SmellingCoffee

This is a picture of my current “favorite” coffee cup. I have lots of favorites, and choose them daily by my mood or by my need. I’ve been drinking out of this one A LOT lately!

Trust. It’s a HUGE concept when you really think about it. For years, I’ve “trusted” the Lord, but I’ve always kept my hand in what He was doing, trying to “help” Him along. But for this season of our lives, every time I extend my hand in to try to help Him, it NEVER works out! (Shocker, I know!)

For instance: Every time I’ve thought we found a part time job to carry us through as we “wait” on the Lord, it has slipped through our fingers. I’m tutoring some students after school, but they’ve been canceling more weeks than they’ve been coming. We’ve both applied to substitute teach, and haven’t worked a single day at that job…

I can not tell you How. Many. Times. The Lord has said to us – “Stop fretting and Trust ME. I WILL take care of you!”. He has led us down some paths of trusting Him during these past 9 months that, to those who are watching our lives, seem almost illogical and irresponsible. But we have obeyed Him and (I’m ashamed to insert here the words: timidly more often than boldly) walked those paths. And not to our surprise, we have found Him to be faithful with every step.

Sometimes I still think I have to repeatedly remind him that He promised to take care of us. Actually, I’ve been drinking out of this cup and reminding Him a lot this week! God has asked us to trust Him in some BIG ways within the past week.  But we both know that it’s not God that needs the reminder… it’s me!

In processing all of this, and deciding to rest in the fact that God will do what He says He will do…I had a “light bulb” moment. At exactly 11:13am, Wednesday, April 07, 2010, I realized that

There is such peace when you finally surrender to trust God with something you can’t control in the first place.

I felt like knocking myself upside the head and saying, “Wow, I should have had a V-8!”

OF COURSE there is peace when we “Let go and Let God!” So W.H.Y. don’t we? I honestly don’t know the answer. I’m sure it has something to do with our sin natures and our desires to be the bosses of everything!

Anyway, my heart is at rest today, and I just wanted to share this little nugget of truth with you.

“If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. {Ouch!} There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.” Matthew 6:25-26 Msg.

A men?

I have one more happy thing to share: Urged on by faith, The Lord has shown us where we are going. Yeah with clappy-hands!!! We just don’t know anything else about getting there! One piece of the puzzle is back in place – a different one than before – but if I know anything about the Lord, I know that in His PERFECT timing, He’ll place every single piece right where they need to be – and we’ll all look at it in amazement and praise. Wish I could spill the beans, but I’ll be able to tell you more (or at least what I know) in about two weeks.

Until then, I’m resting in the Lord and having a V-8 out of my Trust cup!

You will keep in perfect peace the mind [that is] dependent [on You], for it is trusting in You.”  Isaiah 26:3 (HCSB)
Thanks for being a special part of our journey, “urged on by faith”. Much love to each of you!

(And if you’re new to Smelling Coffee, and are wondering what in the world I’m talking about, check out the tab at the top of my blog, “Our Journey: Urged on by Faith.)

****Edited to add:
This was from the Devotional “Jesus Calling” on March 30, 24, and April 9 – I was catching up when I read this and for my own sake, had to add it here…

” I am taking care of you.  Trust Me at all times.  Trust Me in all circumstances.  Trust Me with all your heart.  When you are weary and everything seems to be going wrong, you can still utter these four words, “I TRUST You, Jesus.”  By doing so, you release matters into My control, and you fall back into the security of My everlasting arms.”  {How AWESOME is that!!!!?}

“Stop trying to work things out before their times have come.  Accept the limitations of living one day at a time.  When something comes to your attention, ask Me whether or not it is part of today’s agenda.  If it isn’t, release it to my care and go on about today’s duties.  When you follow this practice, there will be a beautiful simplicity about your life.  A time for everything, and everything inits time.”

“When your mind goes into neutral and your thoughts flow freely, you tend to feel anxious and alone.  YOur focus becomes Problem Solving.  To get your mind back into gear, just turn toward Me, bringing yourself and your problems into My presence…

Each moment you can choose to practice My Presence or to practice the presence of problems.”

Today I declare that I’m choosing the Practice of God’s Presence over the practice of the problem’s presence!!! 🙂

The “Original Slow Cooker”: That’s the rest of the name for a very valuable household item that most of us have in our kitchens: The Crock-Pot.

Have you heard the saying that women are crock pots while men are microwaves? In my experience, I’ve found that to be SO true! It takes me a lot longer to warm up and “cook” than it does my husband. It’s O.K., though. That’s the way God designed and wired us.

In my kitchen, I appreciate and value both my Crock-Pot and my microwave. Although it takes a little more time and planning to cook a meal in my Crock-Pot, it’s always worth the effort. I’ve never regretted a meal prepared this way.

The same is true in marriage. Since we women are like the “Crock-Pot – The Original Slow Cooker”, it takes a little more planning and time to produce something satisfying. But it’s always worth the effort. We’ll never regret the time invested in our love lives with our husbands.

Thankfully over the years, the Lord has taught me some strategies to keep the “Crock Pot” cooking all day, so that it is ready when the “Microwave” is turned on. Just like the options on Crock-Pot’s website, this “Slow Cooking” portion of Adding Zest will offer a few Recipes and Smart Living Tips to help us make the most of the invaluable gift we’ve been given as Slow-Cooking women loving our Microwave-style men.

~

Recipe for a Warm Heart

Dear sisters, I don’t know what type of man you have, or how he treats you, or how much you desire/don’t desire intimacy with him. But one thing I do know… for some reason, however many years ago, you loved him enough to give yourself to him in marriage. There are/were SOME qualities about your man that attracted you to him.

In the busy-ness of daily life, it’s easy to overlook those little things that we loved about our men, and focus on those things about him that seem to grate on our nerves. As a result, our hearts grow cold toward them, and our times of intimacy are less enjoyable than they could be.

This happened to me with my precious husband last year. All of a sudden, I was acutely aware of tiny things that I never before seemed to notice. And they were making me mad! (I could use a valid hormonal excuse here… but God gave me the remedy before He gave me the hormone replacements!)

I didn’t know why I was getting so aggravated with my husband. Neither did he… (grin). Then one day in my Quiet Time, God brought Philippians 4:8 into my focus like it was a flashing neon sign.

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Philippians 4:8 (NIV)

God convicted me that I was thinking about my husband in all the wrong ways. Somewhere along days, weeks, months, years… I had stopped being completely grateful for him, and started obsessing on those traits that frustrated me.

After a tear-filled time of confession, the Lord led me to do a little experiment. It worked so well that I’m challenging you to do the same. It’s a recipe for a warm heart.

… And you’ll have to hop over to Adding Zest for the rest of the post.
😉  See you there… (Don’t worry – It’s nothing scary!  I promise.  For those of you who know some “personal” things about my life – This experiment has to do with the Bible…I promise! ha ha ha)
Jennifer