Judge not.

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.  Romans 2:1 (NIV)

Funny how it works, I read scripture yesterday about judging others.  And I thought to myself, oh, yeah, I know I'm not supposed to judge others and I don't really do that.  Not that much.  Well, I try not to.

And then...while I was grocery shopping on my lunch hour, I caught myself doing that very thing that I don't really think I do...two times, at least that is all I can remember.  In one hour.

The first episode:  I saw someone in the store that had declined to help me with something because they were just "too busy today."  So I pushed my cart past this person at blazing speeds because I only have an hour, thinking to myself, "Oh, they are so much busier than I am?  And here I am on my lunch hour trying to get all this stuff together...blah, blah, blah."  Snap.  There it was.  Instantly, I was convicted.

It doesn't matter what they were doing.  It should be of no concern to me.  I have no idea what they were doing before or what they were going to do after their own grocery shopping.  I have no idea what is going on in their lives and what guidelines they have set for themselves so as not to be overloaded.  And really, if I'm feeling overloaded, that is my own fault.  I have the power to say no to things.  I just struggle with it.

Round two: I load up my groceries and head back to work.  Yesterday was the day it was so cruddy out after a very beautiful Tuesday.  As I am passing through downtown, I see two adults walking down the sidewalk with two small children tagging along behind.  I'm guessing the kids are maybe in the four-year-old range.  They do not have coats on.  It is pretty chilly.  Instantly, I say to myself, "Good grief, what is wrong with people?  Get coats on those kids!"  And almost immediately I realized what I had done and started laughing.

Who do I think I am fooling?  This was another perfect example of me passing judgment on others. Immediately, memories from the past come to my mind, such as, Madolyn wearing a sombrero and plastic dress-up high heels to the mall; heading away for the weekend with my kids and discovering two hours from home that my son didn't bring any shoes (not one pair) with him; arriving at a rodeo with same son and realizing he didn't have on any pants (only a shirt, undies and cowboy boots).  What were people thinking of me during these prime displays of awesome parenting?

Good heavens, in a matter of about 55 minutes, I had caught myself doing this thing I don't really do two times.  There are 23 other hours in the day, how many more times am I guilty of this?

And I suppose, I could rationalize it to myself and say, well, it wasn't really that bad because I didn't actually convey these thoughts to someone else.  Ha!  Good trick, Satan.  In God's eye, it's all the same.  What a great reminder to me that I should never let myself believe I am without this sin or that one.  It doesn't matter that I didn't blast someone on Facebook publicly because they didn't have coats for their kids, or text a friend and tell them this or that.  I had the thoughts.  It is no different.

Note to self:  "Do not judge, or you too will be judged."   Matthew 7:1 (NIV)

Hiatus

Don't you just love that word?  Ha.  I'm enjoying my hiatus...well, actually I've just had other stuff that I needed to do and haven't written for a week or two.  I will be back.  Maybe I'll protest until old man winter decides to give us a break.  I sure hope that is soon.  The time change is Sunday, it would be nice if that was the magic switch.

I think the weather is getting everyone a little down.  It's as if we've been bombarded with one weather event after another.  I keep remembering how dry we've been the past couple of years and try to thank God for replenishing the moisture...if only to make myself feel better.

This verse is a good reminder for me...

When you have all you want to eat, then praise the Lord your God for giving you a good land.   Deuteronomy 8:10 (NCV)

I have pretty much all I want to eat, don't you?

An Adventure all right.

This past weekend, Jay participated in a Planet Adventure Trail Run at a state park in Indianapolis.  Last year he ran the quarter (that would be 1/4 of a full marathon, just over 6 miles), and this year he did the half (13.1 miles), which was the furthest he's ever run before.  That right there is a pretty good accomplishment to me, but the adventurous part of this run is that it is run through the woods on trails and there was anywhere from 8-10 inches of snow on most parts of it, along with batches of ice.  No joke.  Oh, and it's at night so you have to wear a headlamp, and it was 21 degrees.

After watching a game of volleyball, and then a game of basketball, we headed east.  We were doing fine on time and the roads were good, although it had snowed some the night before.   I was able to knit the entire way (yeah me).  We missed our exit right off the bat, and Jay drove to the next one to turn around.  We exit, meet a police car and Jay says, "I didn't like the way that cop looked at me."  We drive on, turn around (possibly breaking a traffic law) and get back on the highway to go back to the exit we needed.  We are doing okay on time, no panic, no major stress of missing the exit.

We nearly miss the exit again, but Jay whips it over and gets off the highway.  We're driving along through a semi-residential area and Jay say, "I think I'm being pulled over."  We were dumbfounded.  It has been a good five to seven minutes since we met that police car.  But lo and behold, the sparkly lights were twinkling in the rear-view.  Again, we're still calm...but I am thinking, crap, they saw that traffic infraction back there when we turned around, that has to be it.

So we pull over, I keep knitting my fuchsia pink hat and the guy walks up on my side of the car.  The guy calmly asks what we are doing, we tell him we're going to a race, assuming he is familiar with it.  (You know because if there is anything going on in Martinsville, everyone knows about it...in Indianapolis, not so much.)  He doesn't seem to have any knowledge of what we're talking about.

He tells us that Jay gave him a funny look when he met us way back there, to which I explained that we thought the same thing, only that he had given Jay a weird look, he saw we were from Illinois and wondered what we were up to.  Hmm, odd.  Okay.  He then says that Jay was speeding on the highway, which is possible, although we were going with the flow.  Jay hands him his license.  He does a quick glance over and hands it back.  All the while, I'm waiting for the big one - I saw you run that red light back there (hypothetically speaking, of course), but it never comes.  He says he just felt like he had to follow up on that suspicious-looking driver and he walked away. 

He was very, very friendly.  We didn't feel harassed or anything, and I remained oddly calm the entire time. (It's the knitting, it's calming I tell ya.)  It was a little strange though.  And to finish off that fiasco, we had taken the wrong turn again.  Fortunately, Jay didn't seemed rattled either.  We had allowed for plenty of time and I knew we would find it eventually...and we did with lots of time to spare.

We parked, Jay got warmed up and jumped in with the mix of runners.  They took off and I found the line for the porta-pot.  I got talking to the gal next to me and got sidetracked (I know, I know), I turned around and saw green on one of the doors and rushed over and threw it open...to find a man standing there.  Of course, I screamed, apologized and got back in line.  Hey, the little lever thingy wasn't flipped to red, how was I supposed to know?

My favorite funny of the night -  the announcer said there wouldn't be any chili served after the race because they couldn't meet the health department requirement on food temperatures.  Instead, they had 80 dozen Dunkin' Donuts, hot chocolate and coffee for the runners.  Last year, I thought it was odd that they would offer chili because the last thing I would feel like eating after running even a half mile would be chili.  A donut sounds much more appealing.

Nice finish sign, huh, right on the garbage.

There were 448 people who participated in this race.  The biggest group was the quarter-marathon bunch. Although Jay started out with about 450 people, his group of half-marathoners consisted of 141 people.  I'm proud to say that Jay finished third in his age group 30-39 (male) with a time of 2:18:33.  On a paved road, he would have easily finished in under 2 hours, but this is nothing like a road race. There were places he would get off the trail to pass people and be in snow knee-deep.  Sounds wonderful, huh?

We had reservations at a Brazilian Steakhouse for 8:00 our time.  Jay crossed the finish line at about 7:18.  He grabbed his medal and I got him to hold still for a finish photo and we made a dash for the car.  Would you believe we were checked into our hotel and delivered to the restaurant via taxi by 8:15?  For me, that part of the night was my marathon.  Haha.   Normally, one should have a proper 'cool down' after a race, but Jay was a trooper.  I think his legs shook underneath the table all through supper.  (He knows how I feel about food - and it was so late;)

Sometimes I wonder about this guy, but, hey, I had a great Valentine's Weekend with him and he ran a great race. We didn't get a traffic ticket, and I got to go to Target.  What more could I ask for?

All you need is Love...

Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.                                 1 Corinthians 13:13 (NLT)


Today is Valentine's Day and for many, it is just another day.  I saw several comments on Facebook this morning referring to the fact that you should show love every day, there shouldn't have to be a day set aside to tell someone you love them, blah, blah, blah.  I don't disagree with that necessarily, but I don't really have a problem with there being a day to celebrate love either.


I was thinking about love, and what it means to a Christian.  I think love is the backbone for God's people.  Many people think that going to church, tithing, donating, volunteering, taking meals, transporting people to appointments, roofing a house, supporting an orphan, etc., is good Christian service, and it is.  But doing them without love makes all that good stuff almost pointless.  They will be empty acts of kindness.  Some will even see through the good deed.


There is a Christian song out right now called "Love Does" by Brandon Heath.  Just thinking about those two words made me realize something important.  Love is an action word.  I love that simple two-word phrase: Love does. 


Have you ever done something out of obligation and just hated every minute of it?  I know have, and I realized later that the reason I didn't enjoy it or feel good about it was because I wasn't doing it out of love, I was doing it out of obligation...to soothe my soul.  Being a Christian isn't about doing what makes us feel good, it's about doing things for others in Jesus' name, to show Christian love.  You can attend all the church functions you want and perform all kinds of goodness, but without the greatest thing of all - Love - you will be empty inside.  God is Love.  There is not one without the other.


I even ask myself, can you be a Christian without knowing love?  Hmm, I don't see how because the core of our belief is that simple and popular verse, John 3:16.  "For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life."  I believe there are Christians who may feel unloved on a earthly level, but no matter what, we are all loved.


A couple years ago we had the contemporary Christian Band, For King & Country at our fairgrounds at the Elevate Concert.  Last year they put out a song that I think sums everything up perfectly.


Proof of Your Love - For King & Country
If I sing but don't have love
I waste my breath with every song
I bring an empty voice, a hollow noise.
If I speak with a silver tongue
Convince a crowd but don't have love
I leave a bitter taste with every word I say


CHORUS:  So let my life be the proof,
The proof of Your love
Let my love look like You and what You're made of
How You lived, how You died
Love is sacrifice
So let my life be the proof,
The proof of Your love


If I give
To a needy soul but don't have love then who is poor?
It seems all the poverty is found in me.


CHORUS


When it's all said and done
When we sing our final song
Only love remains
Only love remains


[Monologue based on 1 Corinthians 13)]
If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love,
I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
If I speak God's word with power, revealing all of His mysteries
and making everything as plain as day,
and if I have faith to say to a mountain jump
and it jumps but I don't love I'm nothing.
If I give all I earn to the poor or even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr,
but I don't love I've gotten nowhere.
So, no matter what I say, no matter what I believe,
no matter what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.


Simply put, all we need is love.  Happy LOVE Day!

January 2014 Snow Fun

Well, I guess we're making up for lost time this year.  Seems like every year, my kids are disappointed with the snowfall.  I think they are highly satisfied this year.  The downside has been the super cold temperatures.

Early in January we had about a foot of snow.  We did make it to French Lick that weekend prior and had a great time in the water park.  We headed back a little early the next day and hit snow about thirty minutes from home.  We didn't leave the house again for a full 48 hours.  We couldn't.  It wasn't even possible to attempt an escape because of the high snow drifts on our lane and on the road.

We lost power for about 23 hours and it almost did us in.  Not being able to leave and not having electricity in this day and age is not a good combination.  We did figure out a few things though:

1) You can cook a frozen pizza on a gas range, using a cookie sheet and tin foil.  It actually was delicious.  2) Running the car in the garage with a converter hooked to the battery will run the TV or charge two devices.     3) Headlamps are awesome.  I wore one while knitting a hat.  Jay wore one walking around the house.  They are great.  You need them in your house.  4) Although the pigs in the barn need heat, so does the family in the house.  However, removing heat from the barn to bring to the house will result in busted water lines.  5) No matter how awesome this thing called WIFI is, if you do not have electricity, the WIFI does not work.  It took a while for the kids to accept this.

6)  We will survive, even if we have to resort to old-fashion fun...which doesn't require WIFI.  7)  Regardless of how bad you think you have it, someone else has it worse.  Our power was only out 23 hours, others were without it much longer.

As always, it's not as bad as it seems at the time.  The next day our power was restored, which was great, even though we were still snowed in for a while.

About mid-day, our road was opened up and our drive was plowed.  Jay went on to work.  I attempted to leave and got about 50 feet from the garage before returning. I just stayed home.  Jay took this picture on his way to work about a half mile from our house.  It had been a very, very tall snowdrift.  Even the V-plow had a little trouble busting through it.

I took advantage of the snow days and tried out a new Fair Isle hat pattern.  (See, I don't need power to fuel my addiction...just a headlamp.)  I think I need more snow days!

Do Good Anyway

And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much!    Luke 6:33 (NLT)

On my way to work this morning, I was listening to our local Christian Radio Station, which really isn't all that local, but you know what I mean.  One of the DJ's told a story about God nudging her to do something that she really did not want to do, but she followed God's push anyway.

It snowed yesterday and the DJ decided that she and her boys should go out and shovel driveways in their subdivision.  Out they went.  They had finished almost every house around but that one house, driveway untouched, she was trying to avoid.  You see, the DJ is black.  The woman that lived in this particular house had made it very clear that she did not care for her or her family and had even used the "N" word before in reference to them.  The DJ did NOT want to shovel that driveway.  But God did.

So she gathered her boys and headed to that house.  She rang the door bell several times with no answer.  She was about to give up, when the door swung up and that woman appeared.  The DJ told the woman what she and her boys intended to do and headed out to clear the snow.  When they had finished, the woman met them in the driveway and broke down crying.

Awesome. 

Next time you feel that nudge, God knows what he is doing...even if you don't.

"About 20 minutes"

Last week I had another cooking fiasco that supports my theory that although, for many, a woman's place is in the kitchen, I fit into the better-in-the-barn category.


I'm back on the Weight Watcher's wagon (it is a new year, you know), and I was perusing the recipes on their website.  I stumbled upon a roasted sirloin beef that had great reviews and looked fairly simple.  My family loves meat, it's a healthy meal...it's a win-win situation.  Yes.


I found the perfect sirloin and made sure I had everything to prepare the meat before I left for my weekly Weight Watcher's meeting.  I read over the recipe at least three times and knew I could attend the meeting, come home, prepare the beef and not starve to death in the process.  It was a quick fix, the recipe said 20 minutes in the oven. Sweet.  My family would love me - they love beef!


So I do just that.  I attend the meeting, come home and get right to work rubbing down the sirloin.  I put it in the oven and start some vegetables in the microwave because it will be quick. (Yes, I happen to love the frozen veggies that you can just throw in the microwave.)


Meanwhile, my family is quizzing me on supper, wanting to snack on anything and everything, and I'm trying to  maintain my composure because I, too, am ready to gnaw a finger off.  Weigh-in/Meeting night is particularly rough because you try to be so good until you weigh in. 


Hang on, I said, it will just be about 20 minutes.


Here is the key sentence in this recipe:  "Roast until a thermometer inserted in center of beef reads a minimum of 145ºF, about 20 minutes."  This is the sentence I was fixated on and had complete and total faith in.  I read and reread this sentence several times over the course of the next 90 minutes wondering what happened to the "about 20 minutes" aspect. 


I was even more puzzled by the comments in the review section that suggested not cooking it quite as long as called for because the meat was tough.  Again, I kept thinking, less than 20 minutes cooking time for a 2.5 lb beef roast?  Hmm, but I checked and double-checked and that is what it said.  So we waited.


This is where a very average cook like myself has trouble.  I know just enough to be dangerous and not enough to realize there is no way, this side of heaven, I can cook a 2.5 lb beef roast for 20 minutes in the oven and it be fit to eat.


I had to wrangle Jay in and get his opinion.  He couldn't see how it could possibly be done in 20 minutes either.  We got the roast out, stuck the meat thermometer in, returned it to the oven and waited.  Again, more analyzing of the recipe took place, and finally it dawned on me that "about 20 minutes" pertained to how long the stupid meat thermometer was supposed to read 145 degrees! Because there were no other references to time, I just assumed that "about 20 minutes" was it.


There are those moments you look back on and realize, duh, I'm such an idiot.  How could I possibly believe I could cook a 2.5 lb sirloin in 20 minutes?  (I think Grandma Great would find this humorous.)


After at least 90 minutes, we sliced up the medium-rare sirloin roast, warmed up the almost-back-to-frozen vegetables and ate our supper.  Fortunately, my family likes rare meat.  If it were not so, it might have been midnight before we were ready to dine.


Someone, anyone, open a local restaurant where you can order complete take-home meals at a decent price...and I will be there in about 20 minutes.