The Lifegiving Woman

God sees you my friend. Pass it on.

The Discipline of Restoration

Do not pity the dead, pity the living and above all those who live without love"

- Albus Dumbledore

What does it take to move forward after a time of trauma and crisis? In my experience, it takes both grace and discipline. Restoration is truly a gift of God, but it also requires effort and intention on our part. They are deliberate choices that really make a difference. The following “disciplines” have helped me tremendously as I tried to recover from devastating difficulties in my life:

• Discipline #1: Hope. The discipline of hope involves saying yes to your restoration and actually asking for what you need. It also involves choosing hope as an attitude when it’s far removed from what you’re actually feeling.
• Discipline #2: Trust. It’s always a conscious choice, a true discipline, to remember what you know of God’s character and to hold on to the reality that God sees you. During hard times, it’s even more of a challenge, but it’s the key to experiencing God’s comfort. The Psalms often speak of God as a refuge, a hiding place. But you can’t experience this great gift unless you choose to trust Him.
• Discipline #3: Waiting and watching. This involves listening in stillness, waiting on the Lord, trusting His timing, actively looking for the signs of His presence and His activity. . . . For me, this kind of watchful silence is sometimes the most strenuous discipline of all.
• Discipline #4: Honesty and transparency. In the aftermath of trauma, that could mean shouting at God and telling Him how you feel. It can mean refusing to put on a happy face or . . . insist that everything is all right when it isn’t. There are certainly times when you need to control your feelings for the sake of others. But your restoration absolutely depends on finding a place to confess your honest thoughts and feelings—at very least, in prayer, in a journal, or with a few friends who are close to you.
• Discipline #5: “Controlling the wild horses.” I love the way my friend Emily Davis, who has endured more trauma than most people I know, describes this. She’s referring to that tendency we all have, but trauma victims have more than most, to let our “vain imaginations” run away with us (see Romans 1:21–22 KJV). If we give in just a little to fear and panic and worry, those emotions can quickly take control of our lives. So while we need to be honest with our feelings, we also need to be alert to the ways our thoughts can run away with us and learn to rein in the runaway thoughts.
• Discipline #6: Obedience instead of instinct. Our instincts can serve us well in the early moments of trauma. A “fight or flight” response could actually save our lives in an accident. But as we move from survival toward restoration, our instincts can begin to get in the way of what God wants to do with our lives. Your instinct may be to pull away and withdraw when you need to press in to relationships. . . . Because I am an active, “can do” type of person, I tend to rush in instead of waiting on God’s timing. But I’m learning (slowly!) that obedience sometimes has to trump instinct in this, too. We have to act on the light we’re given, do what we know to do. And all this takes both courage and discipline.
• Discipline #7: Forgiveness. This is perhaps the most difficult of the disciplines … and the most healing. It’s not something you can accomplish all at once or something you can do without God’s help. But the more you move toward forgiveness, the more you free yourself to move forward in your life.
• Discipline #8: Gratitude. This means simply looking for signs of God’s presence in our lives and resolving, by an act of will, to give thanks in all things (see 1 Thess. 5:18). Doing this even when it feels forced or artificial has a way of opening our eyes and shifting our perspective to see what God is doing.
• Discipline #9: Modeling faith and integrity. This absolutely does not mean faking a faith, covering up doubts, or sacrificing our integrity to our witness. But it’s good to realize that the way we live our own restoration can have a powerful impact on other people’s relationships with God. The more honestly and trustingly we can walk, the more integrity we manage, the more we confess our mistakes but accept forgiveness … the more others will be blessed and helped, and the more full our own restoration will be.

 

Adapted from The God Who Sees You by Tammy Maltby (with Anne Christian Buchanan). Copyright 2012 David C. Cook. Used with permission. Permission required to reproduce. All rights reserved.

A Miracle You Choose

 Several years ago I conducted a television interview with a man who was struggling with cancer. I asked him a fairly typical Christian interview question: “Are you trusting God for a miracle?” And I have never forgotten his reply: “Tammy I’ve learned that sometimes the greatest miracle is just a perspective change.”

That man said a lot of insightful things that day, but it was that one phrase that kept echoing in my mind. It’s still echoing, in fact, because it has proven true so often in my life. I’ve learned never to underestimate the power of changing the way I see. And I’ve come to believe that often in our lives, we won’t be able to perceive the God who sees us until we’re willing to see things differently.

I believe it’s perfectly possible to spend an entire lifetime looking at ordinary things and events—family, friends, fear, and disappointments—and never have the smallest hint that God is there or that He is active in our lives.

It’s easy. Happens all the time.

It’s possible to look back on a life—all the things that have happened up till now—and not see any kind of pattern. It’s also possible to look into the future and see more of the same. It’s even possible to have an occasional glimpse into another dimension, a one-time spiritual awakening, then lapse back into the ordinary and never really be changed.

But here’s the alternative: We can choose to spend life in the same circumstances, the same places, among all the same people, and continually be struck by the wonderful truth that God is there, that He’s in control, that He loves us and is aware of us and wants us to be part of what He’s doing in the world.

There’s a kind a miracle, in other words, that we can choose. We can choose the miracle of a perspective change.

Does that mean that seeing God is just a matter of personal choice?

Not exactly.

It’s always a little difficult to sort out what we can choose and what we can’t choose in this life. Theologians have been trying to sort it out for centuries, juggling concepts of God’s sovereignty and human free will, delving into the mysteries of what is up to us and what is up to God.

It’s a mystery, a paradox—that God is in control of the entire universe, yet He gives us freedom of will. And that paradox is fully in play when it comes to seeing God.

Because ultimately, it is God’s choice to reveal Himself to us.

But we must choose to see what God reveals. We must have what the Bible calls eyes to see and ears to hear and a heart to perceive what the God who sees us is doing in our lives.

 

Adapted from The God Who Sees You by Tammy Maltby (with Anne Christian Buchanan). Copyright 2012 David C. Cook. Used with permission. Permission required to reproduce. All rights reserved.

 

Pink Lemonade Pound Cake

Found this wonderful cake on Pinterest.http://www.sugarbabyaprons.com Of course. It is my other world. I love Pinterst. My husband calls it fantasy football for women!

A beautiful cake to make for Easter brunch or dinner.  I am going to add easter eggs to the center of the cake. Sure to please my grandson!

Happy Easter friends!

 

Pink Lemonade Pound Cake

1 package lemon cake mix
1 (3 ounce) package instant lemon pudding mix
4 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup pink lemonade concentrate
4 drops pink or red food color, optional

Glaze:
1 cup frozen pink lemonade concentrate, thawed
1/2 cup white sugar


Recipe
1) Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour one 10-inch tube pan or
bundt pan.

2) Combine the cake mix, lemon pudding mix, eggs, vegetable oil, 1/2
cup lemon concentrate and the milk. Mix until smooth. Pour the batter
into the prepared pan.

3) Bake at 350 for 50 minutes to 1 hour.

Remove from oven and prick cake all over with a fork. Immediately
pour lemonade glaze over top of cake.

Let cake stand in pan until almost cool.

LEMONADE GLAZE:
Combine the remaining thawed frozen lemonade and the white sugar. Mix
thoroughly and pour over still warm cake.

This glaze above makes the cake so moist!

Frosting for cake:

1. Melt 1/4 cup of butter in a saucepan or microwave. 2. Sift 2 cups of powdered sugar into a medium size bowl. 3. Add the melted butter to the powdered sugar. 4. Add 2 tablespoons of cream. 5. If desired either add 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract or 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla for flavor. 6. Beat until smooth and creamy adding a little more milk if necessary. Add pink food coloring and rizzle over a cooled cake. 

Coconut Cream Easter Cake

You will either love or hate me for this one!

This cake is just the best thing around. And a easy dessert for this Easter.

Ready for this?

You start with a boxed cake mix...and yes it is that easy. This cake is moist, rich and feeds a crowd! I top the cake with malted chocolate Easter Eggs! It is an easy and beautiful Easter Dessert!

As told by Tammy Maltby on Focus on the Family’s Your Family Live! webcast 
http://www.focusonlinecommunities.com/docs/DOC-1934 

Coconut Cream Cake
1 pkg. white or yellow cake mix 
1 pkg. (4 serving size) cheese cake flavored instant pudding  
1 1/3 cups water 
1/2 cup vegetable oil 
4 large eggs 
2 tea vanilla 
1 1/3 cups Baker’s angel flake coconut 
1 cup chopped nuts 
Berries of all kinds
 
Combine cake mix, pudding mix, water, eggs and oil in large mixer bowl. Blend; beat 
at medium speed for 4 minutes. Stir in coconut and nuts and vanilla. (You can omit 
the nuts and added ½ cup more coconut.) Pour into greased and floured 8 or 9 inch 
cake rounds. Bake at 325 degrees for 35‐40 minutes. Cool 15 minutes in pan. 
Remove from pan. Fully cool on rack.    

Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting: Cream 1/3 cup butter; blend in 2 pkg. of 3 oz cream 
cheese, Add 1 box (16 oz) confectioners’ sugar, alternately with 4 tsp milk, beating 
well after each addition. Add ½ tsp vanilla or almond extract. Spread frosting over 
top and sides of cake. Sprinkle with 2 cups Baker’s Angel Flake Coconut over frosting. 
  

You can't spin God.

Here’s something I’m finally getting through my head after all my years: You can’t spin God.

You can’t manipulate the way you come across to Him, putting a carefully calculated foot forward. You can’t give Him a little bit of you and make it look good or acceptable and then tuck the rest away.

We all do that with other people. Some of us do it a lot. We manipulate the way we appear to people or even to ourselves, doing whatever we can to make ourselves look a little better than we are or a little more clever, a little more selfless or a little more cool. We may even “’fess up” to a smaller sin in order to hide something even deeper.

Sometimes we do it on purpose. Sometimes we do it by reflex and don’t even know what we’re doing. All too often, we even manage to fool ourselves.

But none of that works with God because He sees beyond the spin. He looks right through the image you project to others and even—maybe especially—the lies you give yourself and the issues you may not recognize.

Right through to the person you really are.

“For God sees not as man sees,” the Bible tells us, “for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7 nasb).

That means there’s no use even trying to pretend with Him. In fact, the more you pay attention to God and the closer you draw to Him, the more you’ll learn about who you are and who you can be—because God sees your complete self and can reveal it to you. He can shine His light on the hurt places and the sin places, revealing in order to redeem and to heal.

Jesus did exactly that in the Gospels. He looked at people and cut through their hypocrisy, their self-protection, their fear and confusion and delusions. Again and again He put His finger not only on who they really were, but on what they needed most.

When the scribes and Pharisees tried to trick Him with their questions and accusations, He punctured their pretenses, revealing their pride and spiritual bankruptcy.

When the rich young ruler asked what he needed to do about eternal life, Jesus cut right through to the man’s weak spot: his materialistic values (Mark 10:17-22).

When the Samaritan woman at the well misrepresented her family situation, He zeroed in on her brokenness, her loneliness, her troubled past. As she later related to her neighbors, He “told me everything I ever did.” Then He offered her what she needed most: the gift of Himself (John 4:1–42).

And later, when Simon Peter loudly proclaimed His love and loyalty—“I’ll never betray you!”—Jesus gently skewered his bravado and predicted His friend would do exactly what he never wanted to do (Matt. 26:31–35).

It’s not a comfortable thing, being seen as we are, without spin, without pretense. It can be embarrassing, humiliating, even devastating. And some people, like the Pharisees, just can’t take it. But being seen as we are can also be liberating, once we realize that the God who sees us as we are also loves us exactly as we are.

When we’re so tired we can’t think straight.

When we’re worrying about finances or obsessing about a dinner that needs to go just right or so furious we just can’t keep our mouths shut.

When we do a hard thing and fall on our face or want to do the right thing and don’t quite manage it.

When we quietly serve others, then grumble because no one notices.

God sees it all. And none of it changes the way He looks at us.

And He knows who we can be and who He has created us to be.

Adapted from The God Who Sees You by Tammy Maltby (with Anne Christian Buchanan). Copyright 2012 David C. Cook. Used with permission. Permission required to reproduce. All rights reserved. The God Who Sees You

Garlic Black Bean Beef Enchiladas and Green Chilli Sauce

This is one of the best recipes I have EVER made! It is darn right amazing. I just made four (yes count them...) FOUR pans of these Enchiadas!

Make it this weekend for your family or friends. The house will smell wonderful!
Double it and freeze one recipe (wait to bake until you use it) or give to a friend.

They will think you brought GOLD.
Wowza!
Enjoy!

Garlic Black Bean Beef Enchiladas and Green Chilli Sauce

SERVINGS: 6

TIME: Prep: 30 min. Bake: 40 min.

Ingredients:
1 pound low fat ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
1 can black bean with chillies rinsed
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon rubbed sage
1 can (14-1/2 ounces) stewed tomatoes (with cumin if you can find)

NOTE: I also make this with a can of chopped black or green olives...or any kind of stuffed olive...add with the black beans.

SAUCE:
6-8 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 can (14-1/2 ounces) beef broth (use high quality)
1 can (15 ounces) tomato sauce
1 4 oz can of green chilis chopped
2-3 tablespoons chili powder
2-3 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons rubbed sage
1/2 teaspoon garlic or onion salt
10 flour tortillas (7-8 inches)
4 cups (16 ounces) shredded Colby-Monterey Jack cheese

Directions:

In a large saucepan, cook beef and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in the flour and seasonings until blended. Stir in tomatoes; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, in another saucepan, saute garlic in butter until tender. Stir in flour until blended. Gradually stir in broth; bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Stir in tomato sauce green chillis and seasonings; heat through.

Pour about 1-1/2 cups sauce into an ungreased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish. Spread about 1/3 cup of the black bean beef mixture down the center of each tortilla; top with 4 tablespoons cheese. Roll up tightly; place seam side down over sauce. Top in the middle with the remaining sauce.

Cover and bake at 350° for 30-35 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake, uncovered, 10-15 minutes longer or until the cheese is melted. Yield: 6 servings.

Serve with brown rice and orange and grapefruit tossed salad.

God sees you and He doesn’t leave you there.
He’s a God who acts.
He sees your weariness … and offers you His strength.
He sees your feelings of inadequacy...and offers you His completeness.
He sees your pain … and suffers beside you.
He sees your doubt … and gives you reason to trust Him.
He sees your worry and your anger … and offers you peace.
He sees your small steps of obedience … and cheers you on.
He sees you stumbling … and helps you back on your feet.
He sees your loneliness … and offers you His presence.
In all your daily needs, even those you don’t know you have, He provides for you appropriately, often in ways you would never expect.
The longer I live, the more I’m convinced that God never looks away from what we’re going through. He is the God who suffers and rejoices with us on a daily basis. He sees it all clearly—even when we don’t.

http://youtu.be/fy8iK2PCnOA

You’re on His radar all the time.

God Is Mindful of You 

I’ve heard people say, “God has enough to worry about without paying attention to my little problems.”

Don’t believe it.

The “God is too busy” idea is a misconception that keeps us from understanding how God sees us. It assumes that God is limited in His attention span, His energy, His capacity for love. And everything I read in the Bible, everything I experience when I keep my spirit open to my heavenly Father, convinces me that’s just not true.

Clearly God is God. He’s perfectly capable of keeping the universe on course and still knowing and loving you intimately. Don’t let yourself fall into the heresy that God is too busy or limited or indifferent to be concerned with you personally.

The Bible says specifically that the Lord is “mindful” of us (Ps. 103:14). That He is thinking about us. He remembers us always. That He watches over us tenderly and never slumbers or sleeps. . . .

That means God knows what’s going on with you 24-7. You’re on His radar all the time. Even if no one else sees you, God does. In fact, He knows every detail about you. Like a doting mother or a passionate lover, He has you memorized. The Bible says God even keeps track of every single hair on your head (Matt. 10:30). So of course He knows about your food allergies and your tendency toward depression and your imperfect body. Even the things that annoy you about yourself or pose serious challenges are part of the entire package God sees and notices and loves.

God is intimately aware of everything about you—every detail.

You never stop being on His mind.

I came to understand this more completely recently because of a little experiment I tried while I was caring for my grandson, Cohen. I happened to be reading a passage from the book of Isaiah that speaks eloquently of God’s mindfulness:

I will not forget you!

See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. (Isa. 49:15–16)

I looked down at Cohen. And then, on a whim, I grabbed an indelible marker and wrote his name on my own palm. I would never have guessed how often during the next few days that I would look down and see that baby’s name! I’d be reminded of how I love him, how special he is. Most of the time I’d take a quick moment to pray for him. He was constantly on my mind—just as each one of us is constantly on the mind of our heavenly Father.

But God doesn’t just notice you. He doesn’t just keep track of what you’re doing. He also delights in you (Ps. 149:4). He truly thinks you’re wonderful. He’s proud of you.

Think of the implications of having a heavenly Father who sees you this way. He celebrates you and actually enjoys your company. He loves the sound of your voice, recognizes your walk, and chooses to be near you constantly. He loves to spend time with you and loves for you to spend time with Him, both alone and in the company of His other children.

And this is crucial to remember: There is nothing you can do to change the way God sees you. Nothing you can do to make Him love you any less. When you rebel, when you forget Him, when you get lost or fail—He doesn’t stop desiring you or delighting in you.

He is the God who sees and is mindful of you.

Log on you youtube to watch the new video trailer for The God Who Sees You! http://youtu.be/fy8iK2PCnOA

Now available at Amazon.com  The God Who Sees You! 

Adapted from The God Who Sees You by Tammy Maltby (with Anne Christian Buchanan). Copyright 2012 David C. Cook. Used with permission. Permission required to reproduce. All rights reserved.

 

The God Who Sees You...Gets It

“You just don’t get it!”

Ever hear that from the mouth of a teenager? Back when I had four of them in the house at once, I heard it a lot—often punctuated with the slam of a door or a toss of the head. My son and daughters all had times when they were convinced I had no clue what they were going through or what their lives were like.

And you know what? In a way, they were right. I had forgotten a lot about what it was like to be young—to obsess over grades, walk the popularity gauntlet at school, and experience my first heartbreak. Plus, some of the things my kids experienced were just not part of my world when I was their age. Drugs and alcohol did not figure into my daily school reality. I had no cell phone, no pressure to be bone thin, no parents walking through divorce. Internet porn didn’t even exist when I was a kid.

The truth is, understanding what my kids’ lives were like required a huge effort of imagination on my part, plus a fair amount of research. Sometimes I succeeded in “getting it,” but often I didn’t—and my kids knew that.

Have you ever felt that way about God? Have you ever suspected that He just doesn’t get what it’s like to be you?

It’s one thing to be seen. It’s another thing—a wonderful thing—to be loved. But can an all-powerful, purely good God truly appreciate what it’s like to be human—subject to sin and sniffles, dirt and disease, pushed around by our hormones and our families, vulnerable to grief and pain?

Can a perfect Being understand what it’s like to be far from perfect?

He certainly understands the limitations of our bodies because He made us in the first place. “He knows our frame,” the psalmist insists. “He remembers that we are dust” (Ps. 103:14)—or, as Eugene Petersen translates, “that we’re made of mud.” God’s well aware of our physical limitations, our emotional shortcomings, the way our histories and our choices have limited or even crippled us. And somehow, under it all, He sees potential. . . .

But God did so much more than understand our limitations. . . . God actually chose to become human—which means He really gets it.

He actually put on skin and flesh and became what we are. We call it the incarnation. The coming of Jesus.

When God chose to be born on earth as Jesus, He accepted the reality of nerve endings. He learned what it was like to need sleep, to be hungry, to be lonely and disappointed. He experienced life through the five senses. He heard children laughing and maniacs screaming. He gazed at dancing flowers and leprous feet. He reveled in clean, smooth linen and felt the stab of thorns on His brow. He enjoyed the salty tang of fresh-caught fish and tasted vinegar from a sponge. He inhaled the smell of bread baking and the unmistakable stench of death.

Jesus laughed. He wept. He knew what it was like to live in a human family, to be held in a mother’s arms and looked up to by little brothers and sisters and supported by loving friends. He also knew what it was like to be hated and rejected by others for doing good. He knew what it was like to feel forgotten and ignored and invisible.

And yes, He knew temptation, too. The Bible says Jesus was “tempted in every way, just as we are” (Heb. 4:15). He knew what it was like to feel the pull of the flesh, to want to give in to selfishness or pride or lust or just plain weariness, to want to take the easy route instead of the right one. Even, perhaps, to be disobedient to His calling.

“Tempted,” the Bible says, “in every way.” Jesus’ decision to turn away from temptation, to show the world it was possible to be human and not sin, came with a mighty struggle. He knows firsthand what it means to wrestle with weakness.

And if God didn’t get suffering before the incarnation, He certainly understood it once He became human. Fear, anger, hunger, thirst, suffering, even death—because He chose to become human, God has experienced it all.

He’s the God who gets it, who can love us from a place of true understanding.

Adapted from The God Who Sees You by Tammy Maltby (with Anne Christian Buchanan). Copyright 2012 David C. Cook. Used with permission. Permission required to reproduce. All rights reserved.