This was one of the little heart-shaped cupcakes I make for Valentine’s Day. It’s pretty simple — cake decorating is not one of my talents — but my family enjoyes them. 🙂
Happy Valentine’s Day to you!
Singleness
A couple of years ago my oldest son and some of his other friends who had no girlfriends declared Valentine’s Day S. A. D. — Single Awareness Day. 🙂
I can imagine that this day can feel awkward, sad, or even painful for single people.
Some years ago my eyes were opened, so to speak, about how things can look and feel to single people in church (in general, not just in relation to Valentine’s Day) by the article “Single on Sunday Morning” by Camerin Courtney. One comment she makes is, “I think churches, in their quest to restore ‘family values’ to modern society, have simply overlooked those of us who aren’t currently in families.” I think that can be true. In discussions about this with single ladies on a couple of Christian message boards I have participated in, I’ve tried to convey that families do need help. Society does seem to be undermining the Christian concept of a family, and, even if it wasn’t, most people don’t go into marriage or parenthood knowing what it is all about (those who think they do are usually humbled very quickly. 🙂 ) Plus, “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable…” (II Timothy 3:16-17). There are passages directed to pastors, husbands, fathers, oxen-owners, etc., that may not seem to apply to me directly, but when I come to those in the Bible or hear them preached on in church, I need to try to see what God wants me to see and understand from those passages. So, too, with passages or messages about marriage and family — there are many parallels between those relationships and our relationship with God.
Yet, I can see how church can seem to be geared towards couples and families. Not long after discovering this article, our Sunday School class leader was discussing an upcoming fellowship for our class. Someone asked if they could bring children, and our leader said, “No, this event is couples-only.” I know he meant adults rather than couples, but I winced at that, especially as two single ladies in my line of vision looked at each other and smiled (and, ironically, the event was being held at the home of one of them).
I am not sure what all of the answers are, except to watch out for that kind of thing and to try to be more thoughtful and sensitive. I am sure the answer is not for single people to pull away. Another comment Camerin made in the above article was, “I think we singles have been guilty of segregating ourselves and not operating as fully-functioning parts of the body of Christ.” If you study some of the single women mentioned in the Bible — Anna, Mary Magdalene, Mary and Martha, Lydia, Dorcas — they are all active in the body of Christ, very much a part of things, serving Him and serving others.
I have known some single women who felt 100% sure that God wanted them single and were happy to be so. I’ve known some who seemed very hurt and sensitive, almost bitter about being single. And I have known some who were willing to be single if God wanted them to be but really would like to be married and tried to patiently wait on Him while sometimes battling with contentment and loneliness.
If I may share this, that’s something we all have in common no matter what our situation: we all have to deal with contentment and loneliness, just in different particulars. Even married people can feel lonely when a spouse is away, disagrees with them, or doesn’t understand them. That’s one of the things you read in almost any article or book about marriage or relationships: no one person can ever meet all of your needs all of the time or understand you fully and completely. Married or single, we need to be secure in our relationship with the Lord and in who we are in Him.
In some ways I am even hesitant to write these things for fear of a “Well, what would you know about it” reaction. I want to be encouraging, not come across as patronizing. But let me share a couple of other articles by single women. One is by the same Camerin Courtney about 6 years after the one I mentioned earlier, titled “Renegotiating My Seat in the House of God.” I had been pondering these two articles for some time already when the e-mail devotional I receive daily from Back to the Bible made up of Elisabeth Elliot’s writings delivered one titled “Singleness Is a Gift” (As I went to link to that one, I saw that Back to the Bible no longer includes the devotionals from previous days: only the current day’s devotionals are there. In searching for and trying to find a link to the article, I kept getting error messages. That’s too bad — it was a very good article!! But it was from her book On Asking God Why.) Also, I just discovered a discussion at Challies in response to the post, “A Question For the Single Folk.”
I’ve gone from Valentine’s Day to the church at large, but if I can bring us back to this day, for a moment, may I share one bit of unsolicited advice? If someone wishes you a Happy Valentine’s Day today, please don’t, as someone did to me today, respond by saying, “Happy Wednesday.” That does come acoss as bitter and feels like a slap in the face to one who only wanted to wish you well and to share a bit of love. Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to be just about romantic love.
But whatever you do today, whether you acknowledge Valentine’s Day or not, I hope you have a good day and know that you are loved. 🙂
Works-For-Me Wednesday: Refrigerator Drawer
This is an idea that just came to me, so we’ll see if it “works.” I think it will.
The bottom drawer of our refrigerator is deeper than the others. That’s where we keep lunch meats, cheeses, hot dogs, bacon, heat-and-eat breakfast sausages, etc. They were all stacked on top of each other, so you had to dig through it to find what you wanted, which was often on the bottom. Then it was a jumbled mess.
It occurred to me that I could stand all of that stuff up side by side like files in a file folder. Then you could see at a glance what you wanted. And if the lunch meats are placed right side up, then the sometimes not-quite-closed resealable bag won’t leak.
The one thing that was too big to stack like that was the packages of tortillas (we tend to keep some of those on hand for wraps, quesadillas, etc.). But I put them against the back wall of the drawer which slopes.
It looks better. And I think if I can get everyone trained to put the packages back like that instead of just tossing them in, it will be more usable and less frustrating.
Here are a couple of “before” pictures:
From the outside of the drawer:
“Before” picture of the inside of the drawer:
After:
To find some great tips or share your own with us, go to Shannon’s place at Rocks In My Dryer.
Recipe for a happy marriage
RECIPE FOR A HAPPY MARRIAGE
1 cup of consideration
2 cupfuls praise
1 reasonable budget
2 cupfuls of flattery carefully concealed
2 cupfuls milk of human kindness
1 gallon faith in God and each other
A generous dash of cooperation
3 teaspoons of pure extract of “I am sorry”
Children (more or less, to taste)
1 cup of confidence and encouragement
1 large or several small hobbies
1 cup of blindness to each others faults
1 cup of courtesy
1 small pinch of in-laws
1 cup of contentment
Flavor with frequent portions of recreation and a dash of happy memories. Stir well and remove any specks of jealousy, temper, or criticism. Sweeten well with generous portions of love and keep warm with a steady flame of devotion. Never serve with a cold shoulder or a hot tongue.
— Author Unknown
(Graphic courtesy of Antique Clipart)
Psalm Sunday: Psalm 6
I am a couple of days late with this week’s Psalm Sunday entry. I usually do these Sunday evenings after church, but this last Sunday we had a parent-teen fellowship at that time (am I getting old when I cringe at the thought of an activity that’s supposed to last until 9:30? I am usually up until way past that, but I don’t like to be out past that time). Then Monday I was preparing for a ladies’ meeting at church in the evening and got a phone call from school that they thought my son had pink eye and I needed to come and get him. I was afraid of that, but I was hoping that the redness was just due to irritation from a cold and that allergy eye drops would do the trick. After getting him, having lunch, getting to the doctor’s office, dropping off prescriptions, going to the store for more tissues and a few other things, waiting in the drive-through line at the pharmacy, deciding it was too late to make the quick-and-easy dinner I’d just bought, and making a quick swing by Arby’s, I finally got off to the ladies meeting. I was so glad the Lord led me to prepare for it earlier in the day!
But that is not what this post is about. 🙂
Psalm 6
1 O LORD, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.
2 Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I am weak: O LORD, heal me; for my bones are vexed.
3 My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O LORD, how long?
4 Return, O LORD, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies’ sake.
5 For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?
6 I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.
7 Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies.
8 Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the LORD hath heard the voice of my weeping.
9 The LORD hath heard my supplication; the LORD will receive my prayer.
10 Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: let them return and be ashamed suddenly.
Usually I like to go verse by verse though what the passage actually says before talking about what I think it means to me. But I don’t think that’s necessary this time — not because this post is late, but because the Psalm is pretty self-explanatory. David is grieving over sin and asking forgiveness, which he feels confident of having received in the last three verses.
It seems to me that throughout Christian history the pendulum has swung back and forth between an emphasis on how awful sin is and on God’s mercy and readiness to forgive. The two need to be kept in balance. Both are true, but an emphasis on one or the other can lead to distortion. The first can lead people almost to despair of being able to be forgiven, the thought that “my sin is too great for me to take it to God.” The latter can lead to a taking of sin lightly and almost thoughtless or perfunctory asking of forgiveness. But taking these two truths together, in balance, we see the magnitude and awfulness of our sin, God’s “hot displeasure” (v. 1), grieve over it as David did — and as New Testament believers we know what sin cost — the lifeblood of the Son of God, and we should never take it lightly; but we also see the great grace of our God in providing a means whereby we can be forgiven, we see the tender gaze of a Father who is slow to anger and ready to forgive and restore fellowship when we come to Him in repentance.
Something else that struck me is that David not only has confidence that God has heard and answered his prayer, but now he can face his enemies in confidence as well. When we’re burdened down with the weight of sin, we’re defeated in other areas as well, but when we have confidence that all is right between ourselves and God, that gives us renewed confidence and vigor in other areas. too.
You can read more meditations on this Psalm or share your own at Butterfly Kisses.
Quotes about love
Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired. ~Robert Frost
To do him any wrong was to beget
A kindness from him for his heart was rich-
Of such fine mould that if you sowed therein
The seed of Hate, it blossomed Charity.
– Tennyson
“The gratification of the senses soon becomes a very small part of that profound and complicated sentiment which we call Love. Love, on the contrary, is a universal thirst for a communion, not merely of the senses, but of our whole nature, intellectual, imaginative and sensitive. He who finds his antitype, enjoys a love perfect and enduring; time cannot change it, distance cannot remove it; the sympathy is complete.”
– Benjamin Disraeli 1804-1881 from “Henrietta Temple”
Lovng can cost a lot but not loving always costs more, and those who fear to love often find that want of love is an emptiness that robs the joy from life.
– Merie Shain
You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have really lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.
– Henry Drummond
Love means to love that which is unlovable; or it is no virtue at all.
– G K Chesterton
Love is a gift. You can’t buy it, you can’t find it, someone has to give it to you. Learn to be receptive of that gift.
– Kurt Langner
The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved – loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.
– Victor Hugo
Love gives itself; it is not bought.
– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get. Only with what you are expected to give … Which is everything.
– Katherine Hepburn
Never part without loving words to think of during your absence. It may be that you will not meet again in this life.
– Jean Paul Richter
We should measure affection, not like youngers by the ardour of its passion, but by its strength and constancy.
– Cicero
(Graphics courtesy of Antique Clipart)
Sometimes a Light Surprises
Sometimes a light surprises the Christian while he sings;
It is the Lord, Who rises with healing in His wings:
When comforts are declining, He grants the soul again
A season of clear shining, to cheer it after rain.
In holy contemplation we sweetly then pursue
The theme of God’s salvation, and find it ever new.
Set free from present sorrow, we cheerfully can say,
Let the unknown tomorrow bring with it what it may.
It can bring with it nothing but He will bear us through;
Who gives the lilies clothing will clothe His people, too;
Beneath the spreading heavens, no creature but is fed;
And He Who feeds the ravens will give His children bread.
Though vine nor fig tree neither their wonted fruit should bear,
Though all the field should wither, nor flocks nor herds be there;
Yet God the same abiding, His praise shall tune my voice,
For while in Him confiding, I cannot but rejoice.
This hymn on the “A Quiet Heart” CD from Soundforth was new to me, but it was written in 1779 by William Cowper. The Cyberhymnal site lists a few different MIDI portrayals of different tunes for it, but I love the lilting one from the CD — you can hear a 90 second snippet here (you have to scroll down the page a bit to see the song listings on the CD, then click on the link beside the title). One of our teen-age girls at church sang it last week as a solo and it had almost an Irish-sounding lilt to it.
I love all the Scriptural references and the joy and hope it portrays.
Hearts here and there
I love heart-shaped things. I’ve been collecting them for a long time (I hope to get pictures taken of some of them next week). With Valentine’s Day approaching, I am seeing a lot of hearts around Blogville, and wanted to share them with you. Some have directions for making them; some are just beautiful to look at.
John 3:16 Valentine (see next post below this one)
Heart pincushion with felt rose
My Country Cottage Garden — scroll down to see many beautiful stitched hearts.
More heart crafts and activities for kids
Heart garland and scalloped hearts
CD sleeves for Valentine cookies
Heart-shaped and Valentine food ideas from Pillsbury
Make a candy message heart for your blog
John 3:16 Valentine
I received this in an e-mail a few years ago. I searched the ‘net for it today and found it here at Caleb’s Country Corner Graphics, but I don’t know if it is original with that artist or not. I sent an e-mail to ask, but haven’t received an answer yet. Her site does give permission to use it, though. I thought it was a very sweet Valentine, not to mention the greatest expression of love ever.
Stray Thoughts 
