and exactly HALF AN HOUR LATER they were asking for something else to eat.


I was bemoaning this fact to someone I had called for a recipe (go figure). “Well,” she said, “they are more active now. They require more food.” I hadn’t thought of that. I was trying to figure out why the sudden huge jump in appetite from when they were in school and this made a lot of sense. More activity, more need for food. Kinda makes me want to make them sit quietly in the house…as if that would ever happen!

As I was making brownies for my boys, a verse popped into my head all of the sudden. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
Our youngest comes in the kitchen and asks for chocolate milk and I thought “I am the bread of life, he who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst.”

I was wishing God would send some kind of manna or something like that so that my boys wouldn’t be hungry and thirsty all the time. As I was thinking how grand that would be, I also got to thinking how I have been anticipating this time, this time alone with my boys, for ever so long. I have grand plans, to get back into doing a devotional with my boys, to read a long list of books together, to just ‘be’ with my boys. To reconnect after a hectic school year so we can go into next year ‘filled’. My boys aren’t getting younger, my time to ‘train them in the way they should go’ is now.

I spent some time in the kitchen chatting with Son number three about how God cares even about the baby bunnies we found in the field, and for my son to remember that God cares for Him. I may be running out of ideas to feed my kids, but I can still be feeding their minds with God’s word as they help me in the kitchen.

I want my boys to hunger and thirst for God. I pray my boys find their ‘fill’ in God. Somehow, I want to instill in them a desire, a hunger, for them to want more and more of God and never think “yah, I’m full” and walk away from Him. Do you understand what I am trying to say here?


And then, as God always seems to do with me, He made it personal to just me. When was the last time I felt like I was hungry for God’s word? To thirst for Him? When was the last time I was starving to get closer to my God, looking to Him to fill me? Beth Moore talks about filling your ‘love bucket’. If I’m not spending time being filled with God’s love, how am I supposed to share God’s love with those who seem to be draining it….like my family?

Things I am contemplating as I bake some more food to fill my growing boys.

13 comments:

Denise said...

The brownies I make for the boys don't look that good *g* !

The Whites said...

enjoyed your post.

LadySnow said...

Great post! :-)

Kela said...

MMmmm Mmmm. I can attest to the hungry bunch!! I know what my mom meant about being eaten out of house and home..I have 2 more children than she does. The pressure!

To be thirsty for God is a wonderful place to be. We're more receiving and receptive to His leading.

Wonderful post!

Fitter After 50 said...

Cute post! So when are you going to start your own blog?

Praise and Coffee said...

Oh sew good, she has one, click on the picture "Life with four boys"
You'll love it!

HisFireFly said...

Lovely post. We shouldn't need to be reminded about spending time chasing after our heart's desire, our Lord, but we do. Thanks for this!

Free advertising said...

Great post.
thanks for sharing.
God bless

Jessica

Karen said...

Wow - what an awesome post. It's funny you mention your boys' huge appetites. Recently my daughter has wanted to eat more. She'll eat lunch and a short time later say she's hungry. This goes on throughout the day. You'll hear her say she must be having a growth spurt. What a wonderful illustration to demonstrate how we need to hunger and thirst for God.

Thanks for sharing!
Have a wonderful holiday weekend!
Karen

BTW, you might consider making double the food for the 4th...LOL

Karen Hossink said...

Man, between thoughts of a big juicy burger, and pictures of cookies and brownies, I'm hungry!
*grin*
Appreciated your thoughts at the Cafe, and Denise's word, too.
Have a great weekend!

Teresa @ Grammy Girlfriend said...

Loved the post....

Allison said...

AWESOME POST!!! THANKS!

Laura said...

Denise, I spend a lot of time cooking too. I work outside the home but I make everything from scratch due to the fact that prepackaged food is chocked full of chemicals, colors and preservatives. I typically spend all day Saturday cooking! I can relate to the kids being hungry all the time!! They are so busy during the summer!

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