Assign blame and forgive

My husband has a few statements that we consider family truths to live by. One of the most famous is, "Assign blame and forgive." If something bad happens to you, you're going to have to move past it. This slogan is made of two steps.

I think Christians often try to skip over the assign blame part. Did someone wrong you? Then say it. Maybe not to their face, but the clarity of what went wrong is good for you. God was honest about our sin. If our sin is just "little stuff" then Jesus didn't accomplish very much on the cross. But the cross wasn't just a little change to cover a little problem. The truth doesn't diminish God.

So be clear and truthful, just like the Lord. Call things what they are. But once you've assigned blame--and let's be honest, sometimes you get some of the blame in a situation, it's not always the other guy--imitate God again: forgive. Let it go. Don't hold it against them. And don't cheat yourself by getting stuck in the "assign blame" stage. The other side of forgiveness is freedom for you.

Tip #3

If you have leftover coffee (really? whoever has leftover coffee?) you can use it for baking. I have a great recipe for an eggless chocolate cake that has coffee. But really, if you have leftover coffee, you must really be busy, so cake is probably not your solution.

While it's still warm, stir in a little sugar (or a lot, suggests Beka) and freeze it. Sometime soon, frozen sweet coffee is going to make your afternoon very happy. You can pour it in an icecube tray (picture to the right, in case you have never seen one, o generation with ice makers).

If you have a lot of coffee, be careful how you freeze it. Liquid expands when freezing and will break your container.

What do you do with theoretical leftover coffee?

An aroma pleasing to the Lord

Think for a moment about yourself. Think about those awful times when you lose it, those choices you wish you never made, those thoughts and feelings that run through your head that you hate. No one wants to be portrayed at their worst.

Stay there a minute. Realize that God sees you all the time. He knows your choices. He knows your heart. He knows you need to be rescued, and He provided Jesus so you could be. Jesus trades His life for yours. When God looks at you, He sees His Son, but it's not like He's tricked into thinking you are someone else. He knows what that blood covers, and He declares this is good. He has atoned for you.

His purpose is not to make you look good. He wants to bring glory to Himself. Our job, as believers, is to not try to be perfect, but to take our hangups to Him and let Him atone for them. And then we sing, because He is a good, good God.

At a funeral on Wednesday, the preacher recounted a question someone had asked him: what does God do with all the stuff we bring Him? If we are supposed to bring Him our problems and failures and worries, what does He do with it? Revelation 5:8 says that our prayers are incense rising up before Him. Maybe all the things we lay at His feet get burned up, like a sacrifice on an Old Testament altar. Leviticus describes the sacrifices we bring to the Lord, and this concept is repeated over and over again: "Then Aaron's sons are to burn it on the altar on top of the burnt offering that is lying on the burning wood; it is a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord" (Leviticus 3:5).

If He does not remember our sins, but removes them as far as the east is from the west, then I think the things we take to Him are burned up, and they please Him--just because we hand them over. Our good deeds don't stockpile and make Him happy. Truthfully, our goodness needs to be burned before Him as well. All of me, everything I am, needs the covering of Jesus' blood.

Romans 12:1 says I should make myself a living sacrifice. Today, declare His truth over all of your problems and worries. He knows you for who you really are, and He has a story to write about you that you are going to love, but He is the main character. Show off in me today, God.

Tip #2

It is one of those weeks in Oklahoma when the temperature is daily above 110 degrees. At night, it only drops into the 80's, and then only after I've gone to bed. A few times, it's been 102 at 10pm. Extreme seasons, like snowstorms or heat waves, require us to adapt our behavior. With the joy of electicity and Netflix and microwaves, it's kinda nice that sometimes we are still required to adapt to our environment, instead of controlling the world.

To help your plants in this weather, dump ice on them. It relieves them just like it does us, and waters them gently. My daughter Lizzye discovered this trick. Lizzye, the plants say thank you.

This is my porch, warping in the heat. Although it is only 108 in the shade currently. One summer, my thermometer hit 114. Haven't seen that yet this year. Don't want to.

Tip #1

A spray bottle filled with water is your best friend for reheating food in the microwave. Spray the top of pizza, enchiladas, whatever, before heating. Food reheats faster and more evenly, and (gasp) it's not as dry.

Wrap bread in a paper towel before heating (or thawing, if it's frozen). If it's dry, spray the towel with water. Bread is one of the few things that reacts soggily to the spray bottle trick.

I Want to Blog Again

Oh, my, what a crazy last two years. I have worked outside my home. I have loved it. Now I'm back. Being a stay-at-home mom doesn't lend itself to community. Facebook and blogging and pinterest are our new back fence. Sometimes I listen to the radio because the dj is a voice, a conversation. Our world is odd, but it's not bad. I need to get my camera capable of uploading photos, and then I will kick off with seriousness. May your day be full of small, surprising blessings.

Prayer, two kinds

I have thought a lot about what Jesus said, that we could ask anything in His name and He would give it to us. This is one of those passages that people take issue with, because there are so many anecdotal rebuttals.

But this is the word of God: "I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name" (John 15:16). If Jesus said it, it can't be discounted. There are several passages like this that I label "too big to understand," place them at the throne of God, and mull over them until God chooses to give me insight.

Something dinged in my head the other day. Notice that Jesus said in John that we will produce fruit...and here is why grammar is important. What is the conjunction in that sentence? "So that" in the New Living translation. "Then" in the New International. I don't know Greek, but these two English translations use a connecting word that implies consequence. Not a strong link, but a somewhat loose, "well, once this happens, then this follows." What comes first? Fruit. What comes next? Ask whatever you want, and I will give it.

Whoa! What? Produce fruit and then have a powerful prayer life? Isn't this backwards? Don't we teach people that they should develop a powerful prayer life in order to produce fruit? This thinking was really messing with what I have been taught in church. So I asked God...how do we produce fruit, if we are not to pray that you do it and poof, you do?

If you go back a little in John 15, there is the answer: "Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit" (verse 5).

And I really need to summarize here, because I have to get to work. But think...there are two kinds of prayer here. The prayer that is cuddling up to your Daddy and learning about Him. Being with Jesus, just hanging out, to listen to Him and get to know Him more. That's abiding. If you abide, you bear fruit. And once you bear fruit, you are to the point where you can ask for anything in His name. First, I suppose you have to learn what His name represents, and then you will have the power to ask.