 The Lord blessed us with more days to live and serve Him, being thankful and content in them all. Thankful for what the Lord has done and the hope of eternal life with Him if we endure. (Test yourself to the gospel HERE, be sure you are following the real Jesus through the biblical gospel, not one of the many false ones of today.) I hope you endure where you are, in the works He has for you and I'm here to encourage you in this part of Titus 2 / Proverbs 31 as well as teachings and edification HERE. Genesis 3:18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;  We've been in a desert climate for a while now and I can't help but think about that verse above about thorns and thistles and how true it is. Having had many gardens and starting them from raw ground, I certainly know about all the weeds, thorns, thistles and other issues that come forth from it all. I also think about how easy this life is today with all the grocery stores offering whatever we want or need instead of having to toil the ground. Yes, we have to work for money but it's not that hard to make a living and exist relatively decently in this land of plenty (if you live frugal as a saint would). One misses a lot of learning and growing by not having to toil for food, or for that matter, any amount of physical toil to earn their money. I'm blessed to have been poor, have plenty of money, grow gardens, raise animals, cook everything myself, buy pre-made foods, work physically hard jobs, work mentally hard jobs, live in a house, live in a van, live off grid, live with electricity and running water etc. It does make for a well rounded person with much thankfulness that others who have grown up with what they call a 'silver spoon' (meaning not having to toil much for anything and living well according to cultures standards) don't understand. I will say this though...if you're truly a saint of God and you have much and are used to having it, spending it and living really well, a lot in your life will change as the Lord shows you that simplicity is what He wants. You'll learn that all the things you have, the extra comforts, the conveniences, the fancy foods etc are nothing compared to the kingdom of God and you will eliminate much and get to the basics so you can focus on Him. Test me to see if that's true:-)  In this dry and dusty land, we've been through several wind / dust storms. Here's the latest one and I'll include one from before (that I already posted).  We've taken walks through them, fighting the wind, the sand in your eyes and mouth and when we get back to our little van home, we're extra thankful. There's something to be said when you're stretched, overworked, pressed hard in your life or trials that when you overcome, there's extra thankfulness and rejoicing in the Lord. Ponder that the next time you're going through trials, stress in your life, having to fight through storms that it's a good thing and ponder what you can learn through them. I've been through tons of spiritual storms in my walk and early on, I would just want them over with because it was painful and / or confusing or sad etc...but as I matured, I forced myself to think rationally and remind myself that lessons are going to be learned so be wise, aware with watching and waiting in it all, and I found I matured more quickly that way instead of just wanting to be done and over with them. James 1:2-4 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.  We were blessed to have a free camping / parking spot by a park for a couple nights where we weathered a sand storm. While it was calm, before a storm, we went for a walk and in the park and saw this little building. I thought about how simple the prairie houses used to be and people were probably very thankful for the shelter from the winds that don't seem to quit here at times:-) Are you thankful for what you have or are you looking for more?  Brother Tupos uses some stuff on our tires that helps not only keep them clean but protects them from dry rot. During the recent storm, all the dust stuck to them:-) Lord willing there might be a day coming up in the next week that the wind and sand might let up so we can clean our van home, tires included. He does a good job keeping our little home rolling down the road.  We have a shelf that runs along the top of the van and that hold up containers (that you can see in the pic above) and I recently found this plaque and had to share about it:-) I've been working on various Spanish phrases (as we're in areas where the language is greatly spoken) and I found this little plaque at a thrift store and brother Tupos put up for me. It means "With God everything is possible". I've been looking for something simple like that and was rejoicing to have found it and when I look at it I think of how brother and I were so lost and wicked and through the Lord / the gospel, we were made new creations. That's truly a work of God! And it's a reminder and encouragement for me to keep working on Spanish because, Lord willing, we may be by them more often and have the opportunity to share more truth with them.
Brother Tupos found some Mexican candy so we could try:-) A nice little treat.  When we go to the marketplace (flying our gospel signs on the van, my gospel sign on my computer and our Bible on the table) we get a coffee on the app for .99 cents (sometimes the old people's coffee in the little senior cup for really low price lol) and I save the cups for messy cooking things and then toss them away. I made that picture for brother Tupos to share with a brother who makes pancakes and eggs and let him know it's a good way to save on clean up time, water and wipes etc by using them.  Van life brother's pic. That same brother has been eating burritos a lot lately, which are a good, simple meal and we've been having tostadas.  I usually eat mine as a salad:-) Both of those are excellent meals to have on a regular basis as you can fill tortillas or top tostadas with any toppings you like (meat, eggs, refried beans, cheese, lentils, rice, chili etc) and they're really affordable to do especially for women who have kitchens and can cook the fixings from scratch. If you're looking for simple, fast meals, think about putting these on your menu each week. (Yep those are my chopsticks in the pic and I'm pondering a possible post on my own sort of 'cancel culture':-)  I love that advertisement on that little, tiny restaurant:-) Fits with the topic here lol:-)  Click the pic above to see a simple recipe. I'm thankful for all the kitchen tools I have and here are 2 I use every single day.  There's something to be said about having the right tool for the job. (The narrow one is what I use drain the melted ice water from the cooler, into a spare gallon jug to put in the front hand wash station and the wide mouth is to funnel ice into our thermal water containers that we drink from every day. These tools are awesome and help me do what I need every day but the word of God is even more awesome and more necessary than all that we have in our kitchens. Sadly most women know how to use their kitchen tools way better and more often than the word of God. Don't let that be you, or me. 2 Peter 3:2 That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: We stayed at a truck stop the other night.... I was super rejoicing, greatly thankful that it was flat side to side (no slant to the our head or feet) even though it felt like the back of the van was in a hole lol. It's amazing how you let go of so much in this life, from having to hear loud semi trucks coming and going all night even to dealing with the tilting of a bed.  I walked a few blocks to a store while brother Tupos drove the van down to meet me and what I saw that door, what scriptures do you think came to mind? I'll put it on the next post:-) So those are some godly women thoughts, sharing and hopefully encouragement for you out there.
God be praised! Sister Aman Comments are closed.
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