Yesterday I mentioned that for a great summer dessert recipe you should go to my God Spot blog. Here what the recipe looks like.
It was finger-licking good.
I made the dessert to serve to some women who were coming over to play cards.
If you've read some of my past blogs you'll know I belong to a club called First Tea @ Five. It's quite an exclusive club, and the cost of membership is extremely high. Not one person is standing in line excitedly waiting to be admitted; because inorder to qualify as a member you must give up something you love more than life itself. Yet in 3 years the membership has tripled.
Its a club where widowed women meet and share how God is reinventing their lives.
I had no idea when I went to Florida searching for purpose that God had something like this group in mind. And yet in hindsight I can see how he had been grooming me for years to take on this responsibility.
In the song "Hold On" tells us God will find us at just the right time. Whether he finds you at the bottom of a bottle or at the bridges highest edge, he will meet you and he will speak to your heart.
The story of my need for God didn't begin with the sudden death of my husband, I realized in time my heart would mend.
I didn't feel the intense need for God when my unmarried daughter made the announcement that she was expecting my first grandchild, nor even the 4 am phone call to bail my son out of a neighboring county jail.
Instead of seeking God and taking his yoke upon my shoulders to help me carry the load I blamed him for my husbands death while I swore at my husband outloud for leaving me alone to shoulder the burden of two wayward children.
If those things didn't push me into the arms of my Savior, then surely it had to be my diagnosis of stage 3B Hodgkins Lymphoma. Nope not even that, for death seemed welcoming to a still grieving widow who felt she had nothing better to give the world.
No, for me it took falling in love with a man who didn't share my same feelings, that found me turning to the Lord in desperation. I was at the bottom and unable to make something I wanted so badly come to fruition.
I have a feeling I had DESPERATE written all over me. Everyone was offering unwanted advice.
I hate the kind of advice people give you when you're single.
One of my favorites was "you'll never find anyone who can measure up to Ed." I wondered if they really believed Ed was that perfect or if they thought he was the only one who could put up with someone like me!
One of the most frustrating was and still is " You'll find someone as soon as you quit trying"
Hellllooo.... has anyone ever tried to make themselves quit looking? As soon as you quit looking, you start looking around to see if anyone has noticed that you've quit looking. That's like saying "Don't think, let your mind go blank."
It was in one of those "Be patient" moments God kept referring to, where the idea of First Tea @ Five came about.
How does one be patient when your heart is lonely and seeking connection? For me it meant keeping busy with people. Even hard physical labor allowed my mind have a heyday. But I found that time spent with people, not sitting around gossiping, but having fun together, keeps my mind off me and put it on us.
It was revelations like this that finally allowed God to speak to my heart through 1Timothy 5:11-16, “As for younger widows, do not put them on such a list. For when their sensual desires overcome their dedication to Christ, they want to marry. Thus they bring judgment on themselves, because they have broken their first pledge. Besides they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house. And not only do they become idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things they ought not to. So I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes, and to give the enemy no opportunity for slander. Some have in fact already turned away to follow Satan. “If any woman who is a believer has widows in her family she should help them and not let the church be burdened with them, so that the church can help those widows who are really in need.”
I felt a chill around my shoulders as I read, and I felt as though God had opened his word and pointed his finger down hard on that scripture as if to say “Here is what you’ve been asking for. This is my purpose for your life!” Thus began First Tea (1 Timothy) @ Five (chapter 5).
Last night 4 of us from the group got together at my house to play Euchre.
AC brought a bottle of wine someone (me) gave her at Christmas time. BB brought her famous kettle corn and DM brought cucumbers from her garden.
We've all been so busy doing life that we didn't realize how much we needed to take time out of our busyness and get together to laugh. Believe me we laughed and laughed and laughed. One sip (seriously I mean one little sip) of the wine made BB and DM break into hot flashes. There was a beautiful warm breeze blowing in from the patio but I had to turn my a/c to full blast to cool these two off. That's the last time I buy cheap wine for a friend. Maybe it's only supposed to be consumed in cold weather since its called Winter White.
But anyway last night proved we aren't this:
But rather this:
WOMEN LAUGHING AT LIFE & LOVING THE LIFE GOD SO RICHLY BLESSES
