help, please :)

If you have signed up to receive Living Letters posts via email, are you getting them?  Just heard from a new reader and hers are coming through.  I don't know much about blogs and how they work but I want to troubleshoot this problem.  Just need to know how widespread it is.


Thanks, y'all!


Oh, and if you're not signed up already, please do!  See the link on here to subscribe by email.

Another breakfast recipe

After reading my plea for breakfast ideas, my friend Tricia sent me this recipe.  I waited til I had tried it to post.  Uh, it is DIVINE.  You really should bake this.  It is scrumptious.  Approved by my whole family.


It's really good.  Thank you, Tricia!!!


Chili Cheese Casserole

4 eggs
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 c plain flour
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1 c shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 c shredded cheddar
1 c cottage cheese
1/4 c melted butter
1- 4 oz can diced green chilies

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix baking powder, flour and dry mustard.  Beat in eggs.  Blend in remaining ingredients.  Batter will be slightly lumpy.  Grease casserole dish and bake for 25 - 35 minutes or until firm in the middle.

Our life reflects our priorities.......

I've thought a lot about this verse the past couple of days.  Truett Cathy spoke of it as one of, if not the, favorite verse of his life.  His walk matched his talk.


I'd like all of us to think about it and see if our pursuits, our priorities, and our purpose reflect its truth -


Proverbs 22:1 - A good name is rather to be desired than great riches; favor is better than silver or gold.


Would I rather have good character or great riches?  This verse suggests that we have to choose the pursuit of one or the other. 
I think that if one desires great riches, a good name will not be a priority.  However, if one's priority is earning a good name, if one's purpose is the grace of receiving God's favor, then great riches won't matter.




That's all for today.


Amen.

Are you sure?

This blog is all over the map.  I write about marriage and breakfast recipes and parenting and theology.  But that's pretty much how my mind - and life- operates.  I guess I figure lots of you readers are the same!


That said, though, there's only one thing that I'm really about.  One thing that is the foundation for all my thoughts and activities and posts.  One person, actually.  And my relationship with Him.  If I have lots of site visits and wonderful comments, if I give helpful advice and even make you laugh, if I blog faithfully week after week but fail to exhort you to be sure you have the same relationship, nothing else would matter.
                                  

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
2 Corinthians 13:5


Most folks fall into one of three categories -


1- Those that possess a relationship with Christ and are walking in His light
If that describes you, be sure to heed Ephesians 4:1 and to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,


2 - Those that believe they are "saved" or "safe" when in reality, they are not.  Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. (Matthew 7:21)
That verse is very upsetting to me.  Maybe to you, too.


3- Those who aren't sure.   While I don't mean to needlessly upset you, I would rather do that than let you continue in false assurance.


I implore you to test yourself today.  Are you truly in Christ?  Can you know?  I John 3:23 gives us the basis on which to test the genuineness of our faith - And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who keep his commandments abide in him, and he in them.

Although I am a tenderhearted person who loves to encourage and inspire, I pray that today's post will upset you a bit.  I want you to wrestle with this question and ask God where you stand with Him.  I want you to ask questions and seek Him and pursue the Truth.


I want you to find Him and to live a life that bears evidence of that.


If you have questions, I welcome them.  I would love to help.  You can email me privately at chamfam@bellsouth.net


I want you to be sure.

When things need fixing

The other day a couple of my crew were at odds.  Different than when their frustrations were vented in hits and hairpulls, this was of the verbal sort.  Unkind words.  Hurt feelings.  Spreading out to members not involved in the conflict.


They angrily separated.  Too old for parent-enforced time outs but perhaps the principle learned in the early years was wisely relied on.  Good idea to retreat.  Stop the assault of wounding words.  Tears.


I appeared in the aftermath.


I think each one expected me to point out their error.  To reprimand them and exhort corrective action. 

By God's grace, I knew to listen first and lecture later.  This time, anyway.


 I cried with each one.  I empathized with their pain and understood each side's complaint. I knew what it felt like to be misunderstood and unappreciated. I knew what it was like to have a lot of outside pressure and to need home to be safe and warm and compassionate. I knew intimately what it felt like to fail in the relationships I value the most.  I knew. And I didn't offer any correction or suggestion.  They didn't need those things.But  I was able to give them what they did need in that moment.  Grace. Unmerited favor.  To be treated better than they deserved. And I assured them that there is more than enough grace available.  To cover all these kinds of moments.  To soothe all their searing wounds.  To heal the rifts.  To flood them with the assurance that they are loved.  By me and most importantly by the Redeemer.  And He is able to mend rifts.  To put relationships back together.  To equip us to forgive and ask forgiveness.  To do it better next time.  To move on to goodness and righteousness and peace.


I was divinely able to respond this way because my Heavenly Father treats me like this.  Yes, He often times has to correct me and to show me where I'm wrong.  But I find Him far more compassionate than corrective.  He shows me way more grace than grievous chastisement.  He is understanding, not unrelenting.


Reminds me of these verses -


As a father shows compassion to his children,
    so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
 For he knows our frame;
    he remembers that we are dust.


Psalm 103:13,14


Sometimes I feel just like my feuding kids.  Sometimes I just stink at relationships and following Christ and LIFE.  Sometimes I feel like a big fat failure.


I'm so very glad that One who is greater than I shows compassion because He knows I'm weak and frail and error-prone.  And when He invites me to pour out my hurts and disappointments, I don't get a lecture.
I get grace.
I am so very glad.