16 meals in 2 hours flat!

The past few months I have gotten reacquainted with my slow cooker.  It seems like I go in spurts with different cooking methods and for some reason my slow cooker hadn't ventured out of the cabinet much.  Then when my son asked for his own slow cooker to use at school, interest in mine was piqued.  And because this son of mine showed interest in cooking healthy meals for himself I decided to encourage his efforts by putting together some freezer crock pot meals that could be put into the cooker in the morning when he left for class and be ready to eat when he came home.  I started to search the world wide web for ideas and recipes, finding some promising ones.  Most of them would serve an average family and since he is living the bachelor life and my hubby and I are living the empty nest life, I decided that each recipe could be divided and provide enough for two meals, one for him and one for us.  

The thing I discovered about freezing crock pot meals is that the prep is so easy and can be done in an hour or two.  There is very little precooking involved.  Mostly, it is a lot of chopping and measuring and filling freezer bags.  Pretty simple stuff. 

This past Friday night I assembled 16 meals in about 2 hours.  Factoring in leftover meals, dining out occasionally and other meals I will prepare at home, that is the equivalent of cooking 2 months worth of meals for the three of us. 

The process starts with collecting recipes.  I found most of mine at Six Sister's Stuff, Who Needs A Cape, Ring Around the Rosies. 

There are plenty of other gals who are sharing their secrets and recipes, too.  Just do a web search.  

These are the recipes I prepared this go around:

Vegetable Beef Soup

Teriyaki Chicken

Balsamic/Onion Pot Roast

Healthy BBQ Chicken

Stephanie's Goulash

Sausage and Peppers

Slow-Cooked Steak Fajitas

I really appreciated the sites that listed a shopping list so here is mine:

2 red onions

3 lb. bag yellow onions

1 zucchini

1 large bag carrots (Baby carrots can be used if you want to eliminate some chopping)

2 Garlic Bulbs

6 Green Bell Peppers

3 Red Bell Peppers

Celery-1 Bunch (I only used part of a bunch though)

3 lb. bag red potatoes (I bought the 5 lb. bag because it was cheaper!)

1 bag frozen green beans

10 skinless chicken breasts (I used 5 per recipe. Adjust according to your needs)

3 lb. beef stew meat

1 bag frozen meatballs (or make your own if you so wish)

6 Italian sausages (pork, beef or chicken)

2 lb. ground beef

3-4 lb. beef chuck roast

2 lb. round steak (I used sirloin steak that was in my freezer already)

2 lg. cans pineapple chunks

16 oz. jar grape jelly

20 oz. BBQ sauce

2-14.5 oz. cans Italian-seasoned diced tomatoes

1-28 oz. can diced tomatoes

2-15oz. cans tomato sauce

2-6oz. cans tomato paste

2 cans Rotel tomatoes

V-8 juice (1 six pack individual cans)

1-32 oz. carton beef broth

Worcestershire sauce

Balsamic Vinegar

Olive oil or vegetable oil

Teriyake sauce

Italian seasoning

Steak seasoning (I use Weber Canadian Steak seasoning)

Quick cooking tapioca

Prepared yellow mustard

Dried Parsley Flakes

Dried Basil

Dried Thyme

Paprika

Cumin

Cilantro (dried or fresh)

Chili powder

Sugar

Brown sugar

Salt 

Pepper

Gallon Size Freezer Bags (I prefer the zip lock closure just because they are easier to seal up when hands are wet from prep work)

I suggest reading through the recipes and making any adjustments to your shopping list based on what your family likes (i.e. lots of carrots vs. no carrots in the stew) and on what you have on hand.  I substituted sirloin steak for the round steak in the fajita recipe because it was already in my freezer.  

My favorite way of approaching the process is to shop shortly before I am going to assemble the meals so I don't have to put ALL those groceries away.  They can just wait on my counter until I use them.  (OK.  If that makes you nervous, put the meat in the frig.)

Once your are ready to get this show on the road, begin by labeling all your freezer bags with the name of the recipe, cooking instructions, any additional ingredients that will be needed and serving suggestions. 

 

Trust me! You don't want to do this after you fill the bags.

Now you are ready to clean and chop and open cans and fill bags.  I have no photos of the assembly because it was not a pretty site.  I am one messy cook!

But about 2 hours later I had this:

 

And once it was all tucked away in the freezer all I had left was this:

An additional perk to slow cooker freezer meals is the relatively small pile of dirty dishes that results.  Most of it went into the dishwasher.  In fact, I only hand washed the large skillet that I browned the roast in.  Not bad for 2 hours of work.  

A couple of suggestions:

     Have a large cutting board for chopping all the veggies.

     Line up the freezer bags and fill with meat first.  Gets

        all of that out of the way and cuts back on a lot of

        hand washing between steps.

    A good chef or santuko knife is invaluable.

    Sort out all the ingredients into like categories before

         you start (i.e. canned goods, fresh veggies, meats,

         condiments).  Makes finding the next ingredient in the

         recipe a breeze.

   Squeeze extra air out of bag as you close it up.  Then

         lay flat in freezer.  The  bags will take up less space if

         that is an issue.

  Any of these recipes can be divided into 2 bags like I did.  

Here are the recipes:
16 Meals in 2 Hours Flat Recipes

I'll update this post with our reviews of the recipes.  Feel free to add your suggestions and ideas in the comments.

Enjoy! 

I resolve to...

It's January.  

The month of planning; of making new goals; developing new game plans.  

Blehhhhh!  

Words like "planning" and "scheduling" and "routine" are the equivalent of fingernails on a blackboard to me.  I have friends whose eyes light up with excitement and anticipation when such words are uttered but not me.  I cringe and get knots in my stomach and begin to feel like I'm being enclosed in a vacuum with no air to breathe!  Everything inside of me screams, 

Let Me OUT!  

Let Me BREATHE!

But experience and life has taught me that I can't go through my days willy-nilly (as much as I would like to!) without some idea of where I am heading or what I need to attend to.  

Proverbs 21:5a  The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage.....

And experience has also taught me that I need a little bit of wiggle room or else I do suffocate (or at least feel like I am). 

Proverbs 21:5b ....but everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty.  

So I DO make some goals at the beginning of each year to guide me throughout the next 12 months.  I use John 2:52 as my guide, something our wise mentors taught us some 30 years ago.  

And Jesus increased 

in wisdom and stature 

and in favor with God 

and with men.

The idea is that if Jesus, the Son of God, grew in these areas of His life they warrant some attention in my life, too.

Wisdom--Mental Growth

       Something to keep me mentally alert or sharp.

       Something to expand my knowledge base.

For example, in the past I have made goals of taking a quilting class or reading a certain number of books.

Stature--Physical

       Something to improve or maintain my physical body.

For example...you know the drill...eat better, exercise more, take my vitamins, etc, etc, etc.

Favor with men (people)--Social

       Something that improves my relationships with 

       people.

For example, I have made goals to invite friends for dinner or prepare freezer meals to have something ready to share with a family in need of some encouragement.

Favor with God--Spiritual

       Something to deepen my relationship with God

For example, I have made goals to develop a better Scripture memory verse plan or have my devotional time before I allow myself to turn on the computer. 

Okay, so like I said, planning and goal making and me don't always see eye to eye.  This has not always been a joyous experience for me.  I have approached goal setting with the mind set that I just need to buckle down and try harder and force myself to trudge through it.  

Total Fail!  

I have decided at times that this just isn't my bent and chucked the whole exercise.  

Total Fail!  

So through much trial and fail I have come to the point that I set down goals but keep them brief.  No more do I write down 52 things I intend to accomplish the next year even though each one might be admirable and beneficial to helping me increase in the four areas I mentioned.  I have honed my list down to ONE in each category.  Maybe I am an under achiever but I prefer to call myself a realist.  It's not like I'm not doing anything else in my life to become wiser or get in better shape or improve my relationships with people and with God.  My goals just become my bench marks to determine if anything has happened in the past year.  

Do I have complete success?  NO!  In fact I scored less than 50% success rate last year.  But even the misses were beneficial.  My lack of accomplishment in some areas made me evaluate what went "wrong", made me understand better why God puts so much emphasis on perseverance, pressing on.  It showed me how incapable I am in doing anything apart from God.  I was made aware again of how much of a role accountability with another plays in reaching the goal.  I was humbled (always a good thing!).  And the best thing I learned from my "failures" last year is that progress isn't necessarily measured by crossing the finish line.  Imperfect progress, as author Lysa TerKeurst calls it, is still progress.  I'm still moving forward, maybe by baby steps rather than giant leaps, but it's forward.

  

I am convinced that God is not a God of disappointment but of hope.  I have determined not to allow this process to disappoint me but to find hope in the truth that God is completing in me the process He started. (Philippians 1:6) Even though I didn't fulfill all my goals last year I know they moved me down the road at least a little.  I made some imperfect progress.  

And that is better than no progress at all. 

So be encouraged all you fellow willy-nilly-ers.   

 

A is for.....

No-A is not for December!  A is for Advent.

 

As our children grew up we found that they also out grew the usual Advent calendar ideas.  They didn't get very excited about the little trinkets from the Advent tree or the 25 teenie, tiny Nativity figurines waiting to be discovered behind the little doors.  They didn't have time in their busier adolescent schedules to always sit with us and discuss the details of the Christmas story in ABC order.  The Advent celebration in our house had to evolve if it was going to continue to be apart of our family traditions.  We continued with the ABC idea but it became more grown-up friendly. Instead of Angels and Bells and Candles we considered the names of Jesus beginning with each letter of the alphabet.  So on December 1 we all came up with a name used for Jesus (or maybe a word that described Him) that started with the letter A.  December 2 was the letter B, December 3 was the letter C, etc, etc.  Each member of the family would do this on their own time and enter their ideas on a calendar stuck up on the refrigerator door.  At least once a day each of us stood in front of that said refrigerator so it was convenient and accessible.  And if (heaven forbid!) someone didn't get around to coming up with their own word they could at least be reminded of the Reason for the Season by seeing what others (as in, Mom) had recorded on the sheet.  

The one thing that has remained consistent through all the Advent calendar adaptations is that we usually missed the first couple of days of December and started late.  Why does December 1st come up faster the than first of any other month?  

So in true family tradition I am starting this year's version of the ABC Names of Jesus Advent Calendar on December 2.  

Today I give you A is for Apostle and Advocate.  

Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.

Hebrews 3:1

Webster defines apostle as a person who first advocates or initiates a great reform.  An apostle is a person sent by another, a messenger.  

Jesus entered my life to initiate a great reform, to make me a better me, to correct me, to improve me, to be the remedy for what ails me.

An advocate is a person who speaks or writes in support or defense of a person, cause; a person who pleads for or in behalf of another; an intercessor. This was the role of the High Priest.  

Jesus entered my life to be my Advocate.  He came to plead in my favor, to intercede for me at the right hand of God, the Father, to support me.  

And as I think about it, I just took care of "B is for..." also.  

Jesus is the Bridge.  God, the Son was sent from God, the Father to span the gap between His holiness and my unholiness, between His perfection and my imperfection.  Jesus, the Apostle came on the first Christmas to be God with me and, Jesus, the Advocate came to be me before God.     

B is for Bridge.

Wow, I'm all caught up and it's only December 2!

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Looking for Ziplock Bags

                    

I heard once that Jesus liked to use parables (simple stories used to illustrate a lesson) with the Hebrews because they were visual learners.  A lesson made a bigger impact with them if it was told in "pictures".  I must be part Hebrew.  I, too, like object lessons, word pictures.  And God, knowing me so well, understands this and faithfully gives me object lessons in my day to day living. 

The most recent and memorable lesson came on a spontaneous trip to the local dollar store.  I was preparing some freezer meals for my grad school son and ran out of ziplock bags.  (Isn't it interesting how the brand name of a product becomes the generic category for all things similar?)  Since I was right in the middle of my preparations, I decided to make a quick trip to the nearest store that would carry such a product, the local dollar discount store.  I don't on a regular basis shop at this store.  Most of the time I stop there because I just need one or two items and don't want to make the incredibly long 8 minute drive across town to the mega discount place!!! (Oh, the joys of small town life!) 

I arrived at my destination and parked my car assuming that this was going to be one of those uneventful, unimportant, mundane moments in my stay at home life.  

Wrong!  

Because at the same time as I was getting our of my car and approaching the door to the store another car had pulled into a parking space right in front of the door and it's occupants were getting out and approaching the same door.  Nothing unusual except that the two "gentlemen" that were walking down the sidewalk right ahead of me now were anything BUT usual.  It was obvious as I came closer that these two guys had very little female influence in their lives.  (At least that is what I inferred.)  Neither one had "seen" a bar of soap in a while and their garments had not "seen" the inside of a clothes washer for some time.  My nose told me so!  One man definitely needed a belt for his britches and they both would have benefited from a trip to the barber shop.  

Ya get my drift!?!?

At the moment my senses came to this realization I started planning on how I could avoid meeting up with them at the entrance.  I could walk slower; pretend I forgot something in the car and turn around; stop and "check" the text messages on my phone.  But the next moment, God's voice inside of me said, "Mary, what is the topic of Bible Study this week?"

The study in the book of James for that week covered Chapter 2, Verses 1 through 13. 

 

My brothers and sister, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism.  Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in.  If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my feet," have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

James 2:1-4 (MSG)

So I quickly asked myself, "How would you respond, Mary, if these two guys were dressed in beautifully tailored suits and Italian leather shoes, wearing Giorgio Armani cologne, looking like they had just stepped out of an upscale Los Angeles hair design studio?"  Well, other than wondering what the heck were these guys doing in my small town Nebraska,  I imagine I would gladly walk right into the store with them.  Thus, I kept right on walking behind these fellow dollar store shoppers and much to my surprise when we reached the door one of them politely opened the door, stepped aside, and held it open for me with a friendly smile on his face.  I returned his smile, looked him in the eye and said, "Why, thank you!"  

Score one for me!  But before I throw my elbow out of joint patting myself on the back let me tell you the rest of the story.  

I proceeded to walk to the back of the store searching for the freezer bags, wondering where would be the logical place for them.  Not finding them in that section I turned around to explore another area when, low and behold!, here came my two scruffy "friends" heading down the same aisle towards me.  I made a rapid exit stage right into the next aisle to avoid another encounter.  Score minus one for me!  

Feeling a slight twinge of guilt I continued on finally finding the food wrap and bag area.  As I stood there debating whether I should buy the 18 bag box or the 10 bag box, this brand or that brand,  who should appear to my left at the end of the aisle but......"Smelly Guy Who Opened The Door For Me".  

And the guy looked at me and asked (drum roll, please),

"Do you know where the ziplock bags are?" 

I looked at him (with my mouth agape, I'm sure), looked at the shelves in front of me and said, "Umm, right here", pointing at the boxes of bags.  

"Thank you.  I'll let my friend know......Hey, they're over here!"

In an amazed state of mind, I made my selection and headed to the registers, paid for my purchase and headed to my car in the parking lot.  And then I just sat there, still amazed, processing what I had just experienced.  

Tears welled up in my eyes as I realized that God had given me another object lesson.  I had just been a part of a modern day parable.  You see, He says in James that to show partiality is sin. (James 2:9)  And He had just given me the opportunity to chose between showing partiality or extending mercy.  I'm not sure if I passed the test.  Maybe I scored a 50%, maybe more, maybe less.  But the moral of the story stabbed me right in my heart.  

I sat there thanking God that He had urged me to keep walking when I encountered the guys in front of the store.  I wondered how did it happen that at that exact moment, I and the two men arrived at the same store at the same time with the same purpose in mind-to purchase ziplock bags.  I wondered why did these two people, who didn't seem to be the kind of guys who would even know what a ziplock bag was, ask for them by name, the exact same name I call them.

Regardless of the outward appearance, we are all the same in some way or another.  If I take time to consider others I will find a common ground with them which will lead me to be merciful, to not discriminate based on the world's value system.  That is the point that James (Well, actually God) was making in the second chapter of his letter.  

We are all just looking for ziplock bags.

Doing Something!

 

Something or someone has been tugging at my heart for quite some time now.  When I sat down to try to discern when this all started I came to the conclusion it was probably when my oldest child took a one week long trip to Panama about 10 years ago.  She came home a changed person with a heart for the impoverished, under-privileged peoples of the world.  She felt an overwhelming desire to
“do something”.  She questioned why spend so much money on her own education when others lived in subservient conditions.  She wanted to quit school, go into the world and use her gifts and abilities to make a difference “NOW”.  As her parents, we listened as she shared her heart and then encouraged her to stay the course she was on and assured her that to make a difference it would be best to finish her studies, continue on to medical school and hone her gifts and abilities to be even more useful by God in the lives of people.  We essentially told her to “wait” by continuing on the present course.  

After that initial exposure to a worldview God has continued to draw my eyes up and away from myself.  My other children have traveled outside of our country’s borders and I have vicariously experienced the world through them.  I have “loved” a Kenyan little boy receiving his first pair of new shoes.  I have been “hugged” by a grateful Ugandan woman receiving medical attention.  I have “seen” the mountains of northern Italy.  I have been given the opportunity to invest in the education of a refugee man's daughters.

My heart was tugged through these experiences but then the past year the tug intensified to a yank!  Twice I have listened as Jen Hatmaker shared the journey she has been on through ministering to the homeless in her community, adopting two precious children from Ethiopia, partnering with others to raise funds for home building in Haiti and most recently, traveling to Haiti to interact with the people there. Her words challenged me to consider my own personal involvement in the lives of the afflicted, both here and abroad.  Each time I returned home from the conferences convinced I needed to “do something”.  (Sound familiar?) 

This past month my book club read Daughters of Hope, real life stories of women who live in parts of the world where not only is it difficult to be a woman but it is life threatening to be a Christian woman.  I hesitated to even start reading the book because I knew this would not be a casual read.  I was going to learn things that would affect my heart.  And just as I suspected, the book lassoed my heart, drug it to the ground and hog-tied it in true rodeo fashion. 

The proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back came a few days later when I finished the book Radical by David Platt.  In it, the author “challenges Christians to wake up…and embrace the notion that each of us is blessed by God for a global purpose.” (quote from book cover) 

The summation of all these experiences has me feeling helpless, frustrated, compelled to “do something” about the injustices of the world.  I feel like I am in a “spinning my wheels and getting no where” frame of mind.  What does God expect me to do with all this knowledge?  I am convinced that God is going to hold me responsible for this information.  I want to be a good steward of what I now know.  I cannot, with a clear conscience, put it all back on the shelf, say “Now, wasn’t that interesting” and go on about my "Mary" way.  God is not going to let me turn a blind eye to the people in need in this world. 

I have called out to God asking Him:

"What do You want me to do with all this information?!?!" 

"How can someone like me even begin to make a dent in the injustices of our world?!?!" 

"It is all so big, God, and I am so little!!!"

And He has answered my cries!  No, we are not selling it all, packing what’s left and heading to the jungle.  And we are not adopting!!!

No, I am praying.  

Now that might sound somewhat anticlimactic after all the steam I have been building up.  And I, too, thought that prayer didn’t sound like “doing something”.  I like to see tangible evidence that my efforts have accomplished something.  I like to stand back and admire the sparkling kitchen sink after applying some elbow grease.  I like to see the empty clothes hamper after the last load has been folded.  But James 5:16 says that “the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”  

Prayer is “doing”.

David Platt in “Radical” closes the book with a challenge that includes to pray for ENTIRE world in the next year.  I am taking that challenge.  I realize that if I am not willing to commit to plead the case of the afflicted before the throne of God I cannot expect to be used to “do something” more.   God says, “Just do Step 1, Mary.  We will talk about Step 2 later.”  If there even IS a Step 2 for me.  No matter.  Today I will pray for a small group of people in Honduras using PrayerPoint from Samaritan’s Purse and for those in Russia, following the guidelines from Operation World.   And I publicly state here that I will pray for the world in the next 365 days.  I will “wait “ on the Lord by continuing on the present course.  I will be content to not “see” the results of my labor but to trust the truth of God’s Word that my prayers can accomplish much.  I will not sit on the knowledge that He has entrusted to me. I will not spin my wheels any longer.

I will DO SOMETHING!

Time to Bake The Scones!

Fall has arrived!  It's time for fuzzy wool sock and fleece jackets and baking!   All summer when the temperature hovered around the 100º mark I refrained from heating up the oven as much as possible but now the night time lows are dipping into the near-freezing zone and the extra heat from the oven is welcome in the house.  Usually fall baking recipes center around---

but because I still have a box of strawberries that was included in one of the last CSA farm boxes I picked up in September I felt compelled to find a recipe that utilized this summer-like fruit instead of the traditional fall tastes.

I searched TastyKitchen.com for a recipe and Strawberry Shortcake Scones caught me eye.   

Scones are one of those fancy sounding sweets that are not at all difficult to make.  Basically, they start with the usual ingredients found in most made-from-scratch biscuits.

The dry ingredients are blended together, the cold cubed butter is cut in with a pastry blender and the half and half is stirred in just until it all comes together and the dry ingredients are moistened.  The dough is flattened out into a 1-inch thick rectangle...

 cut into 6 squares which are cut again into 12 wedges.  The scones are placed on a parchment or silicone mat covered baking sheet.

After baking for 16 minutes the scones are golden brown and looking good.

Once cooled a bit, a powdered sugar glaze is drizzled over the top.

Yum!  A taste of summer in a warm fall-like pastry.  

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE SCONES

(submitted to TastyKitchen,com by Alaska from Scratch)

SCONES

     2 cups all purpose flour

     1 Tablespoon baking powder

     3 Tablespoons sugar

     1/2 teaspoon salt

     2 cups strawberries, hulled and cut into quarters

     5 Tablespoons butter, chilled and cut into 1/4 inch cubes

     3/4 cup half and half

GLAZE

     1 cup powdered sugar

     1/2 teaspoon vanilla

     2-3 Tablespoons half and half

Preheat oven to 425º.  Line baking sheet with parchment paper or silcone baking mat.

Combine first 4 ingredients in large mixing bowl and stir with wire whisk.  Add butter and cut in with pastry blender until mixture is crumbly.  Add strawberries and toss with fork until coated with flour mixture.  Pour in half and half and fold in gently until dry ingredients are evenly moistened.  Do not over mix or knead dough.

Turn dough onto floured surface and flatten with hands until a 1-inch thick rectangle is formed.  Cut dough into 6 equal squares and cut each square in half diagonally to form 12 wedges.  

Place scones on baking sheet and bake at 425º for 16-18 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove scones to cooling rack placed on wax or parchment paper and let cool for a few minutes before adding glaze.   Combine glaze ingredients, adding more or less cream for desired consistency.  Drizzle glaze evenly over baked scones.

Enjoy with a cup of your favorite hot beverage!

I can't!

I sat there on the side porch at my brother's home this summer soaking in the "quiet" of the rural setting.  The quiet was relative---birds were singing and the water feature in the yard was bubbling softly.  A quarter of a mile away a car whizzed by on the highway.  

Ahh, but it was bliss.  I was surrounded by the calm spirit that my sister-in-law had created in their quaint and neat farm home, the same home where my grandmother was born over 100 years ago.  I was surrounded by the evidence of her green thumb in the planters that occupied the porch with me. 

This idyllic moment was perfect.  Me on the quiet porch with my coffee and Bible, ready to hear what God had to say to me that morning.  All alone in this picturesque setting since everyone else had left earlier.

  

But then the bubble popped!

And the disrupting thoughts began to run through my mind.

"I can't create this atmosphere in my home."

"I can't make plants grow like she does."

"I can't keep my house as neat and tidy as she does."

 

"I can't do this or that, or be like this or that, or...."

Feeling the all too familiar feelings of defeat and inadequacies, I sighed and opened the Scriptures to the last verse I had read and to continue my walk through the book of Jude.

It is a very small book.  Only 25 verses total.  Not even enough words to warrant 2 chapters.

Picking up where I had left off the last time, I opened the Bible and read Jude 24...

 

"Now to Him who is able....."

Him....Who....Is....Able.

God is able.

I was struck by the contrast of my thoughts and the Words of God.

          I can't.                                      He is Able

I can't but He can....

       Keep my from stumbling and make me stand in His 

       presence blameless with great joy.

"So, what else is God able to do?" I asked myself.  

After cross-referencing Jude 24, I found that God is also able to...

 

       Establish me (Romans 16:25)

       Do exceeding abundantly beyond anything I can ask or 

       think (Ephesians 3:20)

       Make all grace abound to me (2 Corinthians 9:8)

       Guard what I have entrusted to Him (2 Timothy 1:9)

       Come to my aid when I am tempted (Hebrews 2:18)

       Save those who draw near to Him (Hebrews 7:25)

It was then that I realized that I had been dwelling on the wrong list.  I had been dwelling on my "I can't" list.  Instead, I needed to dwell on God's "I can" list.  

Okay, I can't do it all.  I can't even do the things I can do right every time.  I'm not perfect.  I'm willing to accept that. I'm okay with that...most of the time.  But sometimes the ugly feelings and thoughts of inadequacy creep in and mess with my perception of me and life.  

This morning God was saying to me, "Mary, it's not about what you CAN'T do, it is about what I CAN do." 

It's about setting my mind on the things above (God) and not on the things below (me).  

Jesus summed it up best. 

           "Apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:5

You can't.

But God finished the thought in Philippians 4:13 

     "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

I can't but that's okay because God is able.

God CAN!!!!