Gotta love Zephaniah!

Oh what a marvelous God we serve!  And oh, how marvelous are His good gifts to us!  One such gift is my cuppycake, yes my beautiful granddaughter.  She is a lovely young woman now, but forever in our hearts, our very first girl.  She has just returned home from a dynamic youth camp.  The Lord has done so much for her, she who has such a passionate heart for Him, and has had some rough waters to navigate for awhile now.  All to make her stronger for the plans that He has for her future.  The Lord has made Himself so personal to her, and assures her of His protection and love for her in the midst of a babylonian culture!  He will keep her.  He promises it.  And He does not lie.

She has one very similar character trait to her dad.  Neither one will ever be a yes-man or a yes-woman!  What you see with them is what you get.  What they adopt for their own is well thought-through. 

When I think of her, I think of what God thinks about her:  "He will take great delight in you!"  Zephaniah 3:17

Zephaniah has a lot of truth about my girl in it!

  

Good Eatin'

In the South, we eat for all occasions, happy ones, sad ones, and all occasions in between!  So, it seems appropriate to share a good and EASY recipe for roast... something a little different and impossible to mess up, even for the most inexperienced cook.  So, here goes....(and we're even including pictures!)..

Mississippi Crock-pot Roast

Start with a chuck roast.  Throw it in a crock pot.  Pour over the roast a packet of ranch dressing dry mix, then a packet of aujus gravy dry mix, then put on top of that a stick of butter or margarine, and 5 or 6 pepperoncini peppers.  NO WATER.  Turn the crockpot on low for 8-ish hours.  Delish!  (Don’t add veggies as they will absorb the seasoning and be too salty.  Serve over rice, pasta or potatoes instead.)

Here's what it should look like when you turn that crock pot on.  Now didn't we promise it would be easy??

Today, our family got smaller. 

No, nobody died, it just feels that way somehow.  Our son and daughter in law signed divorce papers, ending a marriage that for many years, was very happy.  It's the last day of their marriage today.

To try to put into words my reaction to this is not so simple.  Yes, there were sad and destructive words and actions.  Yes, there was much hurt.  But..oh what a wonderful happy and blessed beginning they had.  Theirs was a "covenant" marriage by choice, the ceremony full of the Word of God, and celebrated by so many.  This was no casual worldly relationship...then.

They intended to live a life of mission and service to the Lord, both of them very committed.  So sincere, so idealistic, so in love with each other and the Lord.  Three beautiful children, all cherished and wanted. 

How does this happen?  Several years ago, we began to notice a change.  Priorities changed, appearances changed, the way time was spent changed.  It looked as if the desires of their heart changed.  Sometimes the care of this world in a young family can upset the balance.  Is that what happened? Perhaps.  We could sense trouble ahead...could they?  If we commented gently, we were met with denial.  We worried, silently then.

By the time their relationship failed, one had carefully planned it, and the other was totally surprised at the legal papers served.  Then, it started, the long 18 months or so that it took to completely end a marriage, and to completely devastate a family.  They should have known better, as there was a pattern already of divorce in one of the parental families.  They should have tried everything, but they didn't.  It takes two, doesn't it, to save a family?  One had already set their course on a new and different kind of life, one that embraced the culture of the day.  How did this happen??

What advice do you give your adult child in this situation?  Hang in there, for heaven's sake get counseling, don't give up...the two of you and God can work out anything..?  Yes, we encouraged, tried to help our grandchildren..and might I add, under the darkest legal cloud you can imagine.  There is a particular breed of attorney that makes a LOT of money off of divorce.  A LOT.  And in the end, their input and involvement just makes things 100 times worse. 

So now, to add to the misery mix, many thousands of dollars have been devoured during this process, money that could pay for educations, medical expense, braces, prom dresses, and all the other necessary items for children.  How long will it take to recover from the complete assault on that family?

We know the mastermind of this debacle.  Of course it is satan, who we despise with every fiber of being.  We have seen him in action against marriages before, but were still caught off guard when he set in his sights his evil plan for our own children and grandchildren.  We MUST teach our childen more agressive spiritual warfare, and to confront in the light, what satan would like to keep in the dark! 

What this has done to us as an extended family has been devastation...a word over-used these days, but the only one that rolls off my fingers at the keyboard.  We've known physical devastation, and this, this is devastation of people, up close and personal.  I have known friends whose children have gone through divorce, and many of them say, 'oh, you just have to let them do what they are going to do, and stay out of it'....but no one has ever been able to tell me just how to do that.

Do you just ignore it?  How?  Do you just keep busy?  How?  Do you just say to yourself when you see your grandchildren suffering...oh well?  How do people do that?

How do you just stand by and watch people you love self-destruct?  How do you watch them change into someone you don't even know?  Lord, You alone know how to reconcile all this damage.  You alone know how to guard the kingdom purpose and destiny of all these we love.  You.  Alone.

On this, the last few minutes of this day before we have one less family member.  Tears.  For someone we have been praying for since before she was born, who has been one of our children for so long.  Just..tears.

 

This morning, on awakening, the Lord had a few interesting words for me.  (Well, I mean are His words ever NOT interesting???  Duh...)

Knowing my medical background, and that I've never been any good at the questionable skill of denying reality, and have been carefully instructed in the skills of assessment of what I see with my natural eyes, He had a very simple instruction for me:

 
PICKING THE FRUIT

Yesterday, I had some rather unsettling experiences.  Yes, it happens to all of us now and again, even to those of  'mature' years.  Sometimes, in those happenstances, just for a moment (or two) mind you, I want to have what is known around these parts as a good old "hissyfit".  I know, I know..those are best relegated to the second year of life and occasionally to pms-days (thankfully long gone for me!!).  Honestly I work hard at being a low(ish) maintenance woman, I do.  But there are those instances, when you just feel the need to express it, hissyfit style.