Hello friends.
It's time for that two week shopping trip around here.
Time to enjoy those things that eeked out of your budget when the ketchup ran out.
Like ice-cream and cookies and Dr. Pepper.
Can I get an "Amen?"
And that one child knows that if he agrees to go with me to the bazillion stores I go to, they will indeed receive recompense for their help.
Anyone else dread going shopping alone?
Yes, this has indeed been a change for me with more grown-up kids.
Before when I was, "meals in heels," for one of mine, going anywhere without someone hanging onto you was a bit of a lovely break.
And now I don't want to go without someone to laugh with and enjoy BOGO meat deals with me.
THAT right there is Motherhood in a shopping cart.
You go from wanting to spend hours in the bath and body isle, dreaming of every single lotion and foot scrub you could possibly afford to not wanting to be alone because Iced coffee is better shared and people watching at the deli is fun with teens.
It just is what it is.
They seem too close and then they are not close enough.
That's why the Lord helps us Moms to learn to savor things.
Chocolate cake after they are in bed, first book reports, first jobs and such.
Because when we savor we spend just a bit more time enjoying the full flavor of that moment.
And this is why past potty training, my favorite stage is whatever stage these kids of mine are in.
So this two week shopping trip never has me at one store.
One has a better deal on staple items, one on meat and one has great sales.
So I sit and plan the meals.
This has never been my favorite task, but it actually comes naturally to me for some weird reason.
Don't ask me to help you with stain-fighting, but if you have 5 pounds of ground beef and a hand full of chicken I can make a meal plan that will knock your socks off.
So I write and plan and head off to shop with whatever Buddies come with.
Mom has been denied pop for one whole week so she is ready to morph into "Willy Wonka," and bless bag-packers with edible wallpaper if she could only find it.
You know the whole, "Snozberries taste like Snozberries deal."
Anyway...
I need to add here that I rarely stock up on things.
Yes, even Oreos.
What you find in our cupboards and freezer is usually for dinners for the next two weeks and not a whole lot more, so when it's close to payday cardboard begins to look appealing.
I'm a minimalist at heart in all areas.
If I had a dollar for every cute shirt I gave away that would now match a skirt in my closet perfectly, I'd buy you all cappuccinos.
I leave those home to scratch-it-out over whom gets to clean out the fridge and have it ready by my five minute call saying we are around the bend and will be home to unload the Cornucopia of plenty in a wink.
I've TRIED to get everything and toilet paper at Walmart, but you just can't beat the sale across town on meat. Or flour and sugar are cheaper here or there where you would not want to buy toilet paper for fear of figuring out what 1/2 ply is.
So it necessitates me driving a few places and not seeing one store as the "One-stop shop," and I'm okay with that.
And the funny thing is how the Holy Spirit just used my shopping trip to remind me of a few important lessons.
I was driving home and thinking over a bit of a hurt.
I was well aware that the hurt came because of an unrealistic expectation and I was kind of frustrated with myself for even spending this much time nursing this wound.
"You can't get in all in one place there."
The Holy Spirit reminded me of what I already new.
"You cannot find fulfillment and peace, satisfaction or even worth there."
I was doing a teen-age spirit eye roll.
I knnnnoowwwwww.
I put my head back and made that scrunched-up face you make when you get home and realize you grabbed cream of chicken soup instead of cream of mushroom.
AND it's the fat free kind.
Blehhh.
"I have all those things for you."
And I remembered my devotional reading in Jeremiah 3
Verse ten says, "And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart. but feignedly, saith the Lord."
"Feignedly," or with Insincerity.
"You need to come to me with ALL of your heart.
All of your searchings for peace,
All of your longings for satisfaction and worthiness."
In grocery shopping I like to take my time and shop around, but the Lord reminded me that when it comes to soul-filling, He IS THE "One stop shop."
"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Matthew 11:28-29
And if I was physically able, I would have kicked myself for the realization of something that is taking me a while to learn.
To truly learn of HIM.
That He is all I need for each struggle in this frail flesh of mine.
In theory I know that the Lord is all in all to me, but in practice I seek filling from broken vessels.
Today as I left to come to Starbucks I was SINCERELY looking for my debit card.
I mean I called-off someone's math to help me scour the kitchen.
But this is not always how I seek the Lord when I am hurting or scared or doubtful of what He has called me to do.
When I swung the suburban into the tight parking spot, when I grabbed the door pull and walked in to this coffee shop my first thought was, "I wonder if they have room for me?"
Half because this shop is on the tight side and sharing a table with a gabby older gentleman is not exactly what I had planned for this afternoon- but half because there is always something there nagging at me, causing me to doubt if I can keep stepping out in faith to do what God wants me to do.
And He met me again,
"I always have room for you."
And again I smile and sip and learn some more about the Lord.
All we need in Him we find if we choose to walk in the Spirit every moment.
Keep searching friends. Keep learning and leaning and resting on He who loves you and has called YOU, yes, YOU to bring him so much glory today.
