Hand out Valentines every day

Good Morning Friends!  Forever loved by HIM Friday!  Yesterday after work I had to go to Walmart to pick up a cake and  cupcakes for Cooper and Katy’s Valentine parties today.  Kathyrn has been running crazy, so I wanted to help her out just a bit.  Wow! I barely got in the door without running into a massive display of flowers, bouquets in all colors and sizes……and big signs with hearts and the word LOVE plastered all over them.  A little farther into the store were huge displays of heart-shaped cookies and  cupcakes, red, white and pink ones shouting out….LOVE.  I made my way to the bakery and got the cake….once again red hearts, love ornaments stuck in the corners, love oozing from every direction….I cautiously made my way down the Valentine “things” aisle….could have been dangerous if I wasn’t careful, but Katy wanted rings to put on her cupcakes, so I bravely forged my way…..Red, pink, white, LOVE screaming from every shelf.  I found the rings, and headed out to finish my shopping and get out of there…what a mad house.  The whole store jammed with things that are supposed to represent “love.”  Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoy Valentine’s Day myself, from heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast to heart-shaped meatloaf  for dinner and everything in between, but on the way home my thoughts were consumed with……well, Our Heavenly Father……LOVE…..real love…..I was drawn to 1 John 4:7-12… "Dear friends, let us love one another for love comes from God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  This is how God showed His love among us:  He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.  This is love:  not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as atoning sacrifice for our sins.  Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also out to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.”  This is what it’s all about….REAL LOVE…..and not just HIM loving us and us loving HIM…..but we must love each other….So go ahead, have a Happy Valentine’s Day, but don’t stop there…..hand out valentines every day…we don’t need fancy boxes of candy, expensive bouquets of flowers, or heart-shaped cookies to say, “Hey, Jesus Loves you and so do I!”  Nope, a simple smile goes a long, long, way….or how about holding the door open for someone, or simply listening when you think you don’t have time, sharing the cookies from your lunch, helping a child with homework, and my favorite, a big old hug….Wow, the healing and love that can flow through a hug…. most definitely God given!  Use your imagination…..just don’t miss a chance to share because, “love is of God”  and HE wants us to be all about it.   “Keep on loving each other.”  Hebrews 13:1.  Father fill us with a love-giving spirit….always.

 

I want to leave you with a quote from Max Lucado, “No matter what you do, no matter how far you fall, no matter how ugly you become, God has a relentless, undying, unfathomable, unquenchable love from which you cannot be separated.  Ever!!!”   Real Love….love you all, have a wonderful weekend.

 

Flat pancakes

Good Morning Friends!  Wise and Wonderful Wednesday!  So what kind of pancakes do you like?  Kim and I like whole wheat pancakes, but lately I have not been able to find our favorite mix anywhere!  At first I could get it at Walmart, then they stopped carrying it, but I found it at Nichol’s and Apple Market had it for a while too.  Now I can’t find it anywhere!!!  I have tried a couple of different “blends” but they were pretty blah.  In an attempt to take the bore out of our weekly pancakes I decided to google “whole wheat pancake mix” and see what happened.  After perusing the internet for a few minutes I came across a recipe that sounded interesting-Whole Wheat/Oatmeal Pancakes.  Healthy and tasty I thought, a bulk recipe that you keep in the freezer for multiple times!  I finally got around to mixing it together Monday evening, so I was really excited to try it yesterday.  It calls for buttermilk, so I put vinegar in milk in advance so it could curdle up real good!  Kim and I were both excited as he prepared to cook us a pancake….the batter looked quite interesting….I always say if everything in it is good how can it not be….Well, guess what….our special, healthy, tasty pancakes were flat…flatter than a pancake should be!  Yep, they did not rise one bit….what the heck I thought….All day I kept thinking about our flat pancakes wondering what had gone wrong…then I remembered the cobbler I had made last week.  I remembered thinking it sure didn’t rise very much…BAM, the light came on….the baking powder…..my baking powder must not be any good…..flat pancakes and flat cobbler….time to replace the baking powder for sure!  How sad all that mix with all those good, healthy ingredients wasted because of one simple ingredient….old baking powder ruined the whole batch….Flat pancakes…..Hmm…..gee…..could my life be the same as those flat pancakes….am I missing the one ingredient that makes me complete…..We can spend our time gathering earthly ingredients in hopes of having a “tasty” life,, but no “things” can do that alone…..there is one ingredient that makes our lives “tasty”  not flat….Jesus….without HIM in our lives all that we do and have is in vain…flat…..JESUS is the ONE ingredient we need!  He is our hope and our salvation!!!  Come Lord Jesus, be our guest in our hearts…in our minds….fill our spirits with love for YOU!

 

Jesus said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Matthew 6:19-21.  Jesus said, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you.  No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.  Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.  I am the vine; you are the branches….apart from me you can do nothing.”  Ohn 15:4-5.  God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.  John 3:16.  Jesus said:  “I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.”  John 16;22.  Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  To Him be glory both now and forever!  2 Peter 3:18.    

Jesus Loves You!!!!!!