Faith-filled Friday (review) and Freezer Prep

This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways." (Haggai 1:7)

In the book of Haggai, God's people were always doing things and yet always feeling unfulfilled or discontent. Why? Because they put helping themselves before doing what God asked them to do: repair the Lord's house (church/temple). If they had given careful thought to what they were doing, they would have realized that they were disobeying God. It almost seems that they were like a little kid who does something they know to be naughty and therefore doesn't get all the pleasure out of the action despite getting his way.

I'm not saying that if you do something wrong, God punishes you. That's not where this is going. What I'm saying is that it's important that you examine what you're doing and why you're doing it. Are you giving careful thought to your actions?

I know that I always feel better if I take the time to do something right even if it means carving out extra time to do it when I just want to get going. So instead of being the little kid who whines, "let's go-oo...", why not take the time to do what you know to be right? 

On Friday night, Steve went out to dinner with his dad to a smelt fry fundraiser for the local Lion's Club. What is a smelt fry? Smelt are gross  small fish that you usually fry whole that seem to be an acquired taste. These fish are actually pretty good for you (until you fry them), and some people enjoy eating them. Since they are ridiculously under-fished, you can eat a lot of them without feeling bad. If you like to eat them, that is.

Anyway, since Steve, his dad and his brother were out enjoying their dinner, I went to the grocery store and for once I didn't over-buy! WHOO! In fact, I even made it to two grocery stores (one was having a sale on meat) and home in time so that I could go to the local garden store with my sister.

Since I bought more meat that we could possibly eat before it went bad in the fridge, I took what I learned from my freezer meal workshop and divided, seasoned, labeled and froze at least 10 meals worth (more if there are leftovers). Although I wanted to shove everything in the freezer and run back out the door to meet my sister at the store, I knew that if I just took extra time to prep food, I'd be in a better place later in the month when we need to make dinner.

It took me about 20 minutes start to finish and I still made it to the store's parking lot one car after my sister.