Our Corny Harvest Day!

After worship yesterday Lucy and I traveled to the great state of Tennessee to help out on the farm a little. There was no rest for these Savage Girls. The Savage Mama put me and my sister Anna to work and Lucy got to run around and play with Leo! Lucy was excited to be back on the family farm because she got to run around and play to her little hearts content. For "the humans" the big tasks of the day were to help put up cream-style corn, pick blackberries & raspberries, and do water aerobics in the pool. Needless to say Lucy is one exhausted little dog and she had one tired mama.

I've been helping put up corn on the farm from the time I was old enough to help pull the shucks off the ears of corn, but I don't think we have ever taken any photos until today. Here is the process we used to put up our cream-style corn. It is REAL scientific and technical!

Step 1: Shuck the corn.

Step 2: Silk the corn.

Step 3: Cut the corn off the cob.

Step 4: Blanch the corn-style corn by bringing it to a boil in a large stockpot for about 10 minutes or until it thickens. Cool corn and then package in plastic freezer bags. (Sorry I didn't take photos of this step...the Savage Mama did this while Anna and I cleaned up the shucks outside!) 

The clean-up helpers & side show entertainment Leo & Lucy! 

If you need a great resource for freezing or canning check out the National Center for Home Food Preservation. Trust me...you name it and it is on this website...freeze, can, dehydrate, cure & smoke, pickle, ferment, etc. When in doubt look up whatever you are preserving because rules and recommendations might have changed since you first learned about food preservation.

On a side note we Savage Women today harvested corn, blackberries & raspberries and the harvest was plentiful and the food preservation was easy, but we ALL should also be mindful of another type of harvest and preservation method. The Bible speaks about how that what is sown on good soil will bear fruit and high yields in Matthew 13. With "good soil" meaning that the one who hears the word of the Gospel and understands it will have plenty and gain lots...an eternal home in heaven. Have you shared the Gospel lately with anyone? I am guilty...I need to do more of this! Here are my thoughts on this topic...

• Maybe we should share with our friends the simple message that if they seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness all these things will be added to them (Matthew 6:33). 
• "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" John 3:16. 
• "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him" John 3:36. 
• In Acts chapter 2 three thousand souls were saved by obeying the gospel as they followed God's plan of salvation. They were "pricked in their hearts" by the gospel message according to Acts 2:37 and Peter told them to "repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for remission of your sins, and ye shall receive that gift of the Holy Ghost" Acts 2:38. 

I challenge you to go help with the "harvest" and help "preserve" others so that we can all meet in heaven one day when we receive the gift of eternal life after we've followed the New Testament Plan of Salvation.  Here are a few others posts I've written about God's Plan...

• Spring Cleaning (April 9, 2013)
• 3 Things I Know for Sure (That You Should Too!) (July 6, 2013) 

3 Things I Know for Sure (That You Should Too!)

For the Savage Girl the past few days have been in rewind. I have been doing a little reflecting over the past four years since my anniversary being a FCS County Extension Agent is today. I would not be where I am today without a little heartache, the exhilarating experiences, the tough moments, and the daily grind. What keeps playing in my mind is that the past is to make you better not bitter!

One of my goals this past year has been to be positive since I am so richly blessed! I am so thankful for the intervention of the man upstairs in my life and the challenges He has tested me with when things were tough and hard to bare at the moment. I would not be where I am today if not for Him! I would not have gotten to meet such great new people that have made an impact in my life and have helped me grown into the young woman I am today! I do not know what the future holds, but as I hit play on my life again I am going to try to remember the following things since these are three things that I know for sure and I think you should know them too!

1. Our goal should be eternal happiness. Yes, worldly happiness and physical happiness are awesome and great but sometimes we can be too caught up in the moment that we forget what our real prize in life should be. We should keep our eye on the prize <<<getting to heaven one day>>>! If we have God on our side then everything else will fall into place. We will make it to heaven one day if we follow His will and direction for us. If we choose man’s will and the temptation of the world then we might fall short of our goal and true success in life.
2. We all need encouragement, pats on the back, and genuine appreciation from others. As a Christian, young professional, daughter, and sister sometimes I still need advice, help, teaching, corrective criticism, and positive reinforcement! In addition, I am sure you do too! If we are honest with ourselves, we should admit that we cannot do it all and that we do not know it all. Sometimes we need others to help us see our strengths and weaknesses and then give us encouragement on how to be better instead of bitter on the curves we have been given. So if you are reading this post then be an encouragement to someone else and build relationships instead of breaking them up. If you are on the receiving end of this encouragement willingly accept it and be thankful that person is willing to make your business their business. God told older women in Titus 2 to be teachers to younger women. All it takes is one kind word and advice from a respected individual to change ones outlook in life. If you are on the hearing end of the advice...even though you might not want to hear it at that moment...LISTEN, mull over what was said, and try to take what you heard in a positive manner since the other party is doing this act out of LOVE for you.        
3. Ok, so you might have failed, now what? First, keep in mind you might fail again! But don’t let this discourage you, because we all do. Keep the words of Zig Ziglar in mind, “Make failure your teacher, not your undertaker”. You can always ask for forgiveness and learn from past mistakes, but you have to turn from that mistake and try not to commit it again. Jesus blood continuously washes us white as snow once we take him on in baptism for the remission of our sins, but we have to ask for forgiveness and continue in God's word walking in the light and being faithful unto death since the truth will set us free (John 8:31-32, Hebrews 10:23-39, Revelation 3:3, 19-22). If you want to change your ways there is an easy plan to follow...God's plan. 

In conclusion, use your past experiences and memories of yesterday to make you a better person that is not bitter. Learn from your past and do better in the future as you walk throughout your journey. Let your hair down, wear no make-up, and be you for a moment! Who knows the end result might just be a beautiful snapshot in time capturing the true essence of who you truly are?

Spring Cleaning

Have you done any "Spring Cleaning" lately? The past few weeks I have been trying to do a few projects around the house to prepare for company that is coming to my house this week. I try to keep my house neat and relatively picked up most of the time. Sometimes I get busy and things don't always get put up instantly when I am finished using them, but for the most part my house is usually "company ready". But I still like to clean a little deeper if I know I lot of people are going to be in my house for some strange reason. I know call me crazy! I also know keeping a clean and tidy house will not get me to heaven any faster...and I hope that a cluttered office at work doesn't keep me from heaven! So after tonight I am ready inside and outside of my home for my company since I just finished my "Spring Cleaning" projects. Here are a few of my favorite rooms in my home. 

I love my kitchen! I love cooking and baking in here,
but this single girl doesn't get in here nearly enough
since cooking for 1 is crazy. Yes, I eat a big majority
of my meals at home but they aren't all "home-cooked".  

The other 1/2 of the kitchen. No matter how much company
I have over we always end up in the kitchen! I am thinking my
salt and pepper collect has outgrown their shadow boxes.
Don't you think?!?! 

After a long day nothing is better than this bed...
Can you tell it's special? I love it!
(It's been in my family I'm guessing  over 50 years.)

I addition to the "Spring Cleaning" at my house I have also been doing another type of "Spring Cleaning". I have been attending and participating in a ladies bible study over the course of the past several years. In the last few months we have been cleaning house together! We just completed studying the book "Spiritual Spring Cleaning" by Debbie Schmid. This book helped me realize that just like our houses need a little "Spring Cleaning" so do our lives. We must all go through a spiritual cleaning periodically in order to be truthful to ourselves and live up to our fullest potential as Christian ladies and gentlemen.God laid out a perfect cleaning manual for everyone in the Bible. We must study the scriptures in order to find His plan of salvation. 

This year I have been challenging myself to dig deeper into the scriptures and focus more on my spiritual life. My goal is to get to heaven one day and take others with me. I am not perfect and God knows that. That is why His forgiveness and His grace is so important. His grace saves us through faith if we have belief and obedience. If we confess our sins and repent we are forgiven, but He told us that not everyone will enter the kingdom of heaven. Only those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter heaven. We have an easy plan to follow...God's plan is:  

1. You must hear the message (Romans 10:17). 
2. You must believe that Jesus is the Son of God who was sent to Earth to shed His blood, so our sins could be washed away (John 8:24).
3. You must repent of your sin. (Luke 13:3).
4. You must be willing to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Matthew 10:32-33).
5. You must be baptized in water for the forgiveness of your sins (Acts 2:38)
6. And you must remain faithful and obedient until the end of your life (Revelation  2:10). 

We all will have to give an account for our lives to God on judgement day according to Romans 14:12. If we want His love, His grace, His forgiveness, and His gift of the Holy Spirit then we all have to obey His Plan of salvation in order to have an eternal home in heaven. If you're not a Christian and have got questions let me know and maybe I can help you before it is too late. I might not know the answer instantly, but I sure know a good book we can use as a reference plus I'm sure we can always use a life line by praying to God and/or calling & seeking out the advice of another Christian! 

The reality of what people mean by saying "they’re not worth it".

Recently at bible study the topic of forgiveness was discussed and it made me think about what people have been telling me my whole life especially in the last month. People have been telling me “they’re not worth it” or “he’s not worth your time thinking about, so move on”. Sometimes people hurt us. It might be a friend, a relative, or a significant other. Maybe you have said this to someone before or even thought it before.  

Whenever friends try to say the comforting words of “they’re not worth it” or “he’s not worth your time…” to me this stings for a couple of reasons. One is the reality of moving forward and showing them grace & forgiveness and two is they don’t know & understand how I feel right now. What I think that people really want to tell me but don’t want to come right out and say is that when people hurt you— you should just move on and stop thinking about the “what ifs” and the past because you can’t change it now.

But what I really want them to say is…I understand you’re hurting. People are imperfect and don’t always know what they want, occasionally people make mistakes, and other times people do what is best at that moment because they are uncertain. Don’t try to relive the past and dwell in the “what ifs”. Thank God for His love and pray for the one who hurt you and forgive them. Eventually the hurt will disappear when you forgive them. Whatever happened is in the past is the past. Your value and self worth are not based on that person. Your time should not be spent thinking about it. Spend your time forgiving him.

In reality aren’t people who hurt us worth our time thinking about? God is superior and in His timing everything will be made alright. So I am trying to remember that friend/relative/guy is worth loving…he is worth forgiving…he is worth praying for…and he is worth my time. Like I’ve said before, “You is kind, you is smart, you is important” and forgiveness is one of the steps to mending the rough spots along your road so you can begin moving forward with life and feel kind, smart and important again. For me forgiveness brings peace and "life is good" again. And yes, I'm there now hence the post.  

Goals, Plans, Dreams & Wishes...Oh My!

Today at my in-service I learned the following things

 

This got me to thinking tonight...My goal is to get to heaven someday. Yes, it would be nice to have someone to share that goal with that would help me achieve it and be an encouragement along the way. I am content with waiting and being on reserve until I find the right person who deserves my heart and vice versa. I know that I am worthy and deserve so much that I am unwilling to settle for just anyone or anything in life. Some people call this picky, but I feel that my selectiveness if a very valid. Within our society today, the world views relationships and marriage & divorce as disposable and replaceable objects like diapers. Why did I choose the metaphor of a diaper…because whenever they get smelly, stinky or too full they are thrown out and a new one is in place almost within minutes. What happened to cloth diapers that were washed and cleaned daily & took skill to whiten and keep bright from those pesky stains? 

Being a single Christian allows one to have a deeper relationship with God and serve him more fully according to 1 Corinthians 7. God has a plan for everyone. God has a plan for some to marry and for others he wants them to have contentment in singleness. I know God has a plan for my life and my goal is to fulfill his purpose within my life. Like I have said throughout my blog I am unsure what my future holds and what God’s plan for me is, but then again who is 100% certain? I am looking for God to help fill in those gaps because I know that within due time…when God thinks that I am ready…I am sure that His plan will be revealed to me within His timing. God has a plan and I cannot wait to see the “Providence” in the upcoming years to see how everything ties together.

My prayer is that God helps me be content regardless of whatever else does or does not happen in my life. I also pray for patience and peace as His plan is revealed within my life. “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:11-13.   

So, I’m on this journey through life growing in my trust of the Lord and believing that He has a plan for me so that I can reach my goal. My short-term goal currently is to move forward with a positive attitude, confident and content while practicing peace, obedience, and patience.        

 

Fresh Start

In the past few weeks, months, and years I have been asking myself several questions like “what is my plan now”, “what kind of person does God want me to be”, and “what’s next”. These are questions that I have been thinking over in my head but have never told anyone because I did not think that anyone desired to hear them. However, it is a “New Year” and I thought why not share and get them off my chest so that I can start to “see” them in action as they happen.

I know God has a plan for each of us but we just sometimes do not know where that plan is going to lead us. Looking back I never dreamed that I would be where I am today at the age of 27, but I know that it was God’s plan for me to be where I am today. I just do not know what is next because it is still evolving! Like many of you, my past has molded me into who I am today. The path sometimes has not been easy it has come with its own set of challenges and problems. I am not perfect! I have made my own set of mistakes along the way. However, what I know is that I am a better person because of my past and now I am patiently waiting for the next road and wherever it may lead me. I know we need to hold fast to His word and seek out His advice through prayer and reading His word. He will give us answers and help us with decisions if we seek it out. Your road map might seem uncharted, like mine, but I know that looking back at my past God has played a large role in making me the godly woman that I am today and that He desires me to be in the future.   

With all that said it is a “New Year with a "New Fresh Start”! The calendar is clean except the ten days that have already passed.  The opportunities are ready, boundless, and limitless so journey with me as I begin my travels and adventures in 2013.