Your Meal Doesn't Have to Be Perfect - Invite Them Anyway!

I love to cook. But it isn't really the act of cooking that motivates me. It is the connecting with people that motivates me. I love having people sitting around my table talking and relaxing and sharing about life. I have found that if you don't feed your guests they aren't as comfortable doing all of those things. So - I learned to cook. I also learned because my mom is the same way. She is a great cook, but she is more than that - she is hospitable. Both of my parents are. They are welcoming and put people at ease around their table. You can talk freely and comfortably while you are there. The food was always amazing - but simple.

I have been reading A Meal with Jesus by Tim Chester. I have been so blessed by this book. I haven't finished it yet, but so far I highly recommend it. It has challenged me in many ways - but today I have been thinking about one tiny little point that Mr. Chester has made. I want to focus on just a few lines:

"Now television shows and cookbooks sell the idea of hospitality back to us as they encourage us to remake hospitality in the image of restaurant cuisine. Sharing a family meal has been replaced by the fancy dinner party... Hospitality has become performance art, and we've lost the creation of intimacy around a meal."

That was a convicting statement. There is an ever present temptation to shift the focus of the meal from community to performance - and it is a temptation we, as the church, should resist. Tons of time and energy (and blog space) has been dedicated to presenting an impressive meal or table setting. When in reality we as believers are called to be hospitable - and often times that means serving something simple, warm, filling and inviting. It is actually freeing to intentionally serve something simple and inviting! How sad would it be if I slaved to impress my neighbor with my gourmet table only to make them feel inferior or intimidated by the meal that I am serving. I want to communicate that yes, I have worked hard to provide a good meal for you, but I am more interested in you and your needs and your company than in being impressive.

Jesus ate many, many meals and the guests were always more important than the meal. My friend Melissa told me recently about someone who invited her family over for dinner and it was soup and bread. The simplest of meals - but it was one of the most refreshing, relaxing, and entirely blessing-filled meals that she and her husband experienced in a long time. It was because the hosts cared more about them than the food - and she felt that and gloried in it.

One of the most beautiful things you can do to connect with friends and neighbors is invite them to a meal that you are serving your family - and that is different from inviting them to a meal prepared especially for them. It is including them in your daily life, including them in your home. How much easier it is to invite people to a meal that you are already preparing than to have to wait until you have the time, energy, and budget to provide them with a impressive display of your skills and food knowledge! Go ahead - invite them. Your friends and neighbors need to be seated at your table - and they don't care what you feed them, they just want to hear what makes you different! Share a meal and share Jesus.

22 Reasons Why I Love My Husband

Today Steve and I have been married for 22 years. Wow. Some days it doesn't seem like even 5 years. The husband of my youth has become the husband of my middle age. For those of you who do not know him, this is a quote that describes him perfectly: "He was like an axman at work in a tangled thicket, cutting and cutting at the brush and the vines and the low limbs, trying to mkae room for a full swing." And I love him. Here are just a few reasons why (reasons that some of you will think are entirely too sappy - my apologies):

1. He fit one of my favorite Anne of Green Gables quotes: "I wouldn't marry anyone who was really wicked, but I think I'd like it if he could be wicked and wouldn't."

2. He loves Jesus more than me, and he isn't afraid to remind me of this.

3. He has given me Victoria - and she has his creative mind and gifted use of words.

4. He gave me Esther - and she has his sense of independence and drive and "I won't take no for an answer" attitude.

5. He gave me Isaac - Steve chose the name long before he was born - it means laughter and Isaac has brought laughter to our lives every day along with being a miniature version of his dad.

6. His IQ is one point higher than mine - and he has used it to his advantage every day of our marriage!

7. I am his standard of beauty... which is possibly the most amazing blessing that God has given us.

8. He keeps me busy.

9. He still tells me that someday I will be able to visit Base Camp on Mount Everest - even though he knows that is physically impossible for me.

10. He understands my need to dream about owning land and a barn - and 5 horses and 5 cows and 5 chickens.

11. He is a gentle man. "The gentleness I knew in him seemed to be calling out, and it was a gentleness in me that answered. That gentleness, calling and answering, giving and taking, brought us together. It brought us into the room of love. It made our place clear around us." - Wendell Berry

12. He is the adventurous one and I am the cautious one.

"The heart can think of no devotion

Greater than being shore to ocean
Holding the curve of one position,
Counting an endless repetition." - Robert Frost

13. He makes me feel safe.

14. He pushes me to feel unsafe.

15. We have grown into adults together - he is part of the reason that I am the person that I am today.

16. He is quick to apologize.

17. He is a humble man who leads me well.

18. He sacrifices himself for me daily.

19. He loves the Word of God - and this reminds me of my father.

20. He still rides his skateboard to work.

21. He loves to take me for drives that lead to nowhere.

22. He is my other half - we are one."That she was his half, she had no doubt at all. He needed her. At times she knew with a joyous ache that she completed him, just as she knew with the same joy that she needed him and he completed her. How beautiful a thing it was, she thought, to be a half, to be completed by such another half!" -Wendell Berry

"This, though I be the feeblest of God's host,

The sorriest sheep Chirst shepherds with His crook.

Yet while I love my God the most, I deem

That I can never love you over-mcuh;

I love Him more, so let me love you too;

Yea, as I apprehend it, love is such

I cannot love you if I love not Him,

I cannot love Him, if I love not you.

-Christina Rosetti

I am grateful to God for the blessing of Steve.

Prayer and the Holy Spirit

Been reading about and thinking on the power of the Holy Spirit. I spend a LOT of time dwelling on this subject. I find Him fascinating... and confusing... and complex... and on and on and on... Who is the Holy Spirit? More importantly, what is my relationship with Him?

Jesus promised to send the Helper - to be with me forever. He is the Spirit of Truth. He "dwells with you and will be in you." (See John 14:15-17) Jesus says that "the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you." (John 14:25-26) Later in John 16 Jesus actually says it is to our advantage that He go away, because if He didn't go away then the Holy Spirit would not come. John 15:13 says "when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you."

No discussion of the Holy Spirit and prayer would be complete without Romans 8. Read the whole chapter! I have been thinking about 8:26-27. I take so much comfort in these verses. I am a woman who loves to pray but who can drive myself crazy over what exactly to pray about or how to pray. These verses calm my soul. The Spirit helps in my obvious weakness. He intercedes for me - with groanings too deep for words!! Can you even fathom this? I cannot. But I take comfort in this (and there again - He is my Comforter!). The Spirit prays for me. He intercedes for me according to the will of God!! The Spirit and the Father and the Son are One. They are of one mind. When the Spirit prays He knows the will of the Father. Each of His prayers are for something that the Father has already willed. Amazing!! All the times that I second guess whether I am asking for my will or the will of the Father - the Spirit, who intercedes for me, already knows the will of the Father and prays accordingly! And in the meantime, He is teaching me - reminding me of the Words of Christ - helping the Father to mold me into the image of Christ - into a person who desires the will of the Father! It is enough to make my head spin after a while. But what comfort is there in these thoughts!!

So, as I pray, the pressure is removed. I do desire to know and ask for the will of the Father. But it isn't up to me to determine the value of each request (although I am not exempt from seeking His will). The Spirit intercedes for me with the Father. The Spirit of Truth will teach me and remind me of what Jesus has said. He will guide me into all Truth and He will take what Jesus has said and declare it to me! What a blessing! I am again struck by how much of this process has NOTHING to do with me - and everything to do with the power of the Holy Spirit in me.

It's Been A While!

Well, I have missed blogging about random things from life in the Mizel home. Currently I am without a laptop - which has been an adjustment. How did we ever survive without those things? So here is a little update on the wanderings of me.

We did, in fact, survive the month of May. Victoria graduated!! And Esther turned 16. Things are changing quickly around here. But they are amazing young women and we are enjoying this phase in life. Victoria leaves for school in about one month. My brain cannot fathom the upcoming changes in store for our family.

In June Steve and I traveled to Colorado for an Acts29 conference. After the conference we got

to spend a day and a half in the Rocky Mountain National Forest. Bears and elk and bighorn sheep and waterfalls and a 17 foot snow drift in June! The continental divide - and 12,000 feet elevation. It was a perfect getaway. But I was glad to be home.

July brought one of my favorite holidays - Fourth of July! We travelled to my parent's place in Kentucky and watched fireworks over Kentucky Lake. It was beautiful. I love relaxing in the swing, looking out at their huge garden(waiting semi-patiently for the corn to gr

ow faster!), bird-watching, listening to the cows and bull frogs. I am never one to pass up an evening sitting by the fire watching the stars come out. It is one of my greatest joys as a parent to show my kiddos how to spot a shooting star or a satellite or the Milky Way. Time with my parents and sisters' families is always good.

We still have a few days of vacation left - so we will be off to Chicago. Isaac has been wanting to see that Bean for as long as I can remember! So we will take our last vacation together for a while. Then we will come home and jump back into preparing for middle school, high school, and college. Am I ready for this? I guess so. New things always scare me - but God has been so gracious to us. Can't wait to see where he is going to lead next!

Esther's 16th Birthday Cake

This week has been Esther-palooza. A whole week of celebrating our second child who is growing into an amazing woman. Her birthday request this year was for a rainbow cake. A friend had sent a picture of a cake she wanted to make. I randomly showed it to Esther and here we are!

I visited several websites to get ideas on how to make it. In the end I did it my own way - but it turned out pretty well. Thanks for the suggestion, Kara!

So - here's how:

• Two boxes white cake mixe (I have my favorite white box cake - this is about looks, so no need to complicate the process with homemade cake!)
• Eggs, oil and water for cake
• food coloring GEL - helpful hint picked up from blogs - gel colors are brighter than regular food coloring
• round cake pans
• Icing (lots and lots! I included my recipe below if you want to make homemade cream cheese icing)

I followed directions on box and made one cake mix. Divide the cake batter equally among three different bowls. Add one gel to each bowl. I baked each layer about 12 minutes - but my oven is not reliable, so watch carefully. It is a thin layer and will not take long.
Repeat process with next three colors.
ROY G BIV is the acronym I learned in school for the colors of the rainbow. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. I only made six layers... but the sky's the limit!!

Spread a think layer of icing between each cake. A helpful hint: spread a super thin layer over the top of each cake before adding the total amount of icing you want. This allows the icing to spread smoothly without pulling up pieces of cake.

This final product was yummy!



Cream cheese icing:
3 - 8 ounce packages of cream cheese
2 sticks of butter (1 cup of butter)
3 cups of powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp of vanilla

You may add more powdered sugar to get your desired consistency.

Remembering Four Days in 2008

"Oh give thanks to the Lord! Call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the poeples. Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him; Talk of all His wondrous works."

This May will mark three years since we have been in Edwardsville. Actually, three years at the church - two full years living in Edwardsville comes on August 11. Wow. Have I ever told you the story of how God got us here? Lots of you know it, but it is always good to sing praises to God for what He has done. David did this in the Psalms... listing all the mighty works of God. This story doesn't belong in the same list as the parting of the Red Sea or the crossing of the Jordan River - but to my family it is just as monumental! So here is my remembering of it...

Steve was the family pastor at The Journey in St. Louis. We lived in a house that we loved and our three children were all attending public school in St. Louis county. A church in Edwardsville, Illinois had been meeting for less than a year and was closing. A Journey elder proposed the idea of making the church a campus of the Journey. One particular family, who attended the church for the first time on the last day of its existence, was pretty adamant about needing a gospel centered church in the Metro East area. They, along with others, begged for the elders to invest in the church. I cannot tell you how God has used this family - the Guilds - in our lives. Right from the very beginning!! So this elder, Jonathan, asked Steve to consider becoming a campus pastor. Of course Steve  said NO. Jonathan expressed disappointment and asked Steve to pray that God would raise up the right man to lead this church. He said the now famous words: "Just pray about it for four days."  On May 22, 2008 we actually started praying about it...

We drove to Edwardsville for the first time on May 23, 2008. The town of Edwardsville is fairly unique - a historic downtown mainstreet but with both older cafes and new development, a city sponsored farmer's market, bike trails throughout the community, etc. We loved it instantly. Being a small town Kentucky girl, this was like a dream come true.

After exploring the town we began to seek advice from trusted friends and family. God particularly used Steve Miller (another Journey elder) to speak into this. It is a blessing to have Godly men know your husband and his strengths and weaknesses. We will forever be grateful to Steve for being willing to lay out his thoughts clearly and honestly.  Those words have impacted our lives in a dramatic way.

Next, the big deal of speaking to the kiddos. It is a difficult thing to present life changing choices to your children. They were 16, 14, and 9 at the time. They cannot be responsible to make your decisions, but they can sure influence your choices - and it was important to us that they be on board. Miracle of miracles - the girls instantly, without hesitation said "Dad, this is what you should do." This was miraculous. Their hearts were won over by a group of people who they had not even met. We would be asking them to leave the only house they had ever known and for the girls to change schools while in high school. This was a big deal. One of the things I love about Steve is that God has given him gifts that He uses to equip the church - that He would use to help rebuild a group of wounded people in a new town. It was so overwhelming to me to see our children recognize this - they knew that God had prepared Steve just for this job. And they were quick to point that out. My heart was over-joyed... we were called as a family to walk with Steve as he lead. I will forever be grateful for this moment on the deck of the house that we loved so much - my family was willing to leave it all to be where God wanted us... what more could a wife and mother want. Our God gives undeserved gifts! "How wondrous are His works!"

After a positive conversation with my parents (which God graciously gave me - we didn't need their "yes" but He knew what my heart needed!) we were set to say yes. God had clearly and very concisely shown us His will for our family. In FOUR days, no less.  We proceeded with lots of excitement.

Then came the day of actually meeting the people from the church. I am an introvert - and do not relish being in front of people. I famously stared at the floor the whole way down the aisle on my own wedding day! And of course, this meeting, in a YMCA room with mirrors everywhere was another entrance I will never forget. We walked in to a meeting that was already underway. Jonathan was talking to the group and introduced us. He presented Steve as the new campus pastor and laid out the plan to have a Journey Metro East campus. The response was so affirming. We met so many amazing, welcoming people - some who we knew from the Journey previously. I will forever remember Betsy Goodman (now Van Keulen) making eye contact with me - reassuring me that I would survive! Afterward I was immediately surrounded by women who were so excited about what God was doing and those women are still in my life celebrating what God is doing here! These people have become my family - they have changed my life in so many ways and I will forever be grateful and remember that day as one of the sweetest, most exciting days. "O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together!"

Looking back I can see the part that Steve Miller, Jonathan Macintosh and the Guild family played in all of this. I have never had to doubt the hand of God directing us to this new place. It is such a joy to know that you are right where God wants you to be. I am grateful. It has been good, as Wendell Berry says, to come to belong to a place. And we do. It hasn't always been easy... but it has always been good.

I remember - and I am thankful and rejoice. "Praise the Lord! Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? Or can delcare all His praise?"

Dating Poem

I came across this video click of a woman reciting a poem on the Resurgence website this week. I have forwarded it to a bunch of people and all the feedback has been amazing. So click on this link for one pretty cool and insightful poem about dating as a woman after God's own heart. She makes some great points about what we should be looking for and who we should be!

http://theresurgence.com/2011/04/06/a-poem-for-all-single-people-pass-it-on

Let me know what you think!
lauren