In My Easter Bonnett (with all the frills)

     We must have had at least 7 of our 8 kids at the time this happened but it was Easter fast approaching. Traditionally I tried to outfit all of us with new clothes  for the occasion. Obviously that is a financial feat, not to mention the time involved shopping and hoping the clothes would be something the kids could still be using through the year not just the few hours of one day. The mental gymnastics of that alone stymie me thinking back, but it was important to me.







     That particular year was a year of changes. Not happy ones. It involved changes that impacted our finances, so splurges on outfits to celebrate Easter just were not in order. I will admit it was hard for me to accept. Maybe some of you don't have the clothing tradition thing going on for your Easter celebration, so wonder why in the world it was a big deal anyway. After all look at the above mentioned stress I was being saved from (the bright side I guess). Even though I was trying to correct my focus with the sunny side of things I was really and truly, flat out disappointed.


     So I defaulted  to what I knew to do...talk to God about it ...which really probably contained a good measure of whining and complaining to start with.
 

And God talked back.

     Not in a booming voice from the heavens but in that place inside my spirit where He chooses to dwell with us. I heard His word coming back to me telling me this particular Easter would be about putting on the "New man" and clothing myself in the fruit of the Spirit. Of course I would wear clothes too just not brand new.
 
     Could I possibly lay aside the traditions I was comfortable with and wanted to continue in, to allow Him to shine through me? Could it be enough to put on love, patience, kindness, gentleness, long suffering, joy, peace, self-control, and goodness (not the right order but I am pretty sure the order does not matter for this writing).


     I could dress in Easter finery and have a perfectly lovely and true character obviously. God was not condemning the desire at all. But when the rubber hits the road and I have disappointments what kind of woman am I? Can I be a woman of character? You know the saying "pretty is as pretty does"? Love looks good on us.







I still like new clothes. I still like to give them to my kids. When all is said and done though our appearance is the picture frame to our character. Our character is the real picture.


Hoping you have a beautiful Easter Sunday remembering the
RESURRECTION and putting on Christ....He loves you!

The Girl (and her lunch)

I can not tell you how many times in our years of raising a big family I fell back on the example of Jesus and His disciples feeding 5000 with a boys lunch. Making a little bit into much because God is in it. I wonder sometimes, if the boy's mom packed with the thought that her son might be sharing. I wonder how big the loaves and fishes were and what he carried them in..

 Many mom's apparently make sandwiches ahead, as in the night before the next school day. And some even make enough ahead to freeze and pull them out as needed. I never trusted the bread to not get soggy so didn't try that inspite of the fact that their kids did not complain that theirs were soggy. My approach was the morning line up. Generally I was making six lunches each morning and had a system to this while remembering who liked mayo, who hated it ect and hopefully getting the right sandwich into the right bag. We also relied on the tried and true PB and J.

So now at the tail end of school lunch years, with most of our kids grown and out of the house, I no longer have the line up. I am making one school lunch on a school day. Generally I have always overpacked for this particular one. She never ate much while at school as a gradeschooler but would eat most of what was left on the way home when her appetite returned. School was somewhat stressful as far as she was concerned and she did not want to eat while she was there much to the concern of teachers and lunchroom monitors.

Evidently these days, this year, she shares her lunch with fellow hungry high school students. She makes sure to eat something too, in case you are concerned for her. Since I learned of this sharing, I pack a bit differently. I pack with this in mind. She normally still has something left to eat on the way home but not always, which is ok because she can eat when we get home anyway.

One day heading home after school she was pulling something out from her bag and told me she was given banana bread from a student that day so actually had several things still to choose from. We were stopped at a traffic light and could see several car lengths ahead a man with a sign at the side of the road. I am not sure exactly what all it said but it is an uncomfortable, familiar sight. Things were happening quickly since the light changed but she suddenly said "I have food. I could give him my lunch." We passed him by. I looked at her and said "I can turn around".

Frankly I was low on gas and still had another student (who had fallen into an after school power nap in the car oblivious to all of this transpiring) to take home as well. Finding a place to turn around in the stretch ahead would be an inconvenience and my mind wanted to figure out whether he was telling the truth on his sign. But we were giving food not money. And my daughter was giving her lunch to Jesus since He said "when you do it to the least of these you do it unto Me" You know, a cup of cold water in His name. Feeding the hungry. Visiting the sick. Those in prison. Loving the unlovely, seemingly least important ones, like He loved me when I didn't deserve it. From Matthew 25:34-40

We were trying to figure out how to manuver so it could be me handing the lunch out, not my daughter (we have seen too many/heard too many things that make us stranger leary) but when it came down to it, when we could finally get turned around and then turned around again it had to be her handing the lunch through her window. And he did seem grateful. And we were glad too.

Did he really have the kids at home like his sign said? If so, did one get the applesauce, another the cookies? Did they split the sandwich and banana bread? I don't know. Or was it the first meal this man had in a day? Maybe. Maybe not. But Jesus knows and we are leaving that with Him.

Proverbs 22:9  A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.

Just as a PS. Several weeks after all this, I was at school (I am attending Charis Bible College) one of the ladies also attending held up a large jar of Welches Grape Jam.

She asked me "Do you have a bunch of kids?"  "I do but they are all pretty much grown now...Is that grape jam? That is my daughters favorite. She loves jam rather than jelly"

"Take it for her." Isn't that just how God is? He knows and provides our FAVORITE..

I was able to say to my daughter that day as I handed it over "Jesus loves you Lily" :)

Blessings!