Author Archive
The Wise Thing To Do
We’re facing some icy conditions here in Texas at the moment. Extreme heat we can deal with, but ice is not our forte. Our spring semester of Bible study on the Book of Proverbs was to begin tomorrow, but we feel the wisest thing to do is to postpone it until next week. Beth will spend the week finishing the last four days of Psalms of Ascent. For our Houston girls, here’s the email we sent out just in case it didn’t get to you:
My Beloved Bible Study Sisters,
Because your lives and your safety are so valuable to us, we are convinced the only wise thing we can do with the weather forecast for Tuesday night is postpone the beginning of our January series one week. We will now launch our new series Wising Up, a topical study of the Book of Proverbs, on Tuesday evening, January 23rd. I was so looking forward to seeing you and studying God’s Word with you but I will have to wait one more week. The forecast shows a high probability of precipitation and a high temperature of only 32 degrees on Tuesday. Almost all of you reach the church via various freeway overpasses. I just can’t take the chance with your safety. Even if the weather lets up, the decision has to be irreversible because of all the personnel that must know in advance. Thank you for your understanding. I hope to see many of you on the 23rd! I’m really excited about this series! God’s Word is life and power, Sweet Sisters. Let’s keep our knees on the ground and our face in that Book. I’m crazy about you and so thankful to serve you.
In the everything Name of Jesus Christ,
Beth Moore
One last thing…Mom and I want so much for this blog to be a blessing and not become a source of frustration for those who are seeking specific answers to questions. We have a much better avenue through the Living Proof Web site’s contact page. Thank you so much! Have a happy and blessed Monday!
Five Pounds
This week I uncovered a lie that Satan has been trying to feed me. The reason I want to share it is because I think it’s a common one that he uses on women. It’s simply that “You’re too far-gone.”
As you probably know by now, I had a baby last February. The Lord blessed me with the ability to lose the weight by last summer. I went to aerobics twice a week and did a lot of swinging, bouncing, and carrying my hefty little boy in my arms. I felt great. Then at the end of September my favorite step aerobics instructor left my gym and was replaced by someone else. I was really bummed and didn’t want to go anymore. On top of that, Jackson began sitting up and crawling around that time and he didn’t require as much swinging, bouncing, and carrying. I should also add that my husband and I are far from being healthy eaters. So by Christmas I had invited 5 pounds back into my life. It was not a welcome guest.
So I asked myself, “Do I fight for my figure or just accept that I’m going to be heavier now than before?” Well, I didn’t want to accept it, but I felt so bad about it that I almost couldn’t do anything. Except enjoy more french fries. I could sense the enemy trying to convince me that it was too late and I was too far-gone to get back in shape. Looking back now…are you kidding me? After 5 pounds? Yes, he was kidding me. And it was a cruel joke.
As soon as we got back home from our vacation, Curt and I bought some Lean Cuisine meals to resort to whenever we knew we weren’t going to cook. McDonald’s has always been our back up. We’ve only been home a week and I can already see a difference. (I know. We ate there a lot.) I went to my aerobics class twice this week and realized I didn’t mind the new instructor that much. And I am not too far gone! And I can still do it! And it actually makes me feel really good – mentally and physically – to exercise! The flaming arrows are not sinking in anymore.
Ladies, Satan is such a liar. If he’s telling you that you can’t do something, that you’re too far-gone, or that it’s too late for you, please call him out on it. If we decide to stay in whatever shape or situation he wants us to remain in, will he let us be happy there? Absolutely not! He will shame us mercilessly.
What are your “five pounds”? Whether they are an addiction, a bad relationship, or 50 unwanted pounds, know that God has made us strong, smart, wise women with gumption and we do not have to take “You’re too far-gone” from the father of lies. The Father of Victory and Power will equip us to get our lives back in order for His glory.
A Little Holiday Satire
The other day on the five o’clock news a Houston television station aired a news breaking story of a crime complete with telling video catching the culprits in the very act. A local family had a huge – I do mean huge – inflatable Frosty the Snowman erected in their front yard for the holidays. Upon arising on several mornings, they found him beaten down and a tad deflated. Since everybody knows he is a jolly happy soul, his benefactors had no choice but to suspect foul play. They did what surely any of us would do. They set up a video camera to catch what they probably surmised would be underage hoodlums playing sick pranks. That’s not what they found. The newscast interviewed the husband who awakened once again to an aired-out soul with a corncob pipe and a button nose and two eyes made of coal. Upon the discovery, he called to his wife (this is my favorite part), “Frosty’s down!” They threw the video in the player and to their great astonishment, the footage rolled upon two grown men punching, socking, pummeling Frosty with angry fists. Why, I ask you? What had Frosty ever done to them? Which brings me to the point. Sometimes the person we’re punching isn’t the one we’re really angry at. – Beth
A Look Back
I just had one of the best Christmases of my whole life. Not perfect, mind you. The Moores are thoroughly imperfect people with a lot of feelings we feel free to share but, thankfully, we’re crazy about each other and crazier about Jesus – which helps tremendously when we’re just plain crazy. Did you get all that? I’d anticipated it as a very special – even once in a lifetime – Christmas because it was our first advent season with a grandchild. Jackson Curtis Jones is a ten month-old blue-eyed bundle of cackling energy on the constant move. Keith, Melissa, and I are drunk with love over the little guy. Amanda and Curt alternate Christmases between his parents in Missouri and our home in Houston and this – Jackson’s first – happened to be our year. I don’t make that remark smugly since I love his other grandmother so much. He’ll be even cuter next year under her tree.
In many ways having this darling grandchild has ushered in a whole new life. I have never experienced a more wonderful season of living. In other ways, I’ve reverted back to one I remember well when some of life’s greatest priorities were teething, immunizations, crawling, and pulling up. When God forbid we miss nap time. Having a baby in the family has made me so nostalgic about the baby girls I held in my own young, inexperienced arms years ago. The nostalgia led to the second reason this was one of my favorite all time Christmases.
About a month ago I crawled to the far side of the attic on a secret mission to retrieve my girls’ baby clothes. Keith was at the hunting lease and it was my first chance to throw myself into a task I’d been planning for weeks. My heart beat with anticipation as I carefully descended the ladder with lawn bags full of memories. With every tiny sleeper and smocked dress that tumbled on the kitchen table, I relived my daughters’ infancies. I washed every garment once and some of them twice. While I starched, ironed and folded them, I was suddenly a mom in my early twenties again, very unsure of my marriage and learning to parent one spell of colic at a time. I loved my baby girls so much. They brought out a desire in me to change, to grow, to be better at life. To know God and teach them to know Him. I laughed and cried with every tender memory and pondered how faithful God had been to such a messed up couple. When Amanda and Melissa would misbehave or fight like they hated each other, my mother always told me, “They’ll be the finest ladies.” And they are.
On Christmas morning, as my grandson squealed with glee from his exer-saucer, I presented his mom and his Aunt Lissy with shadow boxes of childhood memorabilia and long plastic containers each of their baby clothes. Life had come full circle. We have no idea what is ahead. Like all families, we will have sorrows and losses amid daily doses of dirty dishes and dog hair. But when a near-perfect family moment comes, I hope we always choose to take it. To stop long enough to feel it. That’s what I did this year.
-Beth
A Recipe From Beth’s Kitchen
This is the recipe for my mom’s Texas sheet cake – our family’s favorite holiday treat. It’s simply amazing and it’s even better the next day. I’m having my second piece tomorrow for breakfast. Merry Christmas!
Beth’s Texas Sheet Cake
Grease a sheet cake pan. Sift:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
Bring to a boil:
2 sticks butter
1 cup water
4 tbsp. cocoa
Pour over dry mixture and mix in:
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla
Bake at 400 degrees, 20-25 minutes.
Icing
Heat:
1 stick butter
4 tbsp. cocoa
6 tbsp. milk
Add anywhere from 1/2 to 1 box of powdered sugar to acheive desired consistency (Beth prefers close to 1 box) and 1 cup pecans. Spread on cake while it’s hot.
Christmas Party
There are two exceptionally fun days every year at LPM. One is Beth’s birthday. The other is our Christmas party. This year we had a bowling party. We divided into three teams – the Livings, the Proofs, and the Ministries. Beth led us in stretches and in cheers before we began. Yes, she is very sanguine. And we love it. We all received awards according to our bowling performances and attitudes. Diane’s award was “for demonstrating that the way up is down” (as we’ve learned in this fall’s Psalms of Ascent study). She took a little spill but managed to simultaneously acheive a strike. Truly amazing.
