The Lord, Limes, and Pie


I made my first truly homemade key lime pie today. Not the kind that comes in a box and you assemble it together, but instead the from scratch, every single aspect of its deliciousness, kind of pie.  One of my kids has been begging for a key lime pie and the other day I bought a bunch of limes on clearance at the grocery store so I looked up a recipe, and I was surprised at how uncomplicated it sounded.  Graham cracker crust, sweetened condensed milk, sour cream, some lime zest and 1 cup of juice from freshly squeezed limes.  Easy, right?  Mixing the first two ingredients together was painless enough and then I began cutting and squeezing the pile of limes in front of me. After dissecting a few of them, I was surprised to discover what little amount of juice each lime actually possessed.  After about the 7thlime or so, and having only about half a cup of juice at this point, my hands started to ache from all of the squeezing.  I wasn’t aware that in order to make a key lime pie from freshly squeezed limes you needed about 500 limes or so! As I’m squeezing, and aching, and now stinging from the juice getting under my nail beds, I thought, this is a lot of work, way too much work for one stinkin pie! In the middle of that thought, my conversation with God last night popped into my head as well. Lately, I’ve been telling Him that 7 kids is a lot of work for one woman and that I should be given some leniency in the whole training up my children part of the deal.  I mean, did He think I was Wonder Woman or something?   I just didn’t feel like it would be fair for Him to hold me to the same sort of accountability standards as mothers who have only 2 or 3 kids. The diligence of consistently training them, showing them, guiding them, setting a good example for them, and being patient with them – that was where I thought He could maybe cut me a break occasionally, especially with the patient part of it all which lately has not always been entirely Galatians 5:22 like.   I feel like I’ve been squeezed about as dry as can be with this fruit, a bit like these limes if I do say so myself.   Each child deserves my patience, each child needs my patience, but my goodness, 7 under 10 – it  would try Mother Teresa’s patience on certain days I do believe.   They still like me and want my attention and that can be emotionally, physically, and spiritually draining at times as they all tell me anything about everything just about all day long. I’ve been told to cherish these moments because a day is coming, very, very soon, where they won’t necessarily want to talk to me so much anymore, and I’m aware that the days are coming when they start to pull away to discover their independence apart from me.  But right now, in these times, I’m struggling to find the balance between enjoying these precious moments and in not feeling like some worn out, squeezed to death gigantic pile of limes.  And then another thought dawned on me, this used up pile of limes made a beautiful, whole, incredibly tasty pie.  Lord, I’ll keep giving you my entirely squeezed up moments as long as you promise to continue making a beautiful, delectable, mouth – watering pie out of them every time. “And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns” Philippians 1:6.
Just Keep Livin!!

My Prayer

Lately I’ve felt such a defined sense of the beginning and endings of our lives here on earth.  Maybe it has to do with my experiences with the deaths of four people close to me – all in the last 2 years.  Each person played a profound role in my life; first my late husband in 2010, then, my maternal grandfather in 2011, and now both of my paternal grandparents in 2012. The brevity of our time here on earth has been heavy on my heart and on my mind for it truly is like a vapor “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away” James 4:14. We are here today and gone tomorrow so how do we make our short amount of time significant?   I’ve been asking, “Lord, What is it really all about?  These lives that you bless us with, what are we supposed to do with them?” I believe many would cringe at the words life and blessing even being used in the same sentence to describe their own lives for I think a vast majority feel a kind of mundane existence on a day to day basis.  Not even necessarily a peaceful or contented existence, but a grindful reality where joy comes from a weekend of not working or a lazy Sunday afternoon watching football or a trip to the mall spending well earned money on more things that nobody really needs.  Where is our joy in this life?  What is the purpose of it all? This prayer has been playing over and over in my mind lately, and God has been imprinting it upon my heart, almost as a daily reminder for all of the “Whys” that I ask.    Maybe it can be helpful to you as well as you ask yourself, what is this all about?  Am I content to live in a sort of dull, lifeless, passionless existence or will I ask God, “What would you have ME do?  How can my life bring you glory Lord with whatever time you see fit to grant me breath?”

Lord, use me today.  Everything within me I give to you for your use and for your glory.  Use my life, every single aspect of it, the good, the bad, the ugly, the pains, the deep scars, the beautiful circumstances, my actions, my inactions, my words and thoughts, my obedience, or lack of obedience – May it ALL be used for your glory and to further your kingdom.  Use my past, use my present and use my future to further ignite the ultimate cause –grace heaped upon grace reaching to the farthest corners of this planet and within the darkest crevices of the human soul.   Use the fight in me always for good and never for evil; and use my strength to serve as a battle shield against the firing darts of the evil one. May I never look at life with purely earthly eyes but always allow me the ability to see beyond the here and now and to grasp the big picture even if I don’t understand it in the moment.  Wring my cells, my heart, my mind, my soul, completely empty of everything that can be used, every single drop of talent or ability, it is yours Lord.   May I always give you all the glory until I breathe my last and you call me home, and I leave behind only a pile of nothingness in the spiritual realm as your heavenly angels escort me to your presence.  And last but not least, may I hear the words that every servant of the most High God yearns to hear one day, “Well done, good and faithful servant, well done”. To Him be the glory and the honor and the power forever and ever, Amen.
Just keep livin!!