Ladies, Ladies…All the Ladies!!

Ya’ll there just ain’t something right about a “fat free hot dog.”  I’m sorry.  I’ve boiled it, microwaved it, baked it…Chris grilled it… and the thing doesn’t change color or consistency.  Chris said the only thing that it did on the grill was when he left one on there too long it formed this enormous bubble that never really popped… it just sort of went away when he took it off.  Hmmm…. now, somethin’ ain’t right about that.  Nonetheless… I’ve been eating these tasteless little weenies….I probably would do better by stuffing paper in my hot dog bun and dousing the thing with ketchup, mustard and relish… would be less calories… probably same taste.  Perhaps one day when the kids are all grown and I have too much time on my hands I might actually try that experiment… well… maybe I’ll subject my husband to it… He’s my tester.  I ALWAYS have him taste things in the fridge to make sure they are still good… the man would die for me… AND he’d gladly go down drinking some sour milk if needed.  When Will had to be put on Miralax, I was so worried that it would cramp his stomach that I asked Chris to take a double dose…and of course, he obliged…(however… I will never do that again… not going into any details… but….gross.)

Anyway.. don’t really know how I got on that tangent except for the fact that these fat free hot dogs have me thinking……..and here is what I’m thinking………

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.  2 Corinthians 4:7-10

I’ve grown up listening to the words of this verse… loving the band “Jars of Clay”….but I’ve never really sat down and read it…esp. as a mother.  I am hard pressed… I’m tired…I’m perplexed..esp. when my children are sick… or I don’t understand why they are acting as they are….but I am not abandoned…though at times I’m lonely… I am not destroyed.. though at times I feel undone.  I “ALWAYS carry around in [my] body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed…”  PRAISE THE LORD!  It is finished.  We are a done deal as we place our hope and faith in Jesus Christ..our Savior.  I would NEVER in my WILDEST dreams have thought that the Lord would teach me something from His word through a fat free hot dog!  But I suppose today… that’s what I want to be like.  Something that remains the same under ALL circumstances…perhaps the secret ingredient in those things is Jesus, himself.. (soooo jk!)….. Anyway… all joking aside… the Lord has placed on my heart a desire to  live for Him… no regards to the cost…I wrote this little poem as I was eating my hotdog.  I pray this encourages you today. 

I am not crushed

am not abandoned

may feel persecuted

but loved beyond imagined

I am not destroyed

am not despaired

may be perplexed

but never left there

 Oh sweet and precious Savior

as you hung upon the cross

you held the nails within your hands

you stayed as sin for the lost

Oh sweet and precious Jesus

place those hands upon my life

hammer and shape, mold and scrape

’til I take the form of Christ

–Jenny Pruitt