Peas & Carrots, or just dessert?

Do you ever look around you and wonder why someone eats just dessert? Doesn't their bodies get way out of whack? Their way of thinking, their way of reacting, their way of communicating? Perhaps that someone is me or even you?

Here are a couple of visuals that I believe shows the difference between the two:

I wonder why one comes to a bible study (for years), but doesn't want to study? They come with their home work not done, week in and week out. Never opening the Word of God, but EXPECTING and ASSUMING that others will feed them. Because they haven't searched for themselves, they come for milk and not the MEAT of God's Word. They come for dessert, things that taste good to their spirits and really doesn't leave any conviction, just feels good to their flesh.

You know what? Looking back, I honestly think I must have been this way because this gets under my skin, because I know they are missing out on so much. Yes, even though I know GRACE, Yolanda, GRACE....I am keeping it real and being honest and this is an area for God to work on me STILL! THERE IS SO MUCH TO GOD and I am so thankful for these women to be a part of the study but my heart is tender for them to just be taking the dessert, they miss the PEAS AND CARROTS. What really gives our souls nutrition, allowing us to grow closer and closer by having a DEEP relationship with Our Savior.

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I know that there are times that we have a full schedule and we just can't get into our bibles for any length of time. But what about a snack? A quick devotion, or just a few passages out of Proverbs, or any of the scriptures? One minute? We'll give that to our friend on the telephone, text message or an email? A call and the next thing you know, we have found a whole half hour to run down to the local shop for a soda YET not 5 minutes prior you were telling God you were so sorry to not have found time to spend with Him today. OUCH! Ouch? Yes, I've been there and I so want more for my relationship with MY GOD! And for YOUR relationship with God. I have had to make choices to say no and give that time to God. WHY? Because He is my JOY, my STRENGTH, my HOPE, my SAVIOR. The most important relationship that I could EVER have. And Sisters, not condemning you, but wanting to encourage you that He will be that for you also, if you will make some small choices until those larger choices become much easier. Saying YES TO GOD, and have a heart for action and obedience. WALKING IN FAITH!


I may be stepping on some toes and coming across as very PIOUS, but that is not my intention at all. I feel a little like Paul this morning as I exhort and encourage others that loving Jesus/God with all of our hearts, with all of our souls, with all of our strength, and with all of our minds and loving our neighbors as ourselves, is where unspeakable rewards & joy that is not even comprehendible becomes attainable. Not because of rigidness, or rules, or strict living. By being soaked in God's word, and when one does it doesn't have to be a "time table". Simply like the Nike commercials from long ago...."JUST DO IT!".

I hear of others saying they can't find the time, but it's sad because we WILL find the time for the things that are important to us. Remember the phone call that lasted 15, 30 or even 60 minutes from yesterday?

I was having one of those bummed days not to long ago & discussing with my Best Friend Forever (Jesus) and my Best Friend (Bill) a situation that I had found myself in. A few hours later my Best Friend shared something with me out of "In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day".

"Most of us want our opportunities nicely packaged and presented to us as a gift we simply have to unwrap. We want our lions stuffed or caged or cooked medium well and served on a silver platter. But opportunities typically present themselves at the most inopportune time in the most inopportune place.

The two Moabites didn't schedule an appointment with Benaiah's assistant. The Egyptian didn't knock on the door. He knocked down the door. And the lion didn't roll over and play dead.

Here is the great irony about opportunities. They usually come disguised as insurmountable problems. They look like five-hundred-pound lions that want to eat you for lunch. Or they look like six hundred Philistines charging at you.

To the average person, the circumstances presented to Benaiah were problems to run away from, not opportunities to be seized. But Benaiah didn't see a five-hundred-pound problem. He saw a lion skin hanging on his tent.

Lion chasers are the kind of people who rise to the occasion. Lion chasers are the kind of people who refuse to be intimidated by Moabites or Philistines. Lion chasers play to win. They fight for what they believe in. They don't live life sitting back on their heels. They live life on the tip of their toes waiting to see what God is going to do next."

I have been accused this week of having high expectations as a Mentor. This is a challenge because I know from my OWN walk when I give less than my best....I'm hurting no one but myself. I believe with all of my heart that I care deeply for hurting women and I want for them, what Jesus died for them to have!!! Sisters, I love you!!!

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I have also been blessed this week to be told that I am a "tool" that God is using in a friend's life to challenge her to seek more. These few paragraphs from the book by Mark Batterson, I found so much encouragement because I AM A LION CHASER!

I will close with asking that you read 1 Corinthians 12. This is what touched me from verse 5: "There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord." And then One Body, Many Parts in The Church farther down in chapter 12. Meaning, the entire body of Christ, not just the church we attend on Sunday morning.

What do you sense God is putting on your heart, speaking to your spirit, that He wants you to be doing for service to Him? YOUR OWN SERVICE, not emulating someone else's service. This is the part that stings my heart as others want my life. What I do, what I say, what I have, etc....it saddens me because it won't work!

Girlfriends, I say this with much compassion and gentleness. The reason why I have such a conviction about my own service to God, and YOUR own service to God is: I KNOW I HAVE TRIED TO COPY WHAT SOMEONE ELSE WAS DOING, their service to God. It caused a friendship to be broken and separated, and still not healed. I saw a friend that I wanted to be around doing her own ministry that God had placed on her heart, and I tried to do the same. I was a baby Christian that had been pulled in under her wings. She was mentoring me and I thought because it worked for her, it would work for me. Because God had asked her to do, then I was to do also. I got worn out, tired, and it flat out didn't work because God didn't tell ME to do that, He told her to do that.

I think that is why God's word here speaks to me so much because He says we can't all be feet, we can't all be hands. We have to work together.

And the very next chapter calls each one of us to LOVE. I wanted to share with you because I've been there and done that and I don't want to see you making those mistakes. I love you. Girlfriends, what has God placed on your heart, for your very own service?

Are you ready for some peas and carrots, or perhaps is dessert enough?