He Knows Our Future

This has always been one of my very fave Old Testament Scriptures from that major prophet known as "the weeping prophet" and who has the most words (highest word count) in the book he was inspired by God to write.  (Jeremiah)

One reason I love this Scripture is because once we know God as our Father, Savior, Redeemer...whatever adjective you  connect with....we can begin to trust Him.  We can have confidence in the plans He has for us:

 

Not only can we have confidence in the plans He has for us, but we can have confidence in our future.  Of course He doesn't typically reveal the  future to us, anymore than a psychic can reveal the future to us. But with a psychic, one pays money to have their palm read or whatever they do (I've never gone as I believe it's a form of witchcraft and being a Christ follower I refuse to open up my soul to that), and they are almost always wrong. No human can predict the future accurately! Only God knows our futures....and knowing God's will for us, is free!! 

Sometimes He reveals something to us in preparation for our future, though.  I have many example of this. 

 For instance, in the summer of 1977, when I was 17 and about to enter my senior year of high school, I was dating a boy named David who was 2 years younger than me. He was my sister Joy's age and we were all in youth group together. I was practicing piano in the sanctuary of our little Free Methodist church in the central part of NYS, and David was doing homework or something. I remember I was working on my college audition music.  David had left to go to his house for something...he literally lived a half block from the church and the church was on the edge of the town park so we always cut through the park  to his porch. I was alone in the sanctuary.....a relatively new Christian as I had given my heart to Jesus the summer of 1975 at age 15. But some major crap happened just 4 days after I became a Christian (I won't go into it here) and let's just say I was holding God at  arm's length.  I loved Jesus and totally embraced Him as my Savior Redeemer. But seeing God as Father  and not judge was a whole lot more difficult for me at that time in my life.  

Anyways, I was alone in the sanctuary with the ceiling fans on and all of a sudden I heard this still small Voice....it wasn't an audible Voice.....rather, it was a fleeting thought that said "you're going to marry a man named David". 

Now, blogging friends, let me tell you:  I had no desire to be married any time soon.  I was only 17, was going to an awesome Christian college the next year and hopefully would be a piano major/Music Ed major if I passed my audition.  I had plans!  NO WAY did I want to get married before I was 30. No way.  I kind of laughed and thought, "well the current David is practically like a brother to me, and there's no way I am going to marry him".  Funny thing is, my very first boyfriend in 8th grade (my parents would only let me group date when I was 14) was named David. No way would I have wanted to marry him either. 

So....the weird fleeting words I "heard" in my spirit just sorta floated right by me.  But I did tell an older friend of mine named Carol and she, being an older Christian and someone I really admired, told me if it was really God, then it would come to pass. 

I never really thought about it again.  I dated a guy named Javier on and off my first year of college.  My 2nd year of college I had a couple of dates with a guy named Steve and another guy named Brian. They were both older music majors and super nice guys but just for casual dating.  In my junior year until half-way through my last year of college, I dated a guy named Steven. Again, just casual boyfriend...we knew we weren't serious.  

Fast forward to 1988 and I meet a wonderful young man, a grad student, in a city church I was attending.  I had finished grad school, was settled in the Albany, NY area and teaching full time as a Master teacher of special needs prek children in inner city Albany. I loved life. Spiritually, I was growing a bit by attending a very good small group and getting to know other single people in that church.  The grad student I met??  Dave.  My now husband. 

We got engaged in 1989 and I remembered what God said.  I told Dave.  He said it was definitely God preparing me for the future. 

The cool thing?  I always wondered if I  would actually get married.  As a childhood sexual abuse survivor I didn't think I   "deserved" marriage (those feelings are a whole other, deeper topic I won't go into here right now). 

But God knew.  God knew who I was going to marry before I even desired it. 

The confidence I gained from knowing God did indeed have a plan for me is what helped me get through my lonely late 20s.   

How old was I when I got married?  Six months into being 30 years old.  God even gave me the desire of my heart.

What are you trying to trust God with?

Give it to Him in prayer and know you can have the confidence to trust Him with your future. 

 

Sunday Stealin' Word Association

Time for Sunday Stealin' Meme

This week we're playing word association as suggested by a blogger named Dawn Camp. She said these words "tickled her fancy," and let's see if they inspire you. Feel free to answer with either a single word or a thought/memory. It's up to you.

Word Association. Share what comes to mind when you hear the word ...

1. Biscuit:     children's book

2. Crayon:    coloring

3. Warmth:    fire

4. Flip:        flop

5. Slush:    March

6. Wing:    eagle

7. Candle:    light

8. Cinnamon:    cozy

First words that came to my mind when I saw this list. 

How many of you are familiar with the preschool/preKindergarten books Biscuit the puppy?  My girls owned several and I used them in my language arts circle lesson with my special preK students. 

HAPPY SUNDAY!

Mid-February Faves

 

It's Friday again!  This week, although a bit drab weather wise, really flew by.  I'm here to share FIVE of the blessings that top my list...Susanne from this blog is our host and she calls our blessings the FAVE FIVE.  Do you have five things from your week that made you say, Thank You, God or made you smile? 

Pancake Combo: 2 blueberry pancakes with real maple syrup
2 scrambled eggs, 2 slices turkey bacon, coffee, water

• VALENTINE'S DAY:  Dave asked me what I wanted to do on Valentine's Day and I chose breakfast out at International House of Pancakes, aka I-Hop in the town to the north of us.  We had a huge breakfast of carbs and protein.  The pancakes were delicious, the scrambled eggs were ok, and the turkey bacon was ick. (i only ate a half slice...I think because I'm so used to tempah "bacon" now, I just didn't care for the turkey bacon.  I stopped eating pork products in 2015). After breakfast we ran a quick errand and then took my car through the car wash.I hadn't washed my car all winter as it's been too cold. We were so full we didn't eat for the rest of the day other than some fruit and cheese as an afternoon snack.  We watched a rom com on Disney + which was a fun storyline but sadly too raunchy with the language. So we made hot fudge sundaes with oat milk mocha fudge ice cream, mint chocolate chip coconut milk ice cream, hot fudge, blueberries, walnuts, cherries and Dave added Cool Whip to his. That was our dinner. We totally splurged on junk food but hey....at least there was no animal fat! 😃  I'm thankful we had a fun Valentine's Day and I'm thankful we don't usually eat like that! 

image courtesy of B*ston Gl*be online
Alisa Liu, American who took Gold for first time since 2002!

• WOMEN'S FIGURE SKATING:  For a few days this past week, I had time to watch the live performances of the women's short program and free skate, as well as the pairs skate.  I feel like the Asian skating athletes are doing now for the Olympics what the Russians did back about 20 years ago.  My ballerina daughter and I always preferred the more ballet-esque Russian figure skaters to the American ones.But... I was thrilled to see that our American girl made Gold and that my two fave Japanese skaters took the silver and bronze. I'm thankful we can watch the Olympics on television and that I was able to see it "live" since I was free those afternoons. 

Meatless Monday 

healthy version Taco Casserole

• DELICIOUS DINNER:  Mondays are almost always meatless for my husband and I for dinner. He works from home on Mondays and Fridays and he had come downstairs asking what I was making for dinner. I think he was hoping it wasn't yet another tofu grain bowl 😏.  It wasn't!  I had discovered a recipe from my friend Deb's blog and decided to tweak it to make it more plant-based friendly.  The original recipe calls for ground beef (I haven't had beef since 2014) and 2 cups of cheese.  I tweaked it to be plant-based "beef" (Beyond Meat), chopped red, green and yellow peppers plus the onions and diced tomatoes.  And I only used one cup of shredded cheddar and made the recipe a bit smaller in an 11x9 inch pan so that I wasn't using an entire bag of Fritos. I chopped scallions for a topping and had them in a side bowl as I wasn't sure if Dave would want them for his top. I was thankful I had all the ingredients on hand to whip up this amazing easy casserole dinner.  Paired with a tossed salad it was perfect and look at all the leftovers we have for Friday evening's meal!

• OUTDOOR WALKS/PILATES/POWER FOODS:  I had two days this week of really good Pilates workouts followed by power walks on the town park bike path before mid-day. I'm not a huge lunch person, meaning I usually just grab fruit, cheese or hummus and maybe whole grain crackers or a piece of Naan.  But most days this week, I had hummus on naan with fresh veggies, a mandarin orange and some cheese.  I'm trying to wean myself off from eating cheese and it's hard!  It's the only dairy I eat and I'd like to just stop like youngest girl did but I'm rather addicted to it.  At any rate, I just had 2 slices so that's a plus! I'm thankful for good, healthy habits and for a good pilates program I finally found on You Tube! 

• LUNCH DATE:  My friend C and I finally had time to do lunch together. I hadn't seen her in 2 years! I had her over and we did chicken salad on a croissant plus fruit salad.  She brought some delicious mini muffins she made that were all plant-based and made with bananas, cocoa, honey.  No flour or sugar.  They were delicious.  We each had one and saved one for Dave. I was so thankful we could finally get together, get caught up and share our prayer needs and what God was doing in our families, etc. We were so busy chatting that we didn't even have our phones out to take pics! 

That wraps up some faves for the past week.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! 

Wednesday HodgePodge

a place where I go to pray and meditate
trail at Fox Preserve 

I liked today's "hodgepodge" questions so decided to participate before I head over to the bike path to do my daily power walking. It's grey and dreary but walking outdoors is preferable to yet another indoor work out video. 

Head to this blog, the host of the Wednesday HodgePodge meme to join in. 

1. The Hodgepodge lands on Ash Wednesday, which is the first day of Lent. Do you mark this season in some way? Will you be giving something up or adding something to your life in this Lenten season? 

I was raised in a Free Methodist church where we didn't celebrate Lent like the Catholics do, but it was a time to reflect on Jesus and the Good News which led to knowing the Redemption Story.  As an adult, I've gone on mini-fasts during this time...usually from things that sap me mentally and emotionally/spiritually such as social media, the national news, etc. I tend to really dig into a Scripture study based either in the Gospels or one of the minor prophets leading up to Good Friday. This year I'm doing a different Psalm each day of Lent to meditate on or journal about. 

2. Pancakes...are you a fan? Syrup or no syrup? Plain, blueberries, chocolate chips, bananas, or some other add in? Are pancakes on your menu this week? 

Pancakes once in awhile are ok. Not something I eat daily or weekly. We did go get the pancake combo at International House of Pancakes for Valentine's Day.  I love real maple syrup either ours here in NYS or Vermont. I prefer either raspberry or blueberry pancakes.  My father in law used to make the best blueberry pancakes for us adults and chocolate chip pancakes for the grandchildren. My girls loved going to the beach house as that's where they'd get the chocolate chip pancakes. 

3. Tell us about a time recently when you felt 'spread too thin'. 

I haven't felt that way since December. Almost every December (yes even with now being retired from teaching), I feel "spread too thin", although this year was better than last year as we said no to a couple of events.  

4. What's your favorite jewel or gemstone? In terms of your wardrobe would we find more gem tones, pastels, black and white, or primary colors? 

I love jade. I also love my diamond engagement ring. 

I'm a NYer so we have a lot of black and white and classic colors. (navy, hunter green, cream). I don't often do pastels......if I do, it's usually a shade of blue or green. Most of my clothing that isn't the bohemian patterns in rich gem tone colors are black, white, cream, grey. I tend to dress either bohemian style or preppy. 

5. What responsibility do you think is hardest about being in charge? 

Trying to please everyone. (you can't). Also getting people to actually follow the guidelines (I'm thinking of my hiking group I lead) and finding someone to back you up in major decisions. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I'm so over Winter. I'm very ready for Spring and getting back to this: 

on the summit of Mt VanHoevenberg
This mountain is located in the town where
the bobsleds used in the Olympics are made!
High Peaks, Adirondack Mountains
l-r: me, Celine, Evelyn, Joan....
 some of my hiking tribe

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!