Rejoice

I was reading this post by another blogger this morning and thought I would share because it was really good!


Romans 12:15
Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 

I have a friend who is the most incredible encourager ever.  

Seriously.  No matter what kind of good things are going on in my life...whether as small as getting a new hair cut, or as huge as signing with an awesome literary agent- she totally rejoices.  She allows her heart to be captured by my emotions and by my life.  You can hear the excitement in her voice, and you can tell it's SO genuine.  Sometimes, I feel like she's about to break out in dance.  I joke with her that she's my biggest fan...and she has been ever since we were kids.  She really, truly rejoices when I rejoice. 

I wish I could say the same about all of my friends...but I can't.  I actually have a category of people in my life who I CAN'T share good things with.  Fears of tension, jealousy, and the potential competitiveness that may creep into those conversations keeps me absolutely silent when good things are going on.  So I keep quiet. 

As much as that bothers me and gives me the feeling that I can't truly be real...I totally get it, because I too have a bit of disgusting covetousness in me.  A pride that wants the good things for myself.  Why is it hard to hear the blessings in the lives of others?  Why is it sometimes easier to mourn with the people around us than to rejoice? 

I don't know for sure...but from my experience in my own life, the dirty culprit comes down to nothing more dangerous than the plague of insecurity.  

Insecurity causes us to rise up in comparison to others rather than to celebrate ourselves.
Insecurity forces us to think we need to achieve, to have, to be in order to gain value.
Insecurity tricks us into believing that when others are have more...we have less.

It's an evil little creature, slithering about with the intent of killing our joy...and our ability to rejoice.

The ironic thing is that at the end of the disease of insecurity, we are robbed of rejoicing with others...but we are also stripped of our ability to rejoice in ourselves.  

I don't know about you, but I want to experience more joy.  I want to be the "biggest fan" to the people in my life.  I want my heart to flutter and rejoice in response to their blessings, to their successes, to their achievements.  I want to experience the joy that comes with feeling the joy in the lives of the people around me.     


Take inventory...how are you at rejoicing for others?  How deep does your joy run for the people around you, when God pours His blessing on them?  What feelings come to the surface when you are faced with the prosperity of the people in your life?

Don't be fooled, the inability to rejoice for others is a symptom of something far greater than a simple lack of emotion. 

Ask Jesus to come into this part of your life. To fill you with value, worth, and a security beyond what you can try to scrape up for yourself.  To see the all-encompassing beauty of Him rejoicing over YOU...dancing over you...so that one day, you too, can learn to dance for others.  

honor or sacrifice?

"If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?" — David Livingstone

Kazakhstan

Can you tell I've been trying to add more pictures lately? I love looking at pictures - if all books could be picture books and all news articles tell the story through pictures, I would read much more than I do now :) I just wanted to spice things up a bit, hope you enjoy them!

Now for some big news.  Lord willing, I will be traveling with a group to the country of Kazakhstan in May of this year. We will be gone for two weeks with the main purpose of "caring for the orphans," as James instructs us to. The orphanage we will be with is the Ulan Orphanage in Taraz, which is located on the southern border of Kazakhstan. I am still in the process of learning what our day to day duties will include but I believe it may be along the lines of teaching English, playing games, and also teaching some life skills. The entire process has been very last minute for me and I think that has thrown my emotions for a loop.  Where I am normally in charge of planning my trips and knowing what they will consist of, this sort of jumped into my heart at the twelfth hour and a decision needed to be made quickly. I knew I would regret not going... so I said yes! I couldn't wait until next year to go because really, why not go now? Who knows what responsibilities I will have next year so I just didn't want to put it off. Also, if it's anything like they keep telling me, I'll be going next year as well! I'm excited for this trip! Please pray that my passport renewal comes back quickly so we can book tickets and get my visa. Also be praying for the kids, God loves them so much and while we aren't necessarily allowed to vocalize that to them, we can definitely be the hands and feet of Christ and watch and see His handiwork from there on out!

Stuffed peppers

Every once in a while I have a successful grocery shopping trip and am then allowed to experiment a little with meals. It's my creative cooking sessions and sometimes they turn out. I had a few large peppers and made a stuffing for them. It was so yummy and I just want to remember it for later :)
Mild/spicy sausage
Chopped sweet peppers
Sunrise medley potatoes (red, white, and purple) chopped small
Celery
1/2 med onion
Butter
1can diced tomatoes w/ juice
Pepper, basil, tarragon, thyme, cumin
Cook ground sausage
In a separate pan saute onions, peppers, and potatoes in butter till almost soft. Add celery and herbs/spices
Add sausage back into mixture, add can of tomatoes
Bake peppers a little to begin softening
Dump into peppers (if you can resist eating it all straight from the skillet!)
Would also be good with rice added

the best chocolate bundt cake

this past weekend, my sister had her birthday.  she is a great cook, she always seems to pick the best recipes!  we made the most deliciously fluffy oatmeal buttermilk pancakes for breakfast on saturday and on sunday after church we made this incredible, chocolate bundt cake. now if you're like me, you immediately judge all bundt cakes as dry and lacking flavor. being like me, you may also judge homemade cakes as extremely labor intensive and pricey compared to the ease and satisfactory taste of the boxed variety. well, trust me when i tell you, this cake blew my mind (and more literally, my taste buds). it was incredible. if anyone is making a cake in the near future, allow me to force recommend this one to you, you will have no regrets.

lent, unsweetened

If I hadn't successfully done this before, I would think I was going to die.  Sweets are my weakness, they have a lot of control over me and my will-power!  That to say, if it weren't for dried mango, I'm not sure what I would do.