On What We're Missing

Compassion International is in Peru this week. Twice yearly Compassion sends out a team of bloggers to bring back stories from one of the 26 countries Compassion serves. Compassion serves two million children worldwide and 55,000 of them reside in Peru.

I've been following these trips since 2010, when Kristin Welsh traveled to the slums of Kenya, revealing the worst physical poverty imaginable. That trip changed both her heart and mine, forever. A year after her trip she opened a home in Kenya for abused, orphaned, pregnant teens. And for my part, I resolved to never stop writing about abject poverty. I will do it until my fingers and my voice take their final rest, no matter how uncomfortable it makes people, and it does do that.

Your heart will squirm and you won't know what to think, much less say or do. And that not knowing might last a couple years, depending on your own level of wealth. Some people have enough wealth that sponsoring five or ten children doesn't change their lifestyle, so the decision is easy. The less wealth you have, the more you won't know what to do because the little you have won't seem like enough. Never make that mistake. Sponsoring even one child can change a whole community significantly. Some people have such tight budgets that $38 a month will seem impossible. But with God, nothing is impossible. 

You give, and then watch your own needs be met. Not necessarily your wants, but your needs. It's part of God's promise in Matthew 6:33: But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (These things refers to food, clothing, shelter.)

Enormous progress has been made in fighting abject poverty in the last 50 years. A day will come when this problem won't be the world's most pressing. That day will come and it starts with you.

No trip since Kenya has equaled it in terms of the depth of poverty revealed, but the stories continue to change me. I've not yet experienced a Compassion trip to Haiti, but I imagine the physical poverty is similar there and perhaps even worse than Kenya, due to Haiti's 2010 earthquake.

We can't really understand what Jesus wants from us until we're exposed to abject poverty, either first-hand or through story and pictures. If the writer is good enough, it will seem like you're there too.

I urge you not to run. Don't refuse to click the first time, and don't refuse to click subsequent times. We need to know what Jesus wants.  Residing in the first world is not life as most humans know it. We have everything, and yet we're missing so much. 

Deut. 15:7. If there is a poor man among you, one of your brothers, in any of the towns of the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand to your poor brother; but you shall freely open your hand to him, and generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks.

Read the stories coming out of Peru this week and learn what you're missing. And what you can do.

Clicking the Peru banner at the top of my blog will take you to the stories too.

Matthew 25:41-46⁴¹ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴² For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ ⁴⁴ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ ⁴⁵ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ ⁴⁶ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Homemaking: Taming the House

Amish house

When Mama ain't happy, no one's happy!

Does that ring true in your house? Do you walk from one room to another looking at your floor, noticing Lincoln Log pieces, tiny pony beads, waded-up paper, dirty socks, the pajamas your son never put in the hamper? The stray puzzle pieces that never made it into the box?

Do you hang up clean shirts in your son's bedroom, only to notice the clean jeans and shirts he rejected and threw on the floor?

Here's a peek into my heart. "For heaven's sake! I spend the bulk of a day doing laundry and he has the audacity to throw down what I've painstakingly fluffed and hung? What kind of blatant disrespect is that? What's the matter with that kid? What's wrong with all these kids and why in heaven's name must they create a disaster in their wake every. single. day.? How many times must they see me erupt before they get it?"

When I spout a verbal tirade about their disrespect of my time and our environment, what usually follows is some problem solving on my part. (They just get quiet for awhile, wondering when it will blow over).

What can I do better? What will it take to create a smooth-running home? How can we clean up faster and start school earlier? Should we start leaving the mess until after school?

If you homeschool you're likely to have a few more meltdowns than your friend next door, who cleans her house while her kids are away at school all day. She probably pays bills, organizes, and grocery shops while they're gone too (not that there's anything wrong with that).

If you find yourself melting down like me, let's spend some time together working through our issues over the next few weeks. I'll share what's worked for me and you can share too.

Helpful Things I've Implemented:

Catch Up Day:  I recommend you have one school day a week that doesn't require you to teach or monitor. My boys, ages 9 and 10, read their historical novels, their science trade books, their non-fiction social studies selections, and do their math, AWANA, and devotional times without my help. I'm needed for their spelling, writing, and for discussions of readings.

My 5-year-old K student is in a very dependent mode, needing me for penmanship, reading and writing, and math. Daddy does science with her on the weekends and he discusses the boys' science reading with them and conducts experiments on weekends too.

In order to have one day a week to catch up on the house, I give my K student one day off, except for a little penmanship practice and her AWANA verses. On this same day, my boys don't do spelling, writing, or have discussions of readings. My day is mostly free then, to catch up.

However you need to arrange it, give yourself one day to concentrate on the house. Enlist your older children to dust, vacuum and sweep, so you can tackle the unfolded laundry and other clutter. 10-year-old Peter does very well with these chores, but 9-year-old Paul is still learning. Most of the time Paul helps me by reading to the girls and leading them in art projects, so I can stay focused on decluttering.

Bag and Label Game Pieces/Parts:
Older kids play with games and cards more than toys. That means hundreds of game pieces and cards all over the house, potentially. After a number of meltdowns over this (my meltdowns not theirs), I took all the board games and bagged their parts into plastic ziplock bags, and labeled the bags with a Sharpie marker. We have 2 small toy bins that hold these ziplocked game bags, and on the outside of the bins I listed all the games represented in the bags. The actual manufacture game boxes only contain the game boards themselves--not the tiny marker pieces, monopoly cards, money, dice, etc. This way if the children put the boxes away sloppily or if the preschooler pulls out the game boxes, little damage can be done. No more looking for lost pieces, no more stress over the preschooler reeking havoc, no more heated lectures about lazy clean-up jobs.

Pitch Some Toys:  Kids don't mean to drive us insane with their trail of junk. The problem is often our fault; we provide too many toys and games and choices. They're more overwhelmed than lazy.

Early on I made a lot of mistakes and our playroom overflowed with toys. Most toys received little attention from the kids, except that the babies and toddlers threw them all over, creating havoc hourly. Many were educational toys and I was under the false impression that you could never have too many of those. Less is always more when it comes to toys. Concentrate on well-made classics and forget the trendy.

In the last couple years I've pitched toys every few months, and recently I've grown more radically minimalist. If they haven't played with something in two months, I pitch it, with the exception of board games. I don't ask my children's advice when I do this. They believe they'll eventually play with everything, so it's futile to involve them. I delay giving the bags to Goodwill for a week or so, to see if there's any adverse reaction. Most of the time they don't notice anything missing.

Here's a listing of what's survived my pitching (4 kids in this house, ages 3 to 10):

• Geo Trax train set (neighbor kids really enjoy this too)
• Legos
• Wooden building blocks
• Lincoln Logs
• various board games/card games/advanced cardboard puzzles
• hot wheel cars and 2 simple tracks
• 1 plastic bowling set that is good for Beth's therapy (deep-knee bending to set up pins) 
• 1 used heavy duty semi-truck that is good for Beth's arthritis therapy (she rides on it and propels with her quadriceps)
• 15 favorite stuffed animals
Dolly/Homemaking Stuff

• 4 dolls
• 8 changes of doll clothes
• 1 dolly cradle and 1 dolly bed (good thing to buy used, since they can be expensive)
• Play kitchen and dishes and a few plastic food items (buy a used play kitchen--new ones are so expensive!)
• Play cash register (this will be pitched next time)
• 1 small doll stroller and 1 used shopping cart
  
  Things I've regretted buying over the years:

• Fisher Price Little People toys: the people, animals, and small vehicles are useful, but the rest is a waste of money and it all takes up too much room
• Commercial toy sets like Dora and Diego and Elmo (usually low quality)
• pony beads and jewels (probably best for older girls)
• play dish sets with too many parts
• play food sets containing box foods (once the little cardboard boxes get bent they're worthless!)
• play money 
• remote control cars (battery nightmare)
• cheap yard toy sets (badminton, golf, etc--yard toys need to be high quality, durable)

Educational Items I've Kept: (These items are on a shelf in the dining room, where we do most of our school. The books are in the playroom mostly in shelves, except that recently Husband put up rain gutters for me to display easy-reader paperbacks and favorite storybooks.)

• About 800-900 children's books (mostly Scholastic paperbacks from book clubs, and board books--many are not in the best of shape by now; I began collecting books in 1992)
• 26 alphabet Little People animals
• Sorting toys for teaching patterns in preschool and K math
• Magnet alphabet letters/white board, Leap Frog Fridge Phonics
• Playdoh toys (stored in dining room because the Playdoh is hard on carpets)
• 4 wood puzzles for Beth, 4 large cardboard flour puzzles (ages preschool - 8)
• Wooden clock puzzle with numbered blocks
• 3 kinds of paint, brushes
• 5 coloring books and crayons

The bedrooms contain no toys at all (our family room is our playroom). When the playroom gets too messy and the children run out of room, their toys end up migrating to the dining room and living room, and that's when my nerves suffer most. My most recent pitch of toys should help that situation. 

Five Minute Clean-ups: When you notice clutter taking over, stop what you're doing and call for a 5-minute clean up. Turn on your favorite music and have everyone pick up and put away 8 things. I have two children who stuff things in corners, so after a clean up I always check the corners and under the couches. If you forget these 5-minutes clean ups, things will get far worse by 5:00 PM and you'll be cranky when your husband gets home. It doesn't matter how much we love mothering, if our husbands see us grumbling every evening, they won't know how blessed we feel. Sometimes I have to convince my husband that I love being at home all day. And that makes me sad. :(  Because I really do love this job!

Let Go of Perfection: When the house looks awful and it isn't your main cleaning day, give yourself permission to let it go. Concentrate on school. Do the laundry and dishes and let the rest go. If you start to feel cranky about clutter and dirt, cuddle with the kids on the couch and read to them. I find that my mood over the house always dissipates quickly when I do this. Having them next to me reminds me of how much I cherish them...messes and all.

Try inviting company on the day after you've cleaned, when hopefully everything still looks fairly good. Or invite company anytime if you aren't the nervous type. Most people just need a place to sit and don't care about kid grime and clutter. And the fastidious people who judge? They aren't your real friends.

What has worked for you, friends?

Healthier, Homemade Hot Chocolate

Our expected high will be 39 degrees. Calls for some hot cocoa, yes? Here's a mixture far healthier than the store-bought variety.




Basic Recipe print here
2 cups powdered milk
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Combine in an air-tight container. To make a single cup, measure 1/4 cup of mixture and combine with hot milk or water.

~ Vanilla enhances the flavor of chocolate, so you could bury a whole vanilla bean in the mixture.

~ Dutch cocoa isn't preferred. The dutching process strips a lot of the healthy flavanols found in chocolate.

~ Add 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon to the mix. Not only is it a great flavor addition but cinnamon also helps to mitigate the impact of the sugar on your blood sugar levels.

Enjoy!

Fruitful Fridays, Part 5, More Love

We continue our series on the Fruits of the Spirit today. Read part 1 here. Part 2 here. Part 3 here. Part 4 here. Our main text for Fruitful Fridays will be Galatians 5:13-26 (ESV). 

In part 4 I promised you a more studied post on love. Here then is my offering to that effect. We'll discuss what it means to love a person as yourself. We'll explore the intermingling of faith and love, and learn why the former leads to the latter. We'll learn that we're free to love, and why we're commanded to love. And lastly, we'll learn how to keep love in our hearts, ready to be distributed to our neighbor.

Galatians 5:13-14 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (emphasis mine)

We naturally love ourselves and care for ourselves. So another way of phrasing this command: You shall love your neighbor as you (already) love yourself. We feed ourselves, clothe ourselves, put shelter over our heads and try to make ourselves happy. "For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it."

Ephesians 5:28-29 "Husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the church." (emphasis mine)

Therefore, to love your neighbor as yourself means to meet his needs as you would meet your own: 

• to desire relief for his hunger, as you eat and feel relief from your own 
• to desire physical warmth for him, as you enjoy physical warmth yourself
• to desire a covering for his nakedness, as you feel the safety of clothes yourself
• to desire shelter from rain, snow, wind, and sun for him, as you sit back and enjoy your own shelter
• to desire a job for him, as you reap the benefits of your own 
• to desire a cure for his illness, as you obtain relief from yours 
• to desire a flushing toilet for him, as you watch your own toilet flush
• to desire plumbing and clean water for him, as you draw water from your own sink
• to desire Living Water through Jesus Christ for him, as you feel the joy of knowing Him yourself 

Whatever you need for yourself, you're to desire it for your neighbor too. And act on that desire, changing your lifestyle accordingly. Instead of buying that $50 plant to decorate your entryway, spend the $50 to buy a water filter for a third-world family. Instead of that money spent on a manicure or pedicure, spend it to sponsor a child who will be fed, given medical care and crises intervention, and come to know Jesus. Instead of buying that new gadget, send a family gift to your sponsored child's family, or buy extra food to give to a local food pantry.

Instead of procuring what you don't need, procure what your neighbor does need.

A supreme example of this desiring and acting is the Shaun Groves' family (Christian musician and speaker for Compassion International), who give away as much money as they keep for themselves. Yes, a 50/50 split. That is loving your neighbor as yourself, at its purest (so long as it's for God's glory, and not your own). 

A 50/50 split is not commanded in Scripture directly, except as it relates to loving your neighbor as yourself. Many of us are not ready for 50/50 yet, but God will eventually get us there, if we are disciples of Jesus. God can do amazing things in a faithful Believer. He can increase our wealth, if necessary, so that we'll still have acceptable clothing, food, and shelter, as we give away 50 percent. A person truly filled by God does not desire luxury, but merely what is needed.

Which leads me to my next point: the intermingling of faith and love. When I say faith, I don't mean merely the act of accepting Jesus as your Savior. I mean believing that everything Jesus promised will come to pass. This is walking by faith: believing in God's promises with a whole heart and living as such, even though the future is unseen. Faith conquers fear and allows love, with no holding back.

Only once in the whole Bible does God tell us we can test him (on a promise). Ironically, it is on the tithe. A tithe is giving 10% of our net pay (net resources) to God. We can give 2% or 5% instead, and see how God blesses and provides. God is willing to work with us to build our faith in this matter. As we build up testimonies about how he has provided for us in the past, we're able to step out in faith and give far more than that initial 5 or 10 percent. 

In order to love your neighbor as yourself, you have to trust in God's promises. You have to truly believe that he will work all things for your good. You have to truly believe that if you seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, he will provide for your food, clothing, shelter. You have to truly believe that you can repay evil with good--you can love your enemies--because vengeance is mine saith the Lord. He will judge on the final day and you will be victorious. You have to truly believe that the Lord will never leave you nor forsake you. You have to truly believe that the Lord's yoke is easy and his burden is light...that he is gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your soul in Him.

Galatians 5:13 says: We are called to freedom. In Christ, we are free. We don't have to fear, worry, fret, be jealous, be envious, or repay evil with evil. We don't have to be self-seeking. We are free to love. To seek the good of others.

As we study the fruit of the Spirit, we'll continually be confronted with what seems to be an inconsistency in Scripture. If God is love and we have the Spirit of God within us, we cannot help but love. Love is a fruit of the Spirit, coming from His power within us, not from ourselves.

So, why then are we commanded to love? If love is natural for the Believer, why must a commandment be written about it?

1 John 4:7-11
Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God; for God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

Love is commanded because one of the ways God works love in us, is through the Word of God. Through the Bible. If we're not reading and studying the Bible, we're not loving our neighbor as ourselves. No transforming Word, no love. The Spirit within us speaks through the Word of God, which is "living and active". I often spontaneously recall a Bible verse when the Spirit wants me to behave a certain way. The Word exhorts us--convinces us, makes us willing and receptive and ready. (The Spirit speaks as we pray, too.)

If we just go to church and never open our Bibles, we don't know God and we're certainly not being transformed. To think God can transform our hearts without Scripture is laughable. We must remain in Him.

2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Pray through Scripture as you read it. Whatever the topic, ask God to work it in you. God, make me love my enemies. Make me desire their good, not their ill. Make me rejoice with those who rejoice, instead of envying them. Study and pray your way through Scripture. It isn't enough to open your Bible, read a dutiful 10 verses you may or may not understand, and then close your Bible, having done your duty.

As you read your verses for the day, remember that you're going to pray that God works that wisdom, that truth, in your heart, so read with this in mind. Read thoroughly enough to have something to pray about afterwards.

Before the Internet it used to be much harder to study the Bible. You needed extra books or a good sermon--commentary and application--to help you really understand and live Scripture (especially if you didn't own a Study Bible). But now with the click of a finger, you have thousands of resources at your disposal for free. You can Google sermons and Bible studies on any biblical topic, or on any individual Book of the Bible.

One more point about love, and then we'll close for today. Acts of the flesh--acts of our ego--are done to fill an emptiness. Those not born of God have an emptiness; they fill that emptiness by using others for selfish gain. Those born of God have a fullness; they use their overflow to serve others. 

We must ask ourselves...which do we have...the emptiness, or the fullness? They will know us by our fullness, by our love.

Friend, it is my sincere desire that you would have a fullness of heart and spirit, aching to nourish your neighbor with His overflowing love, much as the nursing mother with the aching, overflowing breast, nourishes her infant in earnest.

I have felt and seen a significant change in my heart and in my desire to serve others, not after I said a prayer and became, officially, a Christian, but after I began pursuing God through the regular reading and studying of His Word. Becoming a Christian, trusting in Christ for salvation, is only the first step. The Living Word in our heart is necessary for the seed of faith to take root on fertile ground....for the seed to bear fruit.

I urge you, sit down and plan your time in the Word for the coming week. What topic will you study? What Book of the Bible will you seek to understand? What Scripture verse will you hide in your heart?

Start today by Googling verses on loving others? Jot down the verse references and read them, and the commentary that goes along with them, throughout this week?

Write a focus for your time in the Word and stick to it. With a focus you're more likely to pick up your Bible. As you're out and about, do you have hand-held access to the Internet? Use that fancy phone for the best use possible...to study the Word. Go to biblegateway.com, type in your desired verses or chapter, and click on "show resources" to read the commentary after you read the verses, and then pray those verses into your heart.

John 13:35
By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Prayer Time: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the love you poured out for us, as you sent your Son and allowed Him to die on the cross as propitiation for the sin that separated us from you. Thank you for your Spirit within us. Thank you for pouring out your love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Make us draw from your Spirit within us. Send us daily to your Word that is alive and active and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, equipping the man of God for every good work. Make us repentant and pure of heart and ever thankful, regardless of circumstance. Make us instruments of your love, never taking more than we need, but using our excess for others' gain. May we truly understand what it means to "love your neighbor as yourself", and may we do this for your glory.

In Jesus' name I pray, Amen

Giving Thanks Today:

• For the kind family who advertised their gently-used child's scooter on Freecycle, delighting my children with something they'd waited a few years to enjoy.
• For three quiet hours to study God's Word, uninterrupted.
• For a thanksgiving turkey already in the freezer from Aldi's.
• For plumbing, clean water, flushing toilets, shelter, warm clothes, and medicine for illnesses and disorders.
• For finally having a proper winter jacket for this Momma, after residing in Ohio for a number of years (also off Freecycle--yippee for free and gently-used!)
• For difficult biblical concepts explained and dissected, at the click of my fingers.
• For four children and their joyful noise.
• For a hardworking, loving husband.

Giving thanks today with Ann, and other thankful ladies.

Loving Against Culture

Sweet, fun-loving Beth coughed in my face just enough; I'm down for the count.  A shorter post today, but one that still has love as its theme. I'm trying to come up with the emotional and physical strength to cart my four children to Aldi's grocery, for the freezer is bare and dinner looms.

Just a few thoughts to share on birthdays today. Some might find this post irritating but I've decided to take that chance. I didn't ask for exhortation as a spiritual gift, and though I was given it, I still need practice in presenting topics delicately. So don't get too angry with me?

At birthdays we spend just $30 on each child. They know if they want a party or a fancy cake, that money comes out of their total money. It's wonderful to mark birthdays as a special family and friend time, but what our culture does to "mark" these childhood milestones becomes quite a spectacle.

It seems we've come to view children as princes and princesses. Sadly, the more we treat them as such, the less likable they become. The greater their sense of entitlement grows.

In my dicipling I try to combat the strong, alluring messages my children receive from the world. With no public school, and no TV signal for a number of years now, they weren't receiving many of the usual messages. But now, with neighborhood children coming through, the messages come through too. They've never seen a Wii, an Xbox, or any other such gadget or game, but now they're hearing of them and wondering why they don't have them (at least Peter is--my most impulsive child).

One of my main teachings is that materialism destroys us from the inside out. The more we encumber ourselves with things or with the desire for things, the less we can love others. The less we can bring glory to God--especially if we're just sitting and entertaining ourselves. Entertainment certainly has its place, but its become a huge idol in our culture.

When you begin these discipleship lessons with your children, or with yourself, you always come back to this one hurdle: Loneliness.

A child contemplates: But nearly everyone has a fancy cake on their birthday. Nearly everyone has a party. Nearly everyone has some sort of electronic game. Lately, nearly every child brings their iPhone by our house. More and more grade-school children possess these monstrosities. Younger and younger children are sexting, corrupting their minds with pornography because of unsupervised Internet time. Children envy their peers and apparently bug their parents relentlessly, until every fourth grader in the class has an iPhone--even if they don't have a winter coat.

Endeavoring to keep both feet out of the world leads to loneliness. When you stand on principal, you're often isolated. But the beauty of this phenomena? Loneliness leads us to God. And he truly satisfies. He truly fills.

Once we get past the envy and manage to live contentedly on the fringe with our Heavenly Father as our ever-present companion, the next thing we need to do is squash our judgments. A person has to fill up on God first, before they can stop filling up on the world. So to help them? We help them fill up on God. Judging someone who doesn't know any alternative is futile. That judgement only hurts God and us; it keeps us from loving our neighbor. It's hard to love someone for whom you feel disdain.

I admit I have to work hard to squash my judgments of neighborhood parents. I know they're simply trying to love their children, and in our culture, loving a child is synonymous with indulging them. Delighting them. Everyone wants to bring smiles to their children's faces. The trouble is, that smile we bring now could lead to spiritual dysfunction later--not to mention financial dysfunction.

We've struggled with the cake thing in the past couple years, but this year Paul was happy to decorate the humble but delicious cake I made, and in turn, I was proud of his maturity. Cake doesn't last...it's fleeting, like so many of the things we think we need.

 

 Here is his donated piano, close enough to his birthday to be considered a gift from God himself.

 God does provide for some of their wants, including a yearly praying mantis for Peter. This fall it was looking dim until a girl from church brought her praying mantis to a fall fellowship. Deciding it was too much trouble--catching those crickets and all--she gave it to Peter. And a week later, Peter had an egg sac! Daddy and Peter get so excited when something leaves us with an egg sac. :)

These faces? Nothing short of amazing. God is amazing!

The mantis, feasting. 

Now for some Scriptures about feasting on God.

John 7:38

Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."

Isaiah 58:11
The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

Isaiah 44:3

For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.

Isaiah 12:3

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

John 4:14

but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

Matthew 6:24

"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.