I got this e-mail from a friend. It reflects some stats of weekly food expenditure in some random countries. What is the first thing that comes to mind as soon as you finish reading it?
Germany: The Melander family of Bargteheide. Food expenditure for one week: 375.39 Euros or $500.07
United States: The Revis family of North Carolina. Food expenditure for one week $341.98
Italy: The Manzo family of Sicily Food expenditure for one week: 214.36 Euros or $260.11
Mexico: The Casales family of Cuernavaca. Food expenditure for one week: 1,862.78 Mexican Pesos or $189.09
Poland: The Sobczynscy family of Konstancin-Jeziorna. Food expenditure for one week: 582.48 Zlotys or $151.27
Egypt: The Ahmed family of Cairo. Food expenditure for one week: 387.85 Egyptian Pounds or $68.53
Ecuador: The Ayme family of Tingo. Food expenditure for one week: $31.55
Bhutan: The Namgay family of Shingkhey Village. Food expenditure for one week: 224.93 ngultrum or $5.03
Chad: The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp. Food expenditure for one week: 685 CFA Francs or $1.23
February 18, 2008
February 15, 2008
Déjà Vu
It was cold a few nights ago. The tip of my little nose turned red as I walked from my car to the door. So, I decided to stay in. Changed in some comfy clothes and started to cook dinner. Yes, I can cook:). It turned out to be a night of my favorite things. Puccini was playing in the background, grabbed my cup of green tea (decaff of course). Don’t you just love antioxidants! I like to drink out of this one cup. It has a deep orange color with black interwoven lines and dots. It makes me feel all cozy, don’t know why.
I started reading some old journal entries. I am talking the good old days. I love writing because it helps me unwind and download my brain. I have discovered a lot about Jesus and myself through my own ramblings. Yes, I like to think about Him because I love Him. And over the years it has become “our special” treat. I can hear Him more clearly or loudly I should say when I write to Him. And the beauty of it all is that He writes back to me, not on paper but on my heart.
Some of the entries were long and detailed. Yes, you could say I was going in circles. So, I had to get another cup of tea. Others were short: “Dear God, I want to talk to you but I have to go. I am already running late. I promise I will write when I get back. I love you!” I wonder whether God grabbed a cup of green tea when He was reading the long entries:) I know He was smiling and shaking His head when He was reading the short ones. Probably saying: “Child of mine, what am I going to do with you”.
The timer went off. I realized my rosemary chicken & roasted potatoes were done.I love rosemary. And it smelled delicious, almost like mom’s. I was thinking about what I had read on my journals. I found a common theme. God makes NO mistakes! Today is His will for my life. It was like my heart caught up with my mind and voilà, déjà vu! God, very carefully, had orchestrated everything for His purposes and glory. I saw traces of His protection. Everything I was denied from Him in those entries was for my protection and discipline. He gave them back to me. And after He did, I didn't see my "want" anymore, only His radiant glory. Each time His blessings were better, fuller, more abundant than I ever dreamed. I saw how He longed to bless me if I only let Him. And that brought me to tears.
As I was eating my dinner, my soul feasted on the reality that my God makes NO mistakes! That satisfied my soul like no granted “want” ever could! I have tried other places, but the only place my soul finds rest is in His Will alone. My dear reader, if you were denied something you wanted, I pray that you would be excited and full of anticipation, just like a child at Christmas morning. I know that unwrapped gift will be PERFECT, because it will be His Will!
Live by faith not by sight. All God's promises are "Yes" in Christ!
Love you all deeply!
I started reading some old journal entries. I am talking the good old days. I love writing because it helps me unwind and download my brain. I have discovered a lot about Jesus and myself through my own ramblings. Yes, I like to think about Him because I love Him. And over the years it has become “our special” treat. I can hear Him more clearly or loudly I should say when I write to Him. And the beauty of it all is that He writes back to me, not on paper but on my heart.
Some of the entries were long and detailed. Yes, you could say I was going in circles. So, I had to get another cup of tea. Others were short: “Dear God, I want to talk to you but I have to go. I am already running late. I promise I will write when I get back. I love you!” I wonder whether God grabbed a cup of green tea when He was reading the long entries:) I know He was smiling and shaking His head when He was reading the short ones. Probably saying: “Child of mine, what am I going to do with you”.
The timer went off. I realized my rosemary chicken & roasted potatoes were done.I love rosemary. And it smelled delicious, almost like mom’s. I was thinking about what I had read on my journals. I found a common theme. God makes NO mistakes! Today is His will for my life. It was like my heart caught up with my mind and voilà, déjà vu! God, very carefully, had orchestrated everything for His purposes and glory. I saw traces of His protection. Everything I was denied from Him in those entries was for my protection and discipline. He gave them back to me. And after He did, I didn't see my "want" anymore, only His radiant glory. Each time His blessings were better, fuller, more abundant than I ever dreamed. I saw how He longed to bless me if I only let Him. And that brought me to tears.
As I was eating my dinner, my soul feasted on the reality that my God makes NO mistakes! That satisfied my soul like no granted “want” ever could! I have tried other places, but the only place my soul finds rest is in His Will alone. My dear reader, if you were denied something you wanted, I pray that you would be excited and full of anticipation, just like a child at Christmas morning. I know that unwrapped gift will be PERFECT, because it will be His Will!
Live by faith not by sight. All God's promises are "Yes" in Christ!
Love you all deeply!
January 27, 2008
A Real Story
As you all know I love nothing more than "real stories". Here is the latest "real story" from Shawn McDonald. I share his passion for coffee, or I should say the smell of coffee. I produce caffeine naturally:). I used to make coffee in the mornings just for the smell of it. I don't anymore, but I still love the smell of freshly roasted coffee beans. I wish someone would bottle it in a parfume bottle along with newborn baby smell. Heaven on earth!!!!
I pray that your answer to the question would resonate with your heart and soul. And if not, I pray that you'd start talking to Jesus about it. Love you all deeply!!
Decaf or Regular?
That is the question. Maybe you hate coffee and would say neither. I love coffee so this is something I would think about. I love going to a coffee shop and crawling up in a soft chair, having a cup of joe, while reading a good book. I love this and would consider this as time well spent. I love drinking coffee. I would say my love started in college when I was tired and needed a pick me up and so I would get a good cup of coffee to help me fight my ever so sleepy mind. And well it quite never has gone away. I worked as a barista for about 6 years of my life, even worked at a roaster for a while. I would say those were some of my favorite jobs. I love getting to know about coffee and where is came from. I now roast my own coffee in the quite of my home. Maybe it is the love of it or the fact of saying I roast my own, or what ever but I do and love it never the less.Now I write about this cause as I have been thinking about it, but feel God has taken it further in my mind. To say, am I “decaf or regular”?
Let me explain.You hear stories all the time about how something was suppose to be organic or healthy but then some one questioned it, did the research and found it to be not true. Maybe it was a friend or family member of yours that was claiming to not be something, but in that claim you found out that what they were claiming to be was the very thing they weren’t. Maybe even in your self you desire to be something, but have come to the knowledge that you aren’t what you so want to say you are. Maybe you have even said you were that. Today I watched and elderly couple order coffee and when receiving it they looked at the side of the cup and saw it said decaf, and then went on there marry little way. Trusting that it was. Now the barista could have played a cruel joke and wrote decaf but instead they could have put in regular and sent this happy little Elderly couple on a caffeine rush of their lives. Maybe even put it in on accident. Either way the couple would have received something they didn’t order.
Have you ever received something you didn’t order? I know I have. I have gone to taco bell before, ordered a chicken taco and received beef. Yuck beef, come on I ordered chicken. It makes you angry and rightly so because you paid for one thing and got something totally different. But that is life. Sometimes we get things we didn’t order. Sometimes we give things that weren’t ordered from us. And so goes the story of imperfection. So let me now take this back to decaf or regular. Sometimes I claim to be decaf but in reality I am regular or vise versa. Sometimes what I give to people is not who I am. God has been unraveling this truth about my self. Do your insides match your out sides? Sometimes we think we have it all together but in reality we have nothing together. I guess what I am trying to say is that I have lived in false places and thought It was alright to live there cause no one really knew the truth about me, and as long as they believed differently, then it was alright. The beauty of God is that He sees right threw us and that He loves us enough to call our bluff. But not only calling our bluff, but also helping walk out of it to truly be what we claim to be. To truly be healed.
I am taking time off from music not just because I want to spend time with my family, but more so that God has called me out of a bluff. Out of a life I was claiming was decaf but in reality it was regular. I don’t know that I will ever come back to music being that it is a hard life to live and be healthy. It just is. I just know that I can’t lead people out of what I myself haven’t been lead out of, and in so say I am taking time to truly find the life God has called me to. To truly find my heart and to one day be able to come back and say that what I am is TRULY what I am. I don’t feel the need to go into great details about this but I hope that there will be a place and time for that. I do love what I do and love to make music. It is one of my greatest passions and I hope that God continues to create in me, a new song. I claim to love God! There is no way around it, therefore I must do what it takes to make sure that my heart is real, that my love is real. And not just something I speak. One of the greatest tragedies of life is that we claim with our mouths one thing, but our lives prove something entirely different. Walk with me as I am choosing to follow Jesus and make my life match His. I am just a man, who deserves nothing but death. But the beauty is that there is one worthy to be followed. His life matched his actions and gave us hope for something truer than our self.
Follow Jesus with me.
By Shawn McDonald
I pray that your answer to the question would resonate with your heart and soul. And if not, I pray that you'd start talking to Jesus about it. Love you all deeply!!
Decaf or Regular?
That is the question. Maybe you hate coffee and would say neither. I love coffee so this is something I would think about. I love going to a coffee shop and crawling up in a soft chair, having a cup of joe, while reading a good book. I love this and would consider this as time well spent. I love drinking coffee. I would say my love started in college when I was tired and needed a pick me up and so I would get a good cup of coffee to help me fight my ever so sleepy mind. And well it quite never has gone away. I worked as a barista for about 6 years of my life, even worked at a roaster for a while. I would say those were some of my favorite jobs. I love getting to know about coffee and where is came from. I now roast my own coffee in the quite of my home. Maybe it is the love of it or the fact of saying I roast my own, or what ever but I do and love it never the less.Now I write about this cause as I have been thinking about it, but feel God has taken it further in my mind. To say, am I “decaf or regular”?
Let me explain.You hear stories all the time about how something was suppose to be organic or healthy but then some one questioned it, did the research and found it to be not true. Maybe it was a friend or family member of yours that was claiming to not be something, but in that claim you found out that what they were claiming to be was the very thing they weren’t. Maybe even in your self you desire to be something, but have come to the knowledge that you aren’t what you so want to say you are. Maybe you have even said you were that. Today I watched and elderly couple order coffee and when receiving it they looked at the side of the cup and saw it said decaf, and then went on there marry little way. Trusting that it was. Now the barista could have played a cruel joke and wrote decaf but instead they could have put in regular and sent this happy little Elderly couple on a caffeine rush of their lives. Maybe even put it in on accident. Either way the couple would have received something they didn’t order.
Have you ever received something you didn’t order? I know I have. I have gone to taco bell before, ordered a chicken taco and received beef. Yuck beef, come on I ordered chicken. It makes you angry and rightly so because you paid for one thing and got something totally different. But that is life. Sometimes we get things we didn’t order. Sometimes we give things that weren’t ordered from us. And so goes the story of imperfection. So let me now take this back to decaf or regular. Sometimes I claim to be decaf but in reality I am regular or vise versa. Sometimes what I give to people is not who I am. God has been unraveling this truth about my self. Do your insides match your out sides? Sometimes we think we have it all together but in reality we have nothing together. I guess what I am trying to say is that I have lived in false places and thought It was alright to live there cause no one really knew the truth about me, and as long as they believed differently, then it was alright. The beauty of God is that He sees right threw us and that He loves us enough to call our bluff. But not only calling our bluff, but also helping walk out of it to truly be what we claim to be. To truly be healed.
I am taking time off from music not just because I want to spend time with my family, but more so that God has called me out of a bluff. Out of a life I was claiming was decaf but in reality it was regular. I don’t know that I will ever come back to music being that it is a hard life to live and be healthy. It just is. I just know that I can’t lead people out of what I myself haven’t been lead out of, and in so say I am taking time to truly find the life God has called me to. To truly find my heart and to one day be able to come back and say that what I am is TRULY what I am. I don’t feel the need to go into great details about this but I hope that there will be a place and time for that. I do love what I do and love to make music. It is one of my greatest passions and I hope that God continues to create in me, a new song. I claim to love God! There is no way around it, therefore I must do what it takes to make sure that my heart is real, that my love is real. And not just something I speak. One of the greatest tragedies of life is that we claim with our mouths one thing, but our lives prove something entirely different. Walk with me as I am choosing to follow Jesus and make my life match His. I am just a man, who deserves nothing but death. But the beauty is that there is one worthy to be followed. His life matched his actions and gave us hope for something truer than our self.
Follow Jesus with me.
By Shawn McDonald
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