Valentine Cookie Extravaganza

HOW 300 COOKIES CAME TO LIFE LOVE

dough was mixed...in several batches :)

then it was rolled, cut out, baked, iced

after being laid out on a table...

...they were ready to be given away!

We are so blessed to be lavishly loved by our God and then to be so loved by the people of RushChurch, where our family serves!  I wanted to give a gift to the church family we have the privilege of serving with and love so much and this was it!!

By the way, if you'd like the recipe, it's here, modified a bit from the allrecipe.com one:

2012 Scripture Memory Verse 4

I started a post with pictures of the Valentine's cookies {from one MONTH ago!} and will hopefully get that up over the weekend, but for now we are working on planting our 4th scripture in our hearts!!

I know I'm not the only one who has trouble controlling her tongue; after all, James (ch. 3) teaches of the incredible power our tongues possess over our whole bodies.  And although God and I have done some work in this area before, I feel a need for a fresh work.  Over the last few weeks my words with my boys have been less than encouraging on several occasions.  There have been plenty of times where I've felt God speaking to my heart, calling me to patience and gentleness through His strength, and I've obeyed and a war is avoided.  But there have also been plenty of times when I've felt that same call and I've trumped it with my own fleshly desires of being right and being in charge and being respected.  Thankfully those times are growing fewer, but they trouble my heart so much and take so much more time to mend.  I've found I can stand my ground in patience, peace, and gentleness if I lean on Him and His strength, rather than my own.  Often my words fail me, and I have to ask God to help me out, so I chose a verse to remind me to be gracious in my speech.

Audrey, Ohio
Colossians 4:6  ESV
Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.


A couple other scriptures that are helpful in taming our tongue:

 Psalm 139:4  TNIV
Before a word is on my tongue
You, LORD, know it completely.


 Proverbs 21:23  NLT
Watch your tongue and keep your mouth shut and you will stay out of trouble.

Continue to cultivate the words of life you are planting down deep in your soul~God's Word will never return to Him empty, but will accomplish His good purposes in your life!!

2012 Scripture Memory Verse 3

Do you ever feel like you're in the dark sometimes?  Like you'd really like to know the reasons behind certain events, but they remain elusive?  We studied Joseph's life in church recently and I was reminded once again that it's not our job to know everything {nor our privilege}.  BUT, some things are revealed to us and the verse I've chosen to memorize now will be a great reminder to me of that.

Audrey, Ohio
Deuteronomy 29:29  ESV
The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

Keep pressing on~His Word brings so much peace into our hearts!

Pardon?

This past Sunday we talked about the great forgiveness Jesus extended to us from the cross.  One illustration that was shared recalled a man on death row who refused a presidential pardon {after murdering a federal worker}.  This sort of refusal had never before occurred, so the courts had to decide whether or not he had a choice to receive the pardon.  This is what they ruled:

    "A pardon rejected is no pardon at all; unless the recipient of the pardon accepts the pardon, then the pardon cannot be applied."

God extends the same type of pardon to you through Jesus' sacrifice, but have you accepted it?  Will you accept it?  Because "the pardon cannot be applied" unless it is accepted.  He loves you so much.

2012 Scripture Memory Verse 2

I so hope you are already seeing fruit from hiding God's Word in your heart. I am overwhelmed again this morning at the profound way God's Word never grows stale or stagnant ~ it is always ready to teach us something new or remind us of a truth we once learned but need to learn again, or perhaps is the encouragement we need for the moment we are in.

We have just finished studying some lessons from the life of Joseph {at church} and the suggested memory verse is what I'm taking in this time around. Here it is:

Audrey, Ohio Genesis 50:20 ESV (version) As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

May your eyes be open to see God's blessings today!

PS-You can choose your own verse to memorize, or join me in memorizing Genesis 50:20 if it resonates with you. You need only to work on memorizing your choice, though, and not those of anyone else :) We'll continue to choose a scripture on the 1st and 15th of each month throughout 2012 ~ feel free to invite friends and family to join us; they can begin right where we're at with no need to catch-up. Using index cards in a spiral is a great way to keep your memory verses all in one place and makes it handy to carry them with you so you can be meditating/thinking upon them while you are away from home.

Scripture Memory for 2012, anyone???

January was a month to review my memory verses and really be sure I had them since I knew I'd be saying them to a siesta at the Siesta Scripture Memory Team Celebration {aka SSMTC} on January 21st.

Then along comes February...there is no event to encourage memorization of Scriptures at the end of this year, however I cannot believe I made it through the last three years on my own strength. My word, it has been a ride!

SO, I will begin my 4th year of memorizing God's Word~I would LOVE for YOU to join me!! I'm going to follow the method I've used over the last few years with Beth Moore's blog ~ I'll sign in on the 1st and 15th of each month with my verse, its location and translation and you can leave your verse {of your own choosing} in the same manner as a comment.

Obviously, I'm a little late for the 1st of February, but the verse I chose came from the teaching Beth brought at the SSMTC. We learned so much through 2 John and were challenged to memorize verse 8. Since I don't want to lose any spiritual ground that I've fought to gain, I find it so appropriate!

Here's mine:

Audrey, Ohio
2 John 8 ESV
Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward.

So 2012, bring it on, but know we'll be ready with our sword {of the Spirit~the Word of God} in the right hand and our shield {of faith-Ephesians 6:16-17} in the left!

Any sugar cookie lovers out there???

I've been looking {very casually...definitely NOT hunting} for a good cut-out sugar cookie recipe and this is one I will definitely use again. The icing was a great recipe, too. Both were found on allrecipes.com "Thick Cut-Outs" and "Sugar Cookie Icing"

We had extra icing, so we went a little crazy...


Here's Isaiah's Cowboy he created from different cookie cutters, as well as his dinosaurs and basketball


And Ezekiel's Cowboy created a similar way, with his star and puppy


And our names :) The two flowers turned out really well~the purple one was the first cookie I decorated and it turned out the best!


I'm looking forward to making Valentine's cookies next week!!!