Linking up with Emily P. Freeman and Laura ~
{affiliate links included}
Emily is the author of Simply Tuesday. It’s one of my favorite books. It’s over here in this post. I’m currently reading another of her books, A Million Little Ways. And I ordered her Grace For the Good Girl from Family Christian, at the end of last week. I think I am reading her books in backward order according to which one she wrote first, but it doesn’t matter! I love her words and inspiration. For me, her style is restful and reviving all at the same time.
1. Summer always goes too quickly. I didn’t learn that JUST this summer. I learn and re-learn it every summer. But it does!!! The heat can get tiresome and intensive, but I love the long days and I love the flowers and I love watching the sprinklers and splashing in the pool. I love eating fresh peaches and sweet corn. I love having a campfire or two. I like mowing the yard and how pretty it looks when it’s all trimmed up.
2. Sunrise and sunset are so exquisite. I find myself always reaching for my phone to take a picture. And while I do have some gorgeous shots, the beauty can never be properly captured in a photo. It never does it justice.
3. I did the Armor of God Bible study this summer. As I worked through the week of study about fitting our feet with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace, I was struck with the thought that I believe sometimes to have peace or bring peace it simply means lacing your shoes and quietly and firmly walking in the other direction.
4. Another quiet revelation for me ~ There are times in life when each of us need a friend to prop us up and build us up when our strength is not-so-very-strong and our faith is in a faltering place for the moment, instead of a flourishing one. At times we are the friend. Other times we are the friended. This is the walking together. This is the edifying and building up. This is a gift.
5. Don’t be guilted into someone else’s calling or idea. Good things are good things. But someone else’s great thing for them isn’t automatically great for everyone else….even if they think it should be so.
6. On top of that observation, I’ll stack this one. Sometimes, when we let other people’s opinions decide something for us, it simply means we’re too lazy to dig into finding truth for ourselves.
7. And on top of those, I’m going to stack one more. Be a grace giver. Be willing and open to agree to disagree when it doesn’t contradict the Word of God. Live with a willingness to yield and let other people live out their opinions. And don’t think I excel at any of this! Far from it. I’m learning the most. I’ve come to believe that the words that fall from my fingertips as they tappity-tap across the keyboard are things that I am learning or want to grow in or desire so deeply for perfection in.
8. I absolutely love the book The Life- Giving Home. {Over in this post.} I’ve been reading in the October chapter and realizing why some things have always meant home to me and spoke to my heart. Sally Clarkson writes about food and gathering with those you love around the table. It instantly brought to mind my grandmother and mother and the legacy they have passed down to me. The way they would cook and feed their families and food means home and belonging. {Find Ten Favorite Foods My Mother Made here, and Ten Favorite Comfort Foods here…} Listen to a few of the things Sally says. I love her inspiration. “Home is one of the places of refuge that many in our world have not valued or known in a personal way. There is no prepared place where they can come to find solace, welcome, comfort, acceptance, truth, and ease. But I am determined that those I love will have such a place.” I so deeply appreciate a grandmother and mother who created these kind of spaces for me and my siblings and cousins. Sally contines, “The practice of hospitality, you see, is not just for strangers. Serving and welcoming spouse and children, family and friends, is an art that will truly reach their souls and give them a reason to believe in the God of love and holiness.”
And I love this ~
“A candlelit table piled high with warm rolls, pungent cheese, savory soups, fragrant cakes and pies, and colorful salads-what an alluring sight, inviting all who behold it to engage in the life spread generously there. Food is the universal language that eases hearts to open, tying secure knots of intimacy while satisfying bodily hunger, weaving tiny threads of kindred needs into friendship, camaraderie, and truth. Being served personally in an atmosphere of enticing smells, delectable tastes, dancing melodies, and affectionate emotion has opened the hearts of many people in our home.”
Isn’t that a gorgeous mental image?!
“We also learned to serve one another, for mealtime provides the perfect opportunity for observing needs and meeting them. When I plan food I know will delight and nourish the bodies of family and guests, I am serving them. When the kids set the table, creating a beautiful backdrop for our time together, they are serving. When the girls and I cook and Dad and the boys clean-or vice versa-we make our home a place of service. And we all serve when we observe one another at the table, notice needs, and do what we can to fill those needs. Does someone need a refill of tea or water or mashed potatoes? Does someone need to have his or her say, to be listened to? Does someone need to just be left alone for the moment?”
From Sally’s children ~
“It was the food that made me love God,” Sarah pronounced as she reached for one more warm, fluffy piece of French toast, soon to be covered in hot maple syrup.
Her son Joel arrives home weary and tired from long hours of hard work. “Dinner still a half hour away, I {Sally} quickly cut some cheese, arranged some crisp whole grain crackers on a plate, poured a bubbly drink in a glass, and gave him my offering- “Just a little something to hold you over until dinner is ready.” {My Grandma and Mother would say similar things.} The furrowed brow softened and Joel said, “This is why I came home. I knew you would fill me back up, and I wanted peace and quiet for at least one night.”
Doesn’t this just embody HOME???
I could type out several more excerpts! You can find The Life Giving Home on Amazon here.
This chapter made me contemplate and made me more fully aware of my own feelings for food. It also made me think again of one of the reasons I enjoy Shauna Niequist’s books. She is a foodie, too, and talks about food and gathering around the table and describes wondeful sounding meals that make you want to step into the pages.
I’ve long believed that we can bless others through food and making things special. We’ve been places where we were served and blessed by others through their food and presentation of their best. We’ve also been in situations, where it felt the opposite. It doesn’t even mean it has to be a feast every time. Something simple can be just as much a blessing. Feasts are fun, yet it is the heart and the giving and the gratitude and the spreading out and inviting your loved ones to a warm and welcoming place.
People will often refer to food or bread “like my Grandma used to make” or “like my Mother made”. There’s no doubt in my mind, that FOOD and HOME go hand in hand. It reminds me of my post, The Kitchen is the Heart of the Home.
9. Watching my son and farmer man drive tractors and work ground in the same field is a pretty awesome sight! On one hand I don’t know how we got to this stage so quickly and on the other hand I know how fleeting this stage will be.
10. My memory has been rekindled at how much I loved Michelle in the sitcom Full House. My aunt has the whole series on dvd and she brought it over when she came to visit the last time. I have been having fits of laughter over the styles and great fun watching my son watch this old show. He is quite skeptical of the fashion sense! What he doesn’t quite realize yet, is that in another 20 years……………… 🙂 🙂 🙂
11. The way the earth can produce. I’m amazed every time I take time to notice. I love watching seeds sprout and come up. {Weeds not so much.} I planted some elephant ear bulbs this spring. I didn’t get them out as early as I would have liked, but nevertheless, into the ground they went. {NOTE. Gardening is not my gift. I plant and if the plants grow and thrive, they have my utmost devotion. If not, well, they’re pretty much on their own. No green thumb found for me!} I kept checking with eagerness to see if my elephant ears had emerged. Sadly, they didn’t and hadn’t and weren’t. I rather forgot and gave up and decided it wasn’t going to happen. Then, one morning I walked around the end of my deck and low and behold, THERE THEY WERE!! I was beyond thrilled to see them and greet them. They really get too much sunshine, but they have grown in spite of the conditions and I have smiled every time I see them this summer.
What about you? What fun things or life-impacting things or totally trivial things have you learned this summer?
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Val - Corn, Beans, Pigs and Kids says
Great reminders and “lessons learned” from this summer. Some of your thoughts makes me think about Psalm 31. We had a sermon about it last Sunday and ever since then I’ve been inspired to do more and do my best. Thanks for sharing on the Country Fair Blog Party.
deborah says
Thanks for coming by! And thank-you for sharing what recently inspired you.