A "Such As These" Perspective on Toddler Troubles

This morning I just really, really needed Jesus.  Yes, He is with me all the time as He is with all believers, but today I needed more of Him.  I think my heart was more than a little dehydrated of the Living Water, and I found myself in need of the red letter section, the Gospel, Jesus' living words.  The living words of Jesus provide the wisdom we need to deal with personal conflicts ... and, in my case, the terrible two's.

Lately, I have felt so defeated in dealing with my temperamental toddler.  I have needed a refreshed view of my little girl; I've needed to see her through God's perspective and wisdom.  In need of direction, I found myself opening up my Bible to Matthew, chapter eighteen, where Jesus explains the Kingdom of Heaven, and chapter nineteen, where He reminds the disciples of children's importance in God's eyes.

Jesus words in Matthew 18:4 came down on me like a sonic boom: "Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven."  A few years ago, I read a devotional in Oswald Chamber's My Utmost for His Highest explaining the heart-exposing depth of interpersonal conflicts.  Chambers explained that most of the time our struggles with others are God's way of revealing our own struggles with Him.  I found myself relating Matthew 18:4 and Chamber's concept to my own frustration with my fussy, two year old girl.  That's when I asked myself, "Besides providing for her physical needs, have I been nurturing her precious, little heart?"  This self-assessment revealed to me that I've been pushing her aside so that I can concentrate on my projects, goals and needs.  Again, boom!  My daughter's tantrums and stubbornness could be a somewhat direct response to my selfish parenting.  Not only that, my struggle with her outward displays of frustration and insubordination may be God's way of revealing the same flaws that lay hidden within my heart.

Looking for further direction, I jumped over to Matthew 19:13-15.  In verse fourteen, Jesus tells the disciples, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."  This is a strong, two-fold statement.  First, Jesus points out God's heart for children ... to Him, they come first.  Secondly, Jesus reconfirms children's rank in God's kingdom ... they come first.  Ultimately, if children are such a priority for the Lord, children need to be our first priority.  This tells me that my child should trump busyness and self-importance in my life.

I've decided to make February a month-long self-assessment, which I'm calling my Such As These Challenge.  I'm going to be seeking the Lord in a very specific way: my parenting in relation to my relationship with Him.  I am asking the Lord to make me a more intuitive parent.  I've got the physical needs pretty much down, but I want to become more intuitive to my child's needs of the heart.  My first lesson: Hana has been watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse for the last 30ish minutes while I've been writing ... so the tv and the computer are going off and I'm spending time with my girl!

Christmas in Retrospect

I had actually planned to post this the day after Christmas, but I totally forgot.  So, here it goes ... My Christmas Eve Chocolate Pie and Vietnamese Coffee!!!  Unfortunately, my husband and I were the only ones able to enjoy the fruits of my labor due to a visit to the ER (unrelated to the pie or cooking of the pie).

Not being much of a pie person, I surprisingly adopted this pie recipe just recently.  And, I have to tell you, for not being a pie person - I love this pie!  I've made some changes to the original recipe I found online, so this one is definitely an Abbey Original.  Instead of using evaporated milk, I use sweetened condensed milk, which also allows me to cut out the granulated sugar ingredient from the original recipe. I feel this brings out the semi-sweet chocolate better, while also making a creamier pie.  Plus, I usually have some leftover condensed milk, so I use it to make Vietnamese Coffee.  My Vietnamese Coffee has a holiday twist - I add cinnamon to the coffee grounds before brewing.

Chocolate Pie
Prep time: 20 min, Cook time: 30

1 - 9 in. Pillsbury pie crust
1/2 cup butter
4 oz dark chocolate
6 oz sweetened condensed milk
3 eggs
1 tsp imitation rum extract (substitution: pure vanilla extract)
1 tbsp flour

1) Blind bake pie crust for 8 minutes at 400 degrees (perforate the sides and bottom of the crust in your pie dish with a fork before baking).  2)  Once crust is done, remove and lower oven temp to 375 degrees.  3) In a nonstick frying pan or sauce pan, melt the butter and chocolate on low heat (I use level 3 or 4 on my stove).  4) Meanwhile, whisk together eggs, rum extract and sweetened condensed milk. (I use a hand-held mixer for this step)  5) In a small bowl, combine flour and a few tablespoons of the melted chocolate together (this will keep your pie from getting lumpy when you add the flour later).  6) Also combine a few tablespoons of the melted chocolate to the egg mixture (this will gently pre-heat the eggs so that they won't fry when you add them to the melted chocolate).  7)  Add flour and egg mixtures to the melted chocolate on the stove, increase heat to medium, and stir constantly for about 10 minutes.  8) Using a spatula, scrape the mixture into your pre-baked pie crust.  9) Bake the pie for 25-30 minutes.  If you notice bubbling as it bakes, you can stick a few toothpicks into the pie to keep it down, or just let it bubble up - whichever you prefer!

Vietnamese Coffee
Prep time: 5 minutes

coffee grounds
water
1 tsp ground cinnamon
6 oz sweetened condensed milk

In a coffee maker, add 1 tsp cinnamon to your coffee grounds, and brew enough coffee for two.  While the coffee brews, divide the leftovers of your sweetened condensed milk evenly between two tall glasses.  Add 4-5 ice cubes to each cup.  Once your coffee is brewed, pour into your over the ice and milk.  Each person gets a spoon to stir the mixture.

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good tidings, who publishes peace, who brings good tidings of good, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, Your God reigns!

Isaiah 52:7 (AMP)

An Early Morning Dose of Mercy

Sometimes when I open my Bible, God sends me on a goose chase.  Not so much a wild one, but a journey, more or less, that takes a full circle and then comes back to me ... my heart.  This morning, I caught an hour to myself before my toddler woke up.  Man, I was pumped.  I had my skinny latte going.  I had my eggs going, my toast buttered and browned to perfection, and sweet raspberries on the side (cool money saver tip: Target has been selling half pints for under $2.50).  Honestly, I was feeling blessed ... no, I was feeling favored.  God's face was shining upon me.  I was so holy, reading my Bible and eating a healthy breakfast (of which I took a picture of to commemorate the moment - ha!)  And then I asked the Lord to reveal truth to me.  

After I prayed, I opened up to Psalm, chapter five.  I usually open my quiet time with the Psalms - there's just something transparent about them, and it usually opens my heart to confession and truth.  I came to this passage of verses and just started to let them sink through me:

Psalm 5: 4-7

You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil;

with you the wicked cannot dwell (sojourn)

The arrogant cannot stand in your presence;

you hate all who do wrong.

You destroy those who tell lies;

bloodthirsty and deceitful men the Lord abhors.

But I, by your great mercy,

will come into your house;

in reverence will I bow down

toward your holy temple.

What I immediately took from this was that David was putting himself in the group with the evil pleasure seekers, wicked, arrogant, liars, bloodthirsty and deceitful.  But by God's mercy, he found himself in reverence and submission before God's throne.  This made me really want to do a study on mercy, which took me to Matthew.  What better way to learn about mercy than through Jesus.  I found myself in Matthew, chapter 12, where the pharisees had reprimanded the disciples for snacking on heads of grain they had picked on the Sabbath.  It was against the Law of Moses to do any sort of work on the Sabbath.  Jesus then used their own playbook to show them the error of their mercilessness, quoting from the prophet Hosea, he said, "If you had known what these words mean, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the innocent." (Mt 12:7)

I read this and went to the quoted scripture in Hosea 6:6, looking for more information regarding mercy, and digging into this strong statement.  According to the commentary of Hosea 6:6 in my NIV Study Bible, "Hesed, a word that can refer to right conduct toward one's neighbor or loyalty to the Lord or both ... the same Hebrew word is often translated 'love'."  So, ultimately, mercy and love are intertwined.  How many times do we choose not to show mercy towards others?  Even the most fleeting thought of unvoiced, merciless judgement will permeate your conscience, but somehow we find a way to justify it and move on.

When it comes to relationships and righteousness, I always find myself going to the Book of James, which exactly what I did during my mercy word study.  The disciple expounds on the idea of mercy as an intertwined force with the other fruits of the Spirit in James 3:17-18, where he wrote, "But the wisdom that comes from heave is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.  Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness."

So, this is where the Lord makes his circle, completing the 180 degrees back to my heart.  It was easy for me to pick on the Pharisees regarding judgement, but God answered my prayer and revealed truth regarding my heart, regarding my heart.  I found myself in a place of confession, saying, "Lord, forgive me for having a merciless heart toward others."  Mercy is a sincere, from the heart act of righteousness.  It connects us to others in deeper way and keeps our feet on the ground.