My Mom and Me

This month’s challenge for the Hearts at Home Blog Hop is – How are you like your mom and how are you different?

Moms are such an important part of life. In fact, God thought so highly of moms that He decided to begin each or our lives with a mom! So I totally agree that it’s important to reflect on our moms every now and then.

My mom loved God and His Word. You could always find her sharing a scripture of encouragement or wisdom to me and my brother and sister. I don’t think I’ve shared scripture with my children as much as my mom did with me and my sibs. It is something I’m grateful for. I think I’ve certainly gained a love of God’s Word from her and have been trained to see its usefulness from her example. What a great gift she gave!

My mom was also a powerful woman who never fully realized the power God had given her. She always had an opinion and was not afraid to voice it. She influenced me in too many ways to elaborate on here. But I definitely think I’m like her in my desire to be powerful.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying I want to be powerful in physical strength. I’ll leave that to my college and teen-age sons who like to lift weights and build their manly physiques! Haha!

But I want to be powerful in helping others learn from me what I’m learning from God on a daily basis. That’s what my mom tried to do and often did more than she ever realized. And that’s where my mom and I are somewhat different. I realize that I am powerful. Not that I am powerful by my own might, mind you! But I realize I’m powerful whenever I let God work through me to help others.

I think my mom sometimes realized that, but often lost sight of how God was using her due to her insecurities. Those insecurities kept her bound and limited in her impact. Don’t get me wrong, I have insecurities too, but God has freed me from so many of them over the years.

Come to think of it—I don’t know, but it seems like God has blessed me more in that way than my mom. I won’t try to understand that disparity. But because my mom loved me, I don’t think she would mind that God has blessed me more in “that way” than she was blessed . . . because, after all, moms are generous and self-sacrificing like that!

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Looking for Completeness

Today’s post is part of the Heart’s at Home Blog Hop for the month of June.

And this month’s blog hop is to answer the question, If I could go back in time and tell my teenage self one thing, what would it be?

My parents didn’t have a great marriage. So I remember thinking in my teen years that I would make it my mission to find a great guy, and not only escape my difficult family of origin, but also show my parents how to have a great marriage.

Ahhh, ignorance is bliss!

I took my idealistic and naïve notions with me into my dating relationships, often driving some of my boyfriends crazy! And, honestly, running a few boyfriends off!

When I finally met the guy that would become my husband, we ended up repeating a lot of the patterns that my parents had in their marriage—surprise, surprise!

But if I could’ve whispered into my teenage ear before any of that occurred, I would say . . .

Quit running after an ordinary man to be who the extraordinary Christ should be in your life—the first true love of your life!

Thankfully, all along the way, God was the One whispering this truth in my ear. And at some point, I actually listened and realized that He was right. Imagine that?!

I want to clarify at this point that I am not in any way saying I regret marrying my husband. I am so, so happy to be married to my husband, Gary. But I do know that I’ve put him, our kids and myself through so much more drama because I believed that Gary could and should complete me.

Looking back, I know that God used (and continues to use) all of the people in my life and especially my husband to act as “iron sharpening iron,” so His will was not thwarted by my unrealistic expectations. But I also realize that my compulsion to be in a relationship and eventually marriage, made my spiritual and emotional maturation process much more complicated, difficult and slow.

So, even though I can’t really speak to my teenager self, I hope that this will be a resounding statement to any of you (of any age) who are rushing into a relationship . . .

Don’t pursue a soul-mate or spouse until you can say that Christ is and will continue to be your first love.

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Sharing a Family Secret!

As many of you know, I am a (HAH) Hearts at Home Blogger. Each month we join together for a “blog hop” on the third Thursday about a specific topic or challenge. This month’s challenge is to share a favorite recipe.

I thought long and hard about this, because some of my recipes are a family secret, you know! But I came across one that is not only a family favorite, super yummy, but also one that I don’t mind sharing the secret with all of you! So get in touch with your inner Cajun cook and try out my version of . . .

Jambalaya

Ingredients

1 lb. cooked chicken*

2 cups water

1 ½ tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. black pepper

1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper

1/2 lb. ground sausage**

1/2 tsp. dried thyme

Dash garlic

1 cup uncooked rice

1 med. onion diced

1 can diced tomatoes with green chilies

In a dutch oven, brown sausage, breaking it up into bite sized chunks. Reserve 1 tablespoon of oil in bottom of dutch oven. Remove sausage to a paper towel to absorb excess oil. In same dutch oven, place chicken, onion, salt, pepper in two cups of water, bringing to a boil and then simmering. Return sausage to dutch oven. Add rice, tomatoes, and the rest of spices. Cook until rice is tender. Enjoy!

I hope you try this out. Then come on back and tell me what you and your family thinks!

*Shrimp can be substituted for chicken

**sliced sausage links can be substituted for ground sausage

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