Thanksgiving

November 27, 2014

I have so much to be thankful for this year.  God has blessed me with an amazing husband, a wonderful home, and wonderful children and life.

I never thought I would have the opportunity to have a joyous  Thanksgiving.  I had previously been married for almost 23 years, where I endured emotional, verbal, and some physical abuse.  My ex had given me STD's twice.  I had become so calloused  to the fact that you endure abuse and that I did not deserve better.   Even my pastor's wife (my cousin) told me I had to stay.  Every Thanksgiving and Christmas ended with me being told how i had failed in everything I tried to do to make a happy home and  I was fat,  lazy, ugly and worthless.  I spent every night after the fest ivies  in tears and asking God  what I could do to be the wife I should be.

The  marriage counselor (he took me because he said I was the one needing help) and my doctor was concerned for my safety.  The hard part I will never understand was  the church I had previously attended had "sided" with my ex-husband, even tho they knew he was abusive.  I was told to "buck up and take it, you haven't had to go through what my son has."  I have found since that time, I am not the only one to receive ungodly counsel  from their home church.

I  began attending a church that supported me in prayer.  After marriage counseling and sitting in church listening to a Pentecostal Holiness Minister, God showed me that was not how he had intended for a marriage to be and sometimes divorce happens and its not your fault.  The man is to treat his wife as Christ treats the church and gave himself for it.  I also was given peace that when God opens a door and says "GO", you need to go.

One day, a week before Thanksgiving, my ex came to me and ask "When are you going to get out."  That was my third sign it is time and God had the door open.

My ex began attending the church that had been praying with me and for me.  (He did not stay with the church after I began attending another) I could not handle sitting in the same church with him, i was too broken.   God  gave me another church.   A church where they "listened" to God and yes if you was wrong, it was brought forth.   God also gave me the message, when God brings you out of the pig pen, he doesn't mean for you to return and waller in what he delivered you from.  It was prophesied to me that I would regain more than I lost.  It was also revealed to me by a visiting minister ( who did not know me)  that I wasn't the one who was wrong.  I had done my best to walk with a pure heart before God and do my husband right.  That my heart looked like it had been "winded " up in a roll of barbed wire and cut and sliced in pieces.   Yes, that is exactly how I felt.

As of today, God has kept his promise to me.  Things that was taken away are now being restored.  I have a wonderful husband, and at times I really do not know how to handle his love  and caring for me.  Yes I have received MORE than the devil  has taken away.   God has proven himself faithful to me time  and time again.    Through the years, he never left me, he never forsake me.  He is restoring everything to me.  He has given me beauty for my ashes.

Isaiah 61:1-3
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;   To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;  To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.

To God be the glory,
 

Grandma's Fish Cakes

Grandpa was a guide on Bull Shoals Lake, so fish was always abundant.  Grandma would can fish, so fish cakes were common at Grandma’s house.

Here is Grandma’s recipe:

3-4 cups of fish – take out bones

2 eggs

1 1/2 – 2 cups crackers
1/4 cup flour

chopped onion

salt and pepper to taste.

Grandma always fried hers in bacon grease.

Grandpa was a guide on Bull Shoals Lake, so fish was always abundant.  Grandma would can fish, so fish cakes were common at Grandma’s house.

Here is Grandma’s recipe:

3-4 cups of fish – take out bones

2 eggs

1 1/2 – 2 cups crackers

chopped onion

salt and pepper to taste.

Grandma always fried hers in bacon grease.

Hannah's Turkey Recipe

When Hannah was in preschool, they ask them how mommy cooked Thanksgiving dinner.  Here is Hannah’s take on cooking the turkey.

You get up while everyone else is sleeping.  

You take the turkey out of the fridge and put it in the sink.  You give it a bath.  You put butter and stuff under its clothes.  

Then you put it in the “fan” and put it in the oven at 500 and cook it all morning until it is time to eat.  

Then you take it out and pray for it.  Then you eat it.

You have to love how children see things!

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