Fingerprint Friday: Butterflies

By Ginny (MAD21)

This has been an amazing year for butterflies around here. I can't recall a time when we've seen so many. My girls and I love butterflies, so this season was filled with a little bit of extra joy for us.

Tiny blessings they are. Beautiful whispers of God's fingerprints that are so quiet they could go by unnoticed if you let them.

Fellow blogger Beki at The Rusted Chain has a really great weekly post she does every Friday called "Fingerprint Friday." We are to look around and see where we can see God's fingerprints. Is it in nature? Kids? Animals? Anywhere? Go find out where Beki saw God this week, and be sure to check out the other bloggers who linked their stories as well.

Tasty Bites: All-Dressed-Up Chicken Salad

By Beth V

One of my favorite make-ahead lunch meals is chicken salad. Sometimes when we have had lunch company after church, I’ve made this chicken salad the day before so that it can be eaten quickly and easily when the hungry crew arrives. This recipe is delicious- lots of flavors and textures that complement each other very nicely. This is not your average chicken salad, although I enjoy traditional chicken salad as well. This chicken salad feels special enough to serve for a special tea or shower celebration or just to treat your family by keeping it in the refrigerator for lunches during the week.

If you have leftover chicken, feel free to use it, but if you are starting from scratch, here is my favorite way to make chicken for chicken salad. I use 3 pounds of bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the chicken on a baking sheet coated with foil or cooking spray. Brush the chicken with olive oil or spray the chicken with cooking spray.  Sprinkle the chicken generously with salt, pepper and garlic powder. When the oven is preheated, place in the oven for about 40-45 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees.  Immediately remove the chicken from the oven and tent with foil for at least 15 minutes.  The chicken will continue cooking during those 15 minutes and the juices will distribute themselves evenly throughout the meat. Allow the chicken to cool until you are able to handle it comfortably with your fingers. Remove the skin and pull the meat off either by shredding it with two forks, or just pulling it apart with your fingers.  I think shredded chicken makes for the best-textured chicken salad. And when you cook it just until done and not a minute more, the chicken is so tender and juicy and easy to shred.

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God Says... "Cast all your cares on me!"

By Jason V (Ponderings of a Pilgrim Pastor)

On the way home from Wal-Mart yesterday, Family News in Focus Weekend got my attention with a stunning fact: the average age of first pornography exposure for young boys is eight. That's right, eight. As the father of a seven-year-old, that nearly made me drive off the road. 

I know that in this world of nearly universal high-speed internet, my boys will be exposed to pornography.  I don't know when, but I know it will happen. This thought alone makes me sick to my stomach, not to mention the idea that one or both of them may become hooked on the trash.

As a parent, I have many cares and anxieties.  We moved to South Carolina five months ago and I worried that my children might not make friends.  Every time we have guests to our house for a meal, I'm nervous about what my children might say or do.  When I consider the depravity of my own heart and my own failings as a husband, a father and a Christian, I worry that my children will suffer for my sins.

I can easily be overwhelmed by my cares and anxieties, but then God comes to me and calls me: "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." (1 Peter 5:7, ESV)  But can I really?  If I am to cast my cares on my God, I need to know two things: that He really loves me and that He can handle my cares.

How do I know God loves me? "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8, NIV)  When God gave His Son for me, He gave me the very best and most perfect gift anyone could ever give.  He proved that He would hold nothing back to redeem me and make me His forever.  Simply put: No one could ever more clearly demonstrate love for me than God did in the gift of His Son on the cross.

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God Is Paying Attention

By Pat

Sometimes it's really hard to get through each day maintaining our diligence in serving God. We see so much pain in the world around us. We hear so many cries for help, for healing. We see terrible injustice. We ourselves struggle with our own burdens and problems, and we yearn for God's answers. We beg for His mercy. We are impatient. We want God's immediate intervention, and we want to know when it's coming. How long must we wait? It's easy to become frustrated, and Satan whispers into our ears that God isn't paying attention, doesn't care. but He IS paying attention and He DOES care and He WILL take action...in His time, not ours.

We live in such an "instant" world these days that it's becoming more and more difficult to wait, and our patience fades quickly. But as we grow older, we learn that those things we wait for are usually the ones most worth waiting for. God never promised there would be continual perfection in the world, but He did promise that His word is true, and He knows what He's doing, even when it seems He doesn't. We must remain steadfast in the struggles and bring His light into the dark corners of the world so that He can allow us to be the change He wants to happen. His word is true, His timing is perfect. He wants us to have faith that, in HIS time, He will prevail.

"As the rain and the snow come down from Heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth; it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." (Isaiah 55:10-11)

Pat is a good friend who is passionate about her faith and her family. She works from home supporting a family business, and loves to read, write and garden when she can, and spends every spare moment with her grandkids.

God Says... "I am loved."

By Nick (My Experience As...)

I think there are two lies which cut deeper than any other, that quite simply break us and make us doubt ourselves, doubt humanity, and doubt God. “You are bad” and “You are unloved.”

I work with teens on a near daily basis, and I see them in broken family situations, and self-destructing.  It seems these two lies are the ones that destroy them the most.  I want to consider the second “You are unloved.”  It seems to start early on. Maybe parents are too busy, or fight, or divorce, or … but they don’t get told just how loved they are at home.  Then every slight or perceived slight just reinforces this lie.  Someone says something mean to them, the teacher grades harshly, or that special someone dumps them. It doesn’t take much and suddenly they start dwelling on how unloved they are. It turns into a rapid downward spiral that ends in self destruction.  I’ve worked with teens that turn to all sorts of things to either feel loved or deaden themselves to feeling unloved.  Casual sex, drinking, drugs, smoking, cutting … the list goes on and on, but it all seems rooted into this lie.

Funny thing is, I see the same thing in many adults. The feeling of “unloved” causes them to throw themselves into their work, killing themselves and cutting off the ones that should be most important to try and gain the love and respect of those same people. They turn inward and self destruct, destroying their marriages, and ultimately spreading this lie of “unloved” like a virus.

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