The Wise Rebuke of James

I was reading James yesterday and was struck by this:

James 5:1-6 5 Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. 2 Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. 4 Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. 5 You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. [a] 6 You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.

What a great place we can be in now, each of us who has learned/is learning/now chooses to learn how to give now will continue to give during hard times. The way we choose to love each other will bring many into relationship with Christ. The way we serve our communities and depend on God in the days ahead will bring glory to His name and bring restoration to many people in many different ways. Redemption comes out of a gift. We can give it away by modeling another pursuit than worship of the American dream.

We have been in the last days since Christ walked the earth. It is still true that if someone comes to us in need and we have with us what they need, we give it then. We don't ask them to return another day. Scripture makes this clear. Hoarding and selfishness will not preserve us in this nation. The economy is failing, businesses are closing and some communities are greatly faltering. The answer is not in politics; it is in Christ Jesus, and he says GIVE. We can only give away that which we posses. If we need more of anything,  we need only to ask Christ. Where we lack, He can give to us and then we can give it away. Hoarding reaches only ourselves, but Christ asks us to reach out.

As I passed a street with my grandfather's name on it today, I pondered the legacy he left. He was a successful business man and wise in his dealings. He loaned probably more often than anyone knows, and never with interest. He gave in secret so many times. Every now and then I hear stories, whispers that speak of a lifestyle of giving. When he suddenly passed away, in the midst of tears I associated these scriptures with his life:

Ecclesiastes 7:1 A good name is better than fine perfume, 

    and the day of death better than the day of birth. 

Ezekiel 18:7-8 

⁷ He does not oppress anyone,
    but returns what he took in pledge for a loan.
He does not commit robbery 
    but gives his food to the hungry 
    and provides clothing for the naked. 
⁸ He does not lend to them at interest
    or take a profit from them. 
He withholds his hand from doing wrong
    and judges fairly between two parties.

By many people's standards, my grandfather might have lived the American dream, yet by his lifestyle of giving- and in secret- it's clear he was not a slave to it because he didn't hoard and he wasn't selfish. He gave it away, so many times. In exchange for potatoes he was educated as a boy and went on to be successful, established and respected in his family and community. He was full of laughter, and full of gifts. He was a generous man, and example in my life, even from a distance.

My thoughts today are many, but what I am taking away is that I want God to bless me even more so that I can bless others even more- financially, practically, spiritually, with knowledge and learning and friendship. Yet whatever I have or don't have, or you have or don't have, we can all give today what we possess right now. It might be only a smile or a prayer, a hug or a sandwich or a tankful of gas. And any one of those things can change a life and bring someone into the love and embrace of God.

Being enslaved by the American dream is in conflict with sacrificing for others in a time of devastation and calamity. The American dream fails if our material wealth vanishes in a day. The American dream is a joke if we feast in the midst of a famine. But I know one thing that never fails, and that is LOVE. Love will always prefer another and care for others. Love feeds the hungry, love turns orphans into family and feeds the materially rich but spiritually destitute the Bread of Life. It's the only investment we can make that is 100% guaranteed to pay off. Being wealthy is great, and what amazing acts of mercy one can do with funds! But remember the widow with the little penny (mite). We can still give the most even when we "have" the least. It's all about the posture of our hearts. Wealth is not the enemy. Love of money is the root of all evil, not possessing money. Yet whatever we have, the key is to give all of ourselves away to God and to those in need around us.

I am heeding Jame's words of warning. Am I not even more so in the last days than when he wrote them? My prayer is that we would weep when others do, rejoice when they rejoice and give where there is need, all for the glory of God. May His name be glorified by how we live our daily lives. It will shape how we deal with adversity and prepare us to be people who bring honor to His name in any situation. The American dream can live or die, but those free from it's shackles can live in constant love in in times of plenty and in times of upheaval. Love works in any economy. Invest in it. Remember James, and grow rich in love.

Mommyhood and My Journey Into Nourishing Food: Part 1

My mind is thinking about God, babies, birth, fertility and food. Having just had a new baby 8 weeks ago, I guess that could be called normal. I pray and eat to grow babies and then I birth them. Then I get hungry when I breastfeed and I think about food- again. For some time I have wanted to share my journey into eating real food and becoming a mostly traditional eater. For me, it is all wrapped up in this thing called becoming a mom. It was my gateway to learning about how food affects our bodies and our babies. This journey has been a huge part in my answer to prayer for our family.

I will start by going backwards. In our first almost two years of marriage we had only one pregnancy, a year into it. Since then I have come to learn that it shouldn't have been that hard. A woman in optimum health should really have little trouble conceiving, unless of course there is some kind of physical issue or other medical reason. I have now read about tribes of people who knew that something was really wrong if a couple got married and didn't become pregnant in the first month or two. Well honestly, I probably don't know anyone who eats the way they did! And I also did not know that women could get pregnant that easily and quickly in an entire people group, although I had heard the term fertile Myrtle. Knowing people who were trying to get pregnant for lengthy periods, including years, was familiar to me. And I thought that Myrtle person was just a random, exceptionally fertile lady for no particular reason. At any rate, I have since learned to see things a little differently. At the time, however, I didn't see our first year as unusual. I had prayed intently for God to give us children since shortly after our wedding, as scripture tells us it is God who opens and closes the womb. In having children Christ is my constant. I always go to Him for them, because I trust He wants to show himself faithful. And so, about a year after our wedding, we had a positive test when we were out of town, in Redding, CA. Thus began a love that will never die in my heart.

Fast forward to a couple weeks later and I was in tears as my body was passing our sweet baby. We only had her (just felt she was a girl) about two months we were told. I was in denial until we were in the ER, because of heavy bleeding and cramping, and both an exterior ultrasound and a vaginal ultrasound found an empty uterus. Then I grieved because I knew it was final. I had to say goodbye. And so I did. I could have gotten mad at God but I consciously chose to worship Him for being faithful. I chose to trust that He doesn't steal from me. I chose to rejoice because it was the first time in my life I had the opportunity to offer God praise when it cost me everything. I had worshiped Christ in painful times before but nothing compared to the pain of saying an earthly goodbye to a child I will never hold in this realm. As I lay on that table in the ER, after getting mad at the doctor who said basically it was no big deal as I should be able to get pregnant again (as if I would ever have another opportunity to carry that one child!), I lifted my arms and sang to Jesus. I told Him how worthy He was. Peace like I can not explain wrapped His arms around me and put my heart into ecstasy over the love and tenderness I felt tangibly. Then we went home and cried... and peace remained though the healing process.

It has been years now and my heart is healed but sometimes I still cry. I am fine with that. I will always have a baby girl in heaven and I will always wish she was here with us, sitting next to our other daughters. We had named her as we said goodbye and I wonder what it would have been like to have her growing up next to the rest of us. I tell her that I love her from time to time, and ask Jesus to please tell her that I have not forgotten her for I never will. Yet in the midst of the grieving I really prayed all the more fervently for another child. A child that would be whole and full term, born lively and healthy. I believe it is God who gives every gift of a child, and I always run to Him for them. 

Almost a year later, we still had an empty womb. A dear friend coming to visit asked if she could share some things with us about nutrition and fertility as we had been discussing nutrition in a limited fashion over phone calls. Of course I said yes. I have a lot of respect for this friend and her advice I highly value. Her visit was incredibly enjoyable, but the nutrition conversation we had with her proved to be not only life-changing, but God's sweet answer to me in my regular prayer for children.

She said that nutrition was such a vast topic that she didn't know where to start, but that the Holy Spirit had lead her to talk to us mainly about fats and oils. And so began an initially overwhelming adventure of learning what I had never even heard before. My husband and I took notes, literally. It was so much to take in, and I think we only talked for about an hour! She recommended I read a book which I will recommend: Nina Planck's, Real Food: What To Eat and Why. It took me about a year to get around to reading it and it was an amazing, engaging and easy read. I think this book could have made learning about eating traditionally go a lot faster for me had I read it at first, as it is simple enough for anyone to get a grasp on food and what it does for us. But as it was, I learned slowly. 

My friend had given me a great starting point. I learned that our two years of regularly consuming soy products was not only harming my fertility and health but my husband's as well. We never bought tofu or soy milk again, though I do keep a traditionally fermented Soy Sauce on hand that I buy from Trader Joe's. I learned that good fats and oils, the real ones that people have been eating for thousands of years before all of these new weird ones were pushed into the food supply, actually aid fertility and help sustain a pregnancy once begun, in addition to providing much needed nutrients to the growing baby. And finding out that people's heads are supposed to be round? (In my mind's eye I am envisioning young models round faces drinking their Coca Colas when it was a new product...) Well, that was a new one on me... I thought it was just genetic. And this was before I knew the word epigenetics, but that is another topic. During this discussion I got up and trashed my huge jar of Crisco that I had always used for baking (should not be used for human consumption!), threw out my white rice, white sugar and white flour. In all these years I have only bought white sugar for making kombucha, and white flour for something I needed to make for others last year.

This is only part of my journey, but suffice it to say that after ridding my kitchen of those harmful "foods", I added into our diets the good fats and oils my friend said were great for us. I put tons of butter on my bread, freely ate cream with strawberries, etc., and began taking cod liver oil daily. Oh, and all that stuff I threw out? I simply purchased brown rice, whole wheat flour (now I grind my own) and rapadura, raw honey, stevia (husband hates that one!) or real maple syrup for sweeteners. Virgin, cold pressed coconut oil slowly joined our pantry as a regular staple. That damaging soy milk? It was in with the whole milk again, yum! And presently, since I am about real food, it has become raw whole milk for us. The result of our early changes? Within just one month we were pregnant! Thank you Jesus as He answered my prayers! Real food the way He made it was healing us. It was a missing link that has now helped to give us three beautiful girls.

There is so much more I could say as that doesn't scratch the surface of my journey. The biggest reason I want to share my journey is because I want to encourage other women who have had miscarriages, infertility, etc. that perhaps eating real food traditionally prepared may help. I am thinking particularly of Christian women, because usually we are already praying and that is the most important step. However, even in my prayers, God sent an answer in the form of my friend's wisdom. I have not stopped learning, reading, researching and reading other people's research. I recognized my friend's visit as God answering my cries to Him to be a mother with a child to hold and raise.

Before, when I was single, I had faith for people to conceive when I prayed for them. I love seeing God move and give people children! Oh, He is so good. Now, I feel like I am armed with the spiritual and the practical. There is so much I do not know, but one thing I know, is that I keep seeing people I know get pregnant with a few minor changes such as I made. And I keep reading the same type of testimonies from women all over the world who went back to the roots of eating and preparing food and found their way out of infertility, complications, etc. For those that choose to pick as time when they start trying to get pregnant, I think it can be good to spend some time building up their body with whole, traditional foods for a period of months before trying to conceive. However, for those like me who are always trying, I think it is just important to be very committed to a whole foods based, fat rich diet. Click here to see an excellent pregnancy diet that has worked for many people, even those with polysystic ovary syndrom , fertility issues, history of miscarriage, etc. It might not solve everything, but for many people, it has changed everything. God used it to change us from a couple into a family. My prayer is that someone reading this would start on a journey that gives them the children they desire. I went first to God and remained there, and eating this way, in the steps of so many for so many thousands of years, is where He lead me. And I am grateful!

I will post more later about this journey of mine into real food and kids in my arms... but for now, that's it. :)

Oh Baby!

So... I have not had time to write a thing for many reasons, one of them being that I needed to get ready to have a baby, we had the holiday season, we got sick, got well and we had our beautiful girl. Now that she is 7 weeks I am getting into a new routine rather wonderfully. I can't wait to be writing the many things I am thinking about all the time! I never got to my list I wanted to finish before the end of the year and the list has kept right on growing into 2012. At any rate, I will be back to writing sooner or later, for those who are wondering. I do love and miss writing!

Simplify Your Thanksgiving Prep! Mouthwatering Pie Tasting and Orders For San Diego Locals

Hi friends! If you love serving quality food every day (like me!) you probably really enjoy serving delicious, awesome food for special occasions as well. However, if you are short on time to make all of your own food this holiday season I have some great news. A dear friend of mine is busy cooking up the most DELICIOUS pies just in time for Thanksgiving! It is not too late to place your order. And you are also invited to her pie tasting tonight! I will warn you, the last time she sampled her pies she was taking orders left and right. There is still time to get in an order for Thanksgiving, and you can order for Christmas parties and celebrations as well. Also, if you prefer the more nutritious route, you can order your pies with home ground fresh organic flour and rapadura (completely unrefined cane sugar).

Pie Tasting

Thursday, November 17, 2011
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM

WHERE:
4679 Jeri Way
El Cajon CA 92020

Love Will Remain

Having been unusually sleep deprived the last two days (sickness mixed with two new teeth in my littlest- not a good combination!) I have noticed how much harder it has been to keep my patience with my children over small things, particularly in the morning. Well, and early afternoon when I needed a nap, didn't get one and neither did the baby get much of one. Of course I apologized to my kids, but, seriously, 2 days in a row of grumpy mom? It's definitely not nice and definitely a poor reflection of the heart of my Father God for my kids.

As I was driving after losing it at the bank parking lot (in patience and kindness of tone) with my oldest over a lost shoe and a cascading effect of inconveniences resulting from the lost time, including being late to my next appointment, I somehow, at some point chose to relax. These were things that I could not control. My spirit, words and attitude I can always control. And it had been a struggle I did not win for a while because I did not choose love, which NEVER fails. My poor three year old had told me she put the shoe in the bushes, which I did look in multiple times. I think she had just been trying to suggest places it might be, even though she did not comprehend the fact that it would not have been there if she had not put it there. And so after all of that unkindness and expecting too much from a three year old I began to relax a little. 

Eventually, after the cascading effect of setbacks and their various ramifications, I chose to choose a better attitude: LOVE. 

Appointments can come and go but children do not. They are here to stay- for not long enough- and learn to handle life by how I do. I am shaping how they respond to setbacks and difficulty. I am showing them their worth in how I choose to be patient with them in their little person sized abilities and communication. I can posses everything but if I do not posses love, or become possessed by Love, I am nothing. All I have done is nothing. All I have is nothing.

Choosing love today, finally, gave me the opportunity to be thankful that God was revealing to me an untended area of my heart that is ugly and needs to be given over to Love. I think it was once a better garden, but it's the little things that spoil it, and quickly. Keeping a garden at our home has always caused me to marvel that the unwanted, ugly and pesky plants are usually the only ones that grow quickly. The troublemakers seem to grow with no care given to them. Only constant, steady hand picking will keep the weeds out that will ruin a garden. It is the good plants that grow slowly and require nurturing, patient planning and care. God showed me that the garden of my heart has a problem area. It is his kindness to do so before I joyfully welcome the night shift with a hungry little newborn in a few months. Lack of sleep is no excuse to to abstain from the fruits of Holy Spirit and the foremost thing of love. And by the way, neither is pregnancy an excuse to cease flowing with the character and nature of God! He gave us marriage, friends, family and children as a blessing and a joy, not to rob ours. It is our own shortcomings to respond in a nature other than love.

So my prayer today is, "Lord, remove from me everything that stands in the way of love every day and in every way. I trust in your faithfulness that you will consume and burn up every evil weed that has found a home in the soil of my heart. I trust in you that Love will remain, and you will remember to complete the good work you have begun in me."

Returning to Eden

Click here to listen to one of my favorite songs about Eden. Just choose the song called “The Reward” by Jonathan Helser. And be blessed as you journey back to the place we never should have left.


So I am behind, and it feels like life as usual. BUT I don’t feel as behind as usual, and that is a triumph! About a year ago I decided to quit trying and working so hard. And guess what? I have been much more productive. Some of our best things, creations or routines come out of a place of rest. Our oldest daughter, Eden, was conceived during a season of rest for both my husband and I.

Just writing her name makes perceived images of the original Eden float through my head like airy whispers of a future time to come. These same images also sound an invitation into a present day possibility. Our errant humanity may have defiled the earth with bloodshed, selfish ambitions, greed and conceit, but Christ in us is the hope of glory. At times great masses of people have been guilty of being arrogant, overfed and unconcerned about the poor (the very things which God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for.)  I would daresay that we live in an incredibly corrupt world at present. While the very earth itself is groaning under the weight of guilt and sin, entry into Eden again is offered through Christ alone. And while the physical world and humanity is polluted by dark things, we have the invitation to walk with God in the garden again, possessing His glorious light and taking on the incorruptible mind of Christ.

Any one person can choose to respond to the call to return to Eden. No matter what may come, or what demons we find ourselves facing, I am one of those who has chosen to put on Christ. Being clothed in his nature enables me, with my many quirks, shortcomings and limitations, to enter into Eden, into the garden, once again. It makes me less of me with faults, and more like He made me to be- like Himself, the one who is LOVE. Love doesn’t fail. It is not selfish or conceited. It prefers people other than myself. I thank God for marriage and mothering! What a wonderful gift I have been given to learn to put aside selfishness and put on love.

By choosing love, peace and rest I am returning to Eden. I am returning to intimacy. I was made for intimacy with God. I was made for a garden that is not racked by weeds and drought but has been given everything that nourishes soil and human life. And so was my spirit made for this reality. I can choose to step in now, in the midst of dirty dishes that are staying dirty because I need a nap now and I am feeling a bit under the weather. I can choose to enter in even though my phone is lost, and though I have not been a good steward of all my commitments (it is wonderful learning to say no to prevent this from happening again!) and even though I really have some people to get back to that need things from me I should have gotten them a long time ago. All of this is true.

I may not be superwoman (she’s overrated and unattainable) but I am Christ’s, and in Christ ALL things are possible. In Christ I can lose my stinky nature and take on his perfection- in stages. J In Christ I can ask forgiveness of the people I have been delinquent with and thank Him a lot that I have been keeping it more simple. I might not be able to run a business right now without having child care but I can love and nurture my family, keep the house as clean as possible, take care of laundry that never ends, teach my pre-schooler, keep our 20 plus small animals and one big dog fed and alive, and sort of barely keep my garden up. Oh yes and make three meals from scratch every day. And of course I have friends I make time for too. And getting ready for our newest baby to be born… well, I have a few things to do in the next few months. I could be overwhelmed but instead I am cherishing reflecting on a key verse which helps me enter into the garden again:

"Be joyful always; pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” I Thessalonians 5:16-17

God wants you and I to live in Eden. It is His will. Paradise was His original intent. In ALL circumstances we can function in joy, prayer and thanks. Hand placed in a fallen world to reflect the glory, life and light of Christ, we can choose to make Eden our resting place, one day or one hour at a time.

10 Month Old Lisa Irwin Abducted This Morning

A baby girl, Lisa Iriwn, was abducted from her crib as she slept in her Kansas City home this morning. All appearances point to a stranger abduction, which is extremely dangerous. Please pray for her as if she were yours. Both the father and mother have reported her missing. Please pray for all those who love her and are heartbroken.

And please also use this urgent reminder to pray for the ending of the plague of pornography, abortion and violence that has found a home in our nation. Too many children pay the price for a nation who has let it's morals deteriorate. May Lisa be one of those who has a true miracle, and may God protect other children from such incomprehensible actions.

Praying for her safe return and that the US would become a safe place for our children again. Truly heartbroken.

Neighbor may have seen suspect.