Searching for Joy in All the RIGHT Places (The Importance of God's Word for Moms)

"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, not sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night."

Psalm 1:1-2

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"I need a break."

I can't tell you how many times those words cross my lips in a one week period. Parenting a 4-year old and a 2-year old is proving to be quite the challenge these days. My husband so graciously reminded me the other day that they didn't come with a return policy. They are ours for the keeping... and the training... and the loving... and the instructing... and the encouraging... and the disciplining... and the DISCIPLE-ing. God gave them to us, and we are fully capable of bringing them up to maturity. And God doesn't call us to do something that He isn't fully able to equip us for, right?

So why do I feel so UN-capable and UN-equipped most days?

As I've pondered that question I've come to see that it's a two-fold problem:

(1) I'm relying on my own strength and "knowledge" and not God's strength and "wisdom", and (2) when I do get a break I choose activities that satisfy my flesh instead of ones that feed my spirit. 

How can I possibly find God's strength and wisdom amidst the long, trying days of mothering little ones if I'm not filling myself up with Him in times of rest?

As hard as it it to remember them most days, there are moments of rest in our house each day. The problem is, I'm not taking full advantage of those restful moments. Instead of spending time meditating on God's Word, I turn to other things that only give temporary fulfillment.  It's not that leisurely activities are bad, but lately I've been finding myself turning to everything else before God's Word when I have a little time to myself. 

The Precept Ministries Blog provided two great articles a couple of months ago that really encouraged me. Often when I think Bible study, I think piles of commentaries and hours of uninterrupted time. These articles reminded me that Bible study doesn't have to be that involved all the time. I can still have a rich study time in God's Word even in the midst of the most hectic days of mothering.

Take a few moments to read these articles, would you?

Using Psalms for Your Daily Devotions

Tips for Studying Proverbs

I implemented reading Psalms right away and was immediately reminded that true fulfillment and joy can only come through God and His Word (hello, Psalm 1!). Delighting in God's Word and obeying it will make bring far greater fulfillment and joy than any earthly thing.  It must be my highest priority. 

 I love the inductive method of Bible study, especially since I'm a visual person. I've studied this way before, but I had forgotten how much insight could be gained through this method. Unfortunately, I don't have The New Inductive Study Bible, which would help with all of the markings. Instead I use biblestudytools.com to copy and paste my readings for the week into Microsoft Word, double- spacing to leave room for markings. All of my lists, observations, and applications can be written directly onto my printed pages.

If you've never done inductive Bible study before, let me also recommend the book "Lord, Teach Me to Study the Bible in 28 Days." It's a great starting point for learning the inductive Bible study method while putting it into practice. I did this study sometime last year, and really enjoyed it. Here is a glimpse of one of my observations worksheets from the book:

I would also recommend reading more about inductive Bible study on the Precept Ministries International website. 

Are you searching for joy and fulfillment in all the RIGHT places?

Happy studying!

P.S. I'm linking up with The Better Mom blog today! Click the button below to read more encouraging articles for moms!

 

Pizza Stuffed Peppers

Although my garden peppers are not ripe for the picking yet, I'm test driving some unconventional ways to use them. The following recipe was adapted from Hungry Girl. 

I ate these delicious pizza stuffed peppers for lunch today and found them to be very satisfying!

Ingredients:

2 Bell Peppers 

(any color will do)

 1 cup of mushrooms, sliced

1/2 cup of onion, chopped

1 cup of lean ground beef, *seasoned*

 (I used leftover seasoned ground beef that I had used to make hamburgers the night before)

3/4 cup of pizza sauce 

(I used store-bought)

 1/2 cup of low fat shredded cheese 

(I used 2% Mexican blend)

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Coat a 9" x 13" baking dish with cooking spray.

Slice bell peppers in half lengthwise and remove seeds and stems.

Place bell peppers cut side up into the baking dish and bake for 20 minutes, or until slightly softened.

In the meantime, spray a skillet with nonstick cooking spray and satuee the onions and mushrooms on medium high heat until the onions are translucent. Set them aside when they're done.

Brown the seasoned ground beef in the same skillet. Drain the fat once the meat is browned.

Add pizza sauce to browned ground beef and combine.

When the peppers are done, remove them from the oven and blot them to remove moisture. Fill each pepper half with 1/4 of the beef & pizza sauce mixture, followed by 1/4 of the mushroom & onion mixture.

Sprinkle shredded cheese over all of the pepper halves and bake for 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.

You can enjoy 2 (TWO!) pizza stuffed pepper halves for a total of 7 points plus values!

Enjoy!

Inquiring Little Minds

Before I became a parent, I swore I would not be of the "because I said so" type. I wanted to always be ready to give an educated answer to my children whenever their developing little minds inquired about a subject. I envisioned myself taking the time to Google research answers for them, never leaving them void of the knowledge they so desperately desired.

That's before I knew how brain dead I would become after having children. 

In all honesty, the menial tasks of motherhood have me running on autopilot most days. I don't even know why I do the things I do sometimes. I just know we've always done it this way to survive up to this point, so we're gonna keep doing it this way now!

"Why do I need to take a bath, Mom?"

"Because I said so!"

Sometimes that's all I can come up with at 7:30 in the evening when I'm trying to map out the quickest path possible to my nice cozy bed.


But often the questions of the inquiring little minds under my care really do deserve an answer.

And many times I need to put aside laziness and replace those "because I said so" moments with "because the Bible says so" moments.

After all, my words may have the power to change an action, but only God's Word has the power to change a heart. And in the grand scheme of things, the heart is what matters most. 



The Bible is clear about my responsibility to entrust His word to my children.

“Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. 
~Deuteronomy 6:4-9~

The other day I asked Silas to clean up a mess he had made. As usual, he was overcome with extreme laziness tiredness right as the command was rolling off my tongue. An all-to-familiar battle was seemingly inevitable, and in my own strength it would have been fought with vain words spoken several decibels higher than little ears prefer to hear. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit quickened my heart to take a different route. 

I recalled a Bible verse that I had learned as a young child about ants. I explained to Silas that the Bible says in Proverbs 6:6, "Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and be wise!" I gave the best mommy commentary I could on the verse, and I could tell in his eyes that something was clicking on the inside. In just a few short minutes he agreed that cleaning up his mess would be a wise decision. 

And just as he bended his knee and began to clean, the sword of the Spirit swung again...

"But Mom, didn't you tell me the other day that the Bible says, 'Two people are better off than one because they can help each other succeed.'? (Ecclesiastes 4:9). Shouldn't we do this together?"

"Why yes, son...  Yes, we should."

Now to find some Bible verses about personal responsibility. 
 

   

 

Tuesday's Thoughts (5/21/13)

I picked our first garden cucumber this morning!

Thankful for... the fact that Liam has been pacifier-free for one week today! I am still completely shocked at how smoothly things are going considering how attached he was to it. Prayer works!

Listening to... the clanging around of pretend money. I pulled down the play cash register this afternoon to spice things up a bit. I'm anticipating finding play money in various places around the house for the next few days, but, in the meantime, I'm enjoying a little downtime while the boys play.

Wondering... if it's too early in the day to have a second cup of coffee.

Hoping... to seamlessly slip back into some kind of rhythm this week after spending last week at my parent's house. I love spending time away, but I miss our routines when I'm gone. It's a crazy little phenomenon.

Looking forward to... Kevin's arrival home. He's been away at a pastor's conference for 6 days, and the boys and I are missing him terribly!

Creating... a list of yummy meal ideas that will incorporate our fresh garden veggies!

Reading... "Parents, Do You Think Before You Post" over at the Gospel Coalition blog. Kevin and I were discussing this topic the other day, and this post really put things into perspective for me.

Learning... to be a good steward of my children's stories (referenced in the above article), and to tell my story without compromising theirs.

Reminding myself... how quickly tragedies can happen. I don't want to take one day for granted.

Praying... for the people of Oklahoma City.

 

Recipe from the Garden :: Mediterranean Cucumber Cups

I couldn't help but think about our little garden over the past week while we were away. We hadn't recruited anybody to water it so I wasn't quite sure how things would look upon our return. Much to our surprise, among the thirsty leaves, I spotted our first little harvest!

I wanted to put our veggies to good use right away so as not to let them go to waste. It appears that we'll have an ample supply of fresh cucumbers this summer, so I wanted to try something aside from the conventional cucumber and tomato salad. After a little Google research and a little inventory of my fridge contents, I decided on these beautiful little cucumber cups- Mediterranean style!

First up, I chose the right cucumber for the job and gave him a little wash. Then I chopped the ends off of the little fellow and used a vegetable peeler to trim his skin in a pretty little pattern. (There's really no other reason to trim the skin except to make it pretty, but I like a little aesthetic appeal to my food.)

Next up, I sliced him into about 1/2 inch pieces.

Then I used a melon baller to scoop out the seeds, creating a little cup in the center.

My little cucumber cups lined up all nice and pretty, waiting to be filled.

Time to fill them with all sorts of yummy goodness.

I filled 6 cucumber cups using:

6 teaspoons of roasted red pepper hummus (2 pp)

12 kalamata olive halves (1pp)

6 cherry tomato halves (0 pp)

.5 ounces of feta cheese (1 pp)

Each cup got 1 teaspoon of hummus, 2 kalamata halves, 1 cherry tomato half, and a small topping of feta cheese. Sprinkle them with a little salt to taste if you like.

I ate these for dinner one night this week, and it only cost me 4 Weight Watchers points Plus values for all 6 cups! 

I had a few Melba toasts on the side because I didn't have any pita chips, but next time I'll be more prepared.

Enjoy!

Weekend Reading (5/19/13)

Here are a few of my favorite reads from the past week:

Books for Boys {Audiobook Edition} :: The MOB Society

(Silas' first introduction to audio books was through The Jesus Storybook Bible. He loved listening to his favorite Bible stories via the CD's that came with the Bible. I have to admit, so did I! I was glad to find this list of recommendations to add to our audiobook collection.)

The Plastic Fruit of Online Living :: The Gospel Coalition

(I'm constantly having to evaluate my use of social media and how I portray myself on the world wide web. This article was timely.)

Summer Planning Questions :: The Better Mom

(With the start of summer right around the corner, this list will be very helpful! I plan on taking some time to think through these over the next few days.)

On Memorizing Scripture with Children :: Mom Heart

(As a child, I remember memorizing tons of Scripture through song. This article mentions a few more great ways to practice Scripture memory with children.)

Have a great weekend!

Drying, Chopping, & Storing Fresh Parsley

A few weeks ago I shared a very useful method for preserving parsley by freezing it in "logs". I've since used some of my frozen parsley, and I'm very happy with the turnout. The frozen parsley had a nice strong flavor that added a pleasant kick to my Crowd-Pleasing Italian Meat Sauce. 

I also wanted to try an alternative method for preserving herbs, which is drying them.

Drying herbs takes a significantly longer amount of time to get from start to finish if you're using the traditional air-drying method, which is what I used. (The other option would be to quick-dry the herbs in the oven. I haven't braved that territory yet.)

I used the 'ole "hang your parsley bunch by the string on the kitchen blinds" method.  They added a a touch of style to our kitchen for a couple of weeks.

The first step to preserving any herb is, of course, cleaning the herbs to rid them of any dirt or bugs that have taken up residence on the aromatic leaves. You can see how I clean my herbs here. After cleaning and blotting dry with a paper towel, parsley should be hung upside down. I gathered my stalks into a loose bundle and tied the ends with a plastic hair tie before hanging.

It's also important that the parsley hangs in a mostly humidity-free environment so that it doesn't get moldy.

It's takes about 2-3 weeks for the parsley to dry out completely. Properly dried parsley leaves will appear shriveled and crumbly to the touch. 

Once your parsley is dried, it's time to get to work. 

Use a pair of scissors to trim the leaves off of the stems. You could just as easily pull them off with your fingers.

Once the leaves are removed, place them into an air-tight jar, like a mason jar. You have two options here: (1) store the leaves whole and chop them right before cooking or (2) chop them now and save yourself a step later. The benefit of storing the leaves whole is that you will get more flavor our of the leaves by chopping them right before use.

I wanted to save myself a step later, so I chopped my parsley before storing. 

I've discovered that the fastest and easiest way to chop fresh or dried herbs is by putting a handful of them at a time into the bottom of a glass and using a pair of clean scissors to snip away the leaves until they are minced in appearance.

Once your leaves are all chopped, place them in an air-tight container and store them in a cool, dry place. Dried parsley will maintain it's flavor for over a year if stored properly. 

 

Happy Drying,