Showing posts with label Pinterest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pinterest. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

November Challenge: Day 24

Thanksgiving is just a day away and this will be the first year that I am cooking the meal entirely by myself. I have cooked the bulk of the meal in years past, but my mother and grandmother were always nearby assisting in one way or another. Plus we always used pre-prepared meals purchased from grocery stores, but this is the first year I will be cooking the meal by myself from raw ingredients. Since this is my first time preparing a Thanksgiving meal entirely by myself I am very grateful for Pinterest. Pinterest has been a wonderful source of recipes and useful information about how to prepare the best Thanksgiving meal. I have the ability to cook and I know how to read a recipe so I am not worried, but it is still nice to know that Pinterest is there to support me.

I do not have to cook for a large group of people, but I still need to prepare a meal for four people and I need the meal to taste well enough that they will be content eating the leftovers the next day. Ordinarily I would say this is not a problem, but two of the four people I am cooking for are very picky and vocal about their dissatisfaction. Although this experience is a bit overwhelming, I trust in my ability to successfully make this meal. The last few weeks I have spent a lot of time researching recipes and reading every helpful tip that I came across. This evening I spent time writing down my timeline for Thanksgiving day, everything that needs to get done, and recording all of the necessary steps that need to be done to prepare and cook my turkey. Thanks to the information on Pinterest I feel prepared and I am confident that I can pull off a successful Thanksgiving dinner.

Part of that confidence comes from the fact that the refrigerator is stock full of leftovers from this week and these leftovers provide a safety net should a disaster strike on Thanksgiving. I have to laugh at this because anyone else would panic at the thought of disaster striking, but I know that I have the ability to make things work, even if dinner doesn't turn out the way it is suppose to, and there is peace in that knowledge. Taking over another person's household hasn't been easy, but I believe I have been successful in achieving everything that needs to get done and I think that Thanksgiving will be the crowning achievement of that success. I owe my success to wonderful meal ideas that I found on Pinterest, as well as helpful tips for organizing menus for the week. 

Yes, I am grateful for Pinterest, but I know that my success with Pinterest is due to the fact that God has allowed me to find the pins I need in a sea of pins that I don't. It is God that has made organizing and preparing these last few weeks manageable. And it will be God who will make my Thanksgiving meal a success. I am not worried because God Himself is on my side. If God is for me, who could possibly be against me? As I finish out my second week of running my mom's household, I know that I have been blessed in my success by God and I am very grateful. What are you thankful for today?

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Walking Forward In Faith

Today I had coffee with God and I am looking forward to all that He has to teach me. The result of today is a deeper understanding, a deeper desire, to read and to understand scripture. On Pinterest, I found this reading plan from the Bible app as well as the SOAP method of Bible study (I pinned both to my Journey of Faith board), which I intend to apply. Flipping through the reading plans available, I was drawn to the plan When God Says No and decided I would incorporate this plan into my next few days (it's a 3-day study). 

Walking Forward in Faith

Scripture: "Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us." 
-Romans 5:3-5

Observation: Suffering is necessary. It is through suffering that we are taught to persevere and perseverance leads to the development of our character, which allows us to hope. God has given us the Holy Spirit that His love would be poured out on us and our hope would not be put to shame.

Application: Right now God is telling me "No" or at least "Not yet" (from experience they feel the same and only time shows the difference). His answer has put me on a known, but dreaded path. I am familiar with this journey, but I resent the suffering that comes with it. I think God wants me to know that suffering is necessary to achieve the hope He wants in my life and that hope won't be put to shame.

Prayer: Dear God, I am thankful that my hope won't be put to shame. I am afraid. I don't want you to say "no" to restoration, but I can't escape the feeling that You are. I find myself back on this well-trodden path of heartache and I frantically look for an exit, but there is no escape. I am lost and I don't want to stay on this path. Please direct me that I would know my next step. Strengthen me that I would persevere and that my character would grow. That hope wouldn't be lost. In Your loving name, Amen

Saturday, April 11, 2015

Reminders

There are certain Christian truths that I know and yet I need that reminder in times of hardship, in much the same way we need to hear someone loves us after a fight. We know, but that reminder brings comfort and allows us to draw a breath. I think reminders are necessary and important on this journey of faith, they are the road signs along the path. When something inspires me, I save it to my phone or my iPad, which is nice, but everything is scattered and it occurred to me it would be better to have it in one place. I took some time and created a Pinterest board, this board is a visual representation of my journey of faith. There are pins specific to my posts and other pins I find encouraging.