In the back of the book she listed some of her favorite recipes. Sunday I made my first Pioneer Woman's recipe, the Chicken Spaghetti. It is said to “soothes the soul…and warms a cowboy”. It was only a 50/50 hit at our house, I suppose because I was missing seasoned salt, cayenne pepper and a cowboy. She did say the key was seasoning it adequately, which I guess I did not accomplish. The kids tried it, but said, “it don’t taste good”. I couldn’t pry anything out past that description. I guess they will not ever be paid food critics.
On the other taste bud, Darryl and I loved it. As mentioned, I didn’t follow the recipe to a T. Since I didn’t have seasoned salt and cayenne pepper so I used Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb and Lemon Pepper instead, then I forgot to use the reserved 2 cups of broth from the chicken until the end. You are supposed to mix it in with all the ingredients, but I missed that, so instead I poured about 1 cup over the top after I had already topped it with cheese. I also choose to use the fat free version of the cream of mushroom soup and chicken breast instead of the cut-up fyer.
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| Cut up Chicken Breast, yum-o! |
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| This is where I forgot to add the 2 cups of reserved broth |
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| This is the point I remembered the broth, so I poured only one cup on top. |
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| Final product!! Doesn't it look FAB-U-LOS-US!? |
I wanted to do an activity with the girls that would get them up and moving since we had just sat through the PM service. I know when you think about prayer you probably think about either corporate or personal prayer time. Most believers participate in corporate prayer time but not really personal prayer time, so we looked at that. Why is that? We also looked at why we should discipline ourselves in personal prayer time. I know a lot of times prayer is only viewed as something to do when you are in a fix, when you need something, but prayer is much more than us and meeting our needs. Sure our Father wants to give us the desires of our heart according to His will and we can petition for those things. Personal prayer time can also include praying for and on behalf of others, seeking wisdom and guidance, seek forgiveness, mercy and grace, to gain strength and comfort, but personal prayer time is ultimately about my relationship with God, with His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. It isn’t just repeating words or following formulas, God is looking for that heartfelt one-on-one relationship with us. Personal prayer time doesn’t come easy that is why it is one of the spiritual disciplines, it takes devotion, effort and time.
So to facilitate and bring an introduction to prayer, we did an activity. One of our girls volunteered to stand in the middle of our circle. The rest of us each held two squishy pool balls to toss to her at the same time for her to catch (12 balls in all). The only instructions on round one was that nobody could talk and that on the count of three we were all to toss them to her. End of round one, she caught one ball. My next question to her was did she have any new ideas on how to catch more balls? She did. She elected to use her shirt to catch more. On the count of three we all tossed our balls to her and she caught four! Round three, I asked those tossing the balls if they had any advice for her to try and catch more balls. They were so funny and cute. They said, FOCUS!! Another said, say a prayer! In the end she developed a plan to use a bag, lie down on the floor and ask us to aim and throw them in the bag. End of round three – she caught five! After the activity I asked her how she felt about the process of trying to catch all the balls and having never done it before and she said it was a little bit overwhelming and was able to catch more balls each time. Prayer is the same way in the beginning, it can be overwhelming and difficult, may even feel awkward, but the more we pray the more comfortable we become, personal prayer time becomes easier and we begin to reap the benefits of that discipline. The other take away lesson was to have a plan. When we fail to plan, we plan to fail. So set a time, find a quiet and uninterrupted location to spend time in prayer.
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| Round Three!! |
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| The SMILE of an answered prayer. See the guy on the hood of the vehicle? Jayden has determine he is called "Veteran", he lost a leg in battle. |
We finished up the evening discipleship class. Most all of the girls, except Syd, left together to go to their vehicles. Then Syd, Darya and I left together. Syd was parked down at the far end of our church parking lot. She said, “don’t leave without me” I assured her that I would make sure she got in her vehicle and left before I left. She did. After Syd pulled out and left another vehicle pulled into the church parking lot. A truck. The rest I am about to tell you happened so fast, but I know without a doubt my prayers for protection that evening as well as the love of my heavenly father protected Darya and I.
I thought I would wait for it to pass and then I would back out and leave. I thought it was probably a church member that rode with someone else to eat dinner and was being brought back to church, but the vehicle stopped so I proceeded to back out and leave. As I backed out and started moving forward, the truck came towards us blinding us with the headlights. Darya thought it was Darryl. I wasn’t sure, I thought it may be another church member. The driver got out of the vehicle and came towards us waving his arms. It wasn’t until he got right up on us that I could tell it was no one I knew. I had already locked my doors, I rolled my window down a little bit and he asked if the church was closed. I thought, uh – yeah, I mean it was dark there were no other cars in the parking lot the lights were out. I told him, yes it is closed. He begins to tell us that he was hoping to ask for some gas money to help him get to work tomorrow. Again I told him the church was closed. He asked if I had any money I could spare. I typically never have any cash on me. That night I had four dollars. So I turned around to reach in the backseat to grab my purse and look for the money. When I turned away he went back to his truck on the passenger side and opened the passenger door and was digging around for something. I didn’t see him leave and go over there, but Darya did. Next thing I know Darya says, “there’s another car coming in” and I looked up and that guy closed that passenger door and came back to my vehicle, I handed him the money and a gospel tract and took off. As I pulled out of the parking lot, he remained there. The vehicle that drove in and passed us was the Williams’ family. As I left I noticed that the truck was still there so I turned back in and went to the side where the Williams’ family was and told them. I didn’t know what that guy was going to do, but after I told them, Lisa saw the truck leave. I was soooo shaken up over that whole thing, thinking and wondering what would have happened to Darya and I if the Williams’ family had not shown up. Why did he go back to his truck on the passenger side? What was he getting? All those questions ran through my mind that night. It certainly was terrifying for me and I am so thankful and grateful that God put a hedge of protection around us, that the guy did not show up earlier when our teenage girls were leaving and I was still inside, so thankful that God brought the Williams’ family to the church at that appointed time and that because His eye is on the sparrow, I know He is watching over me, protecting me from harm.
“He delivers me from my enemies. You also lift me up above those who rise against me; You have delivered me from the violent man.” (Psalm 18:48)
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| If anything would have happened to us, I would have missed seeing Jayden's creation and impersonation of his new reality TV show called "Fat Biscuit" |
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