everyday – Page 4 – Abigail Dodds

Jesus, Bread and Easter: Give the Children Something GOOD to Taste

By: Abigail Dodds March 29, 2013

body of Christ, everyday, family, food, gratitudebread, children, Easter, resurrection2 Comments

This has been a crazy Easter season. The day we found out we were having a little boy, we also signed an agreement to sell our house. After devoting my life to a “show-ready” house and battling with the trials of pregnancy, there is nothing I’d love more than a laid back, contemplative Easter season.

Alas, the Lord has other ways to reveal His glory than in stillness alone. He also shows up when we’re doing our jobs, cleaning, schooling, working hard, feeding mouths.

Thursday was just such a day. We had to be out of the house for hours for an inspection. My folks are so gracious and let us come hang out at their place whenever we have to be gone for a showing etc. The night before I’d made dough for bread that has to rise overnight. So, I baked it just before we left and brought it along with us for lunch.

On the way over to my folks, I thought that the crusty bread would be a perfect way to illustrate the whole Easter story and we could still eat it for lunch.

Here’s what we did. We cut the loaf about 1/3 of the way in, then we tore out all the hot delicious innards and ate them.

My kids like it plain, with occasional dips of nutella. I like mine with PB and honey.

While we were doing this we talked about the Last Supper and how Jesus called himself the Bread of Life. How he said things like, “This is my body, broken for you.” The bread tasted wonderfully, as warm bread tends to do. This is an essential part of teaching my kids. If it tastes bad, how can they have a foundation to understand, “Taste and see that the Lord is good…”?

The big part of the bread crust becomes the tomb, the smaller portion becomes the stone that covers the tomb.

We saved a chunk of bread and Eliza fashioned a little man out of it.

When we got home that evening, the kids found sticks from the dead flower bed remnants and we made crosses, tied up with yarn.

It sat on the counter Thursday night, as I pondered how to set it up properly. Today the kids enacted Jesus on the cross and put him in the tomb. Then tonight, I pulled out some river rocks and serving tray and arranged it so that the crosses would stand up. The bread tomb is on a green towel, to look like a small hill.

This is the little “project” that isn’t. It isn’t anything at all, but real life. Real bread that we were making, a real meal that we were eating, to remind us of our real Savior. This isn’t a show put on for kids. This isn’t different from the truth that we live in every single day. This is His body, broken for us.

This is our table where we gather to enjoy gifts from His hand. Won’t you taste and see this Easter? He is GOOD.

The Advent of the Son and the Spirit

By: Abigail Dodds December 19, 2012December 19, 2012

body of Christ, everyday, gratitude, photographyadvent, the Spirit of GodLeave a Comment

Jesus came to earth as a tiny baby, in the winter of our lives. He came to us while we were yet sinners. He came to those who are sick and needing a doctor. He came for the moms needing a shower, bodies spent, and hearts in knots for their children. He was waited for and waited for, and then Zachariah held him in his arms; he came.

Jesus coming and dying and living again began another advent: the advent of the Spirit of God, who lives with us and comforts us in all our affliction and guides us in all our ways. The Spirit who gives peace in the face of war, who gives meekness in the face of slander, who gives a gentle answer in the face of human wrath. Yes, the Spirit is so dear and so close–and it is the Spirit of Jesus Himself.

For Jesus was sent by God and utters the words of God and Jesus gives the Spirit without measure (John 3:34). Jesus isn’t meting out the Spirit. “Here’s your daily allowance, daughter, two cups and no more–so you better have an average sort of day, nothing requiring too much help.” No! He just gives and gives. He doesn’t keep track.

Comfort without measure, guidance without measure, peace without measure.

That’s our God–so unlike my natural tendency to keep all amounts in check, everything in moderation. We don’t want too much of a good thing and I also don’t want to give of myself that way. “I’ve done enough for today, children, my apportioned giving is plum given out!” But not my God. My God is a lavish and generous God. He gives of Himself without measure. And as He gives of Himself He enables me to pour out in unmeasured ways to others. That is a miracle of the Spirit. Praise His Name.

So as I remember the Advent of the Son, my salvation, Jesus, I also remember the Advent of the Spirit, my comfort and counselor, who Jesus gives to me without measure, gusting winds of life that no one sees, and yet there I am, suspended in air by the strength and miracle of the Spirit.

The Minnesota Taco

By: Abigail Dodds November 27, 2012November 28, 2012

everyday, foodfood, minnesota3 Comments

I’m excited to introduce you to… THE Minnesota Taco!

Original ideas are few and far between in my brain. Pretty much never happen. But, this taco happened upon me out of hunger and necessity. The fridge offered these: leftover roast, some extra sharp cheese that I wanted eat before it went bad, and corn tortillas. My first Minnesota Taco!

Since then I’ve upgraded it a bit. Here’s how it goes:

Pot Roast. 5 lb. boneless chuck roast, to be exact. Rubbed and rested with a Southwest dry rub and onion powder, dredged in flour, browned in olive oil, kept company with a red onion, celery and a 2 cups of water and put in the oven, lid on, at 325 for 5 hours until it’s falling apart. Your typical roast.

Then I got out my trusty corn tortillas. Because that’s how I do.

I put on some of the juicy meat. Lots of juices.

Then some onions. I like the red and I like that there’s no spiciness left in them. Just plain cooked out with only sweetness left.

Next the mashed potatoes. These are a vital element of making these a Minnesota Taco. Not too much! Just the right amount.

Then, the cheese. I used extra sharp white vermont cheddar. I’ve also used yellow cheddar. Both are good. The white is my fave. Whatever color, the extra sharp is key. That’s what makes these tacos sing. They sing Children of the Heavenly Father, in case you were wondering, like all good Minnesotan Swedes.

Here’s Tom enjoying his first Minnesota Taco. In a flour tortilla, cause that’s how he does.

Whelp, that’s it. Very simple, very tasty. Great for winter and therefore, great for Minnesota. Now don’t go and break it to me that this is in no way original and that so-and-so has made these forever. There’s nothing new under the sun, I suppose. But originality is ignorance is bliss.

Eat Minnesota Tacos! Skol Vikings!

The Bread of Life and The Word Pictures

By: Abigail Dodds November 19, 2012November 19, 2012

blogging, body of Christ, everydayphotography, The Word of GodLeave a Comment

I’ve been working on putting text to pictures–mostly The Text. All of life points; it aims; it casts our attention to something. Bread making is an obvious pointer.

As I’ve continued our bread making adventure, I can’t help but be reminded and pointed to the many places in Scripture where bread and leaven are mentioned. It gives me a lot to think on: a little leaven leavens the whole lump; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy; to what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.

God spends a lot of time talking about bread. There’s an irony that so many people in our culture choose not to eat it. Jesus says, ““Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.”

And, “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (John 6:48-51 ESV)

So I’ve made a page to put “The Word Pictures.” Pictures like the one above. Pictures that remind me what things like bread are really for. I started doing it many months ago and it has been a kind way for the Lord to minister to me with His Word, to give me vision, and to rescue me with work for my hands and mind.

I hope they’re pointers to reality, the reality that is the Word of God and reminds us what this world is for: to cast a shadow. May these copies and shadows do the job of helping us get a grasp on this real thing: Jesus Christ crucified and raised, our High Priest forever.

Doing the Next Thing: Remembering

By: Abigail Dodds October 12, 2012

blogging, body of Christ, everyday2 Comments

I have so much to do, so of course, I’m sitting down to blog.

It’s like if I write something down my brain will be clear, my tasks will be all that more urgent (having just used up time blogging), and I will pull my head out from the computer and be like a ninja in a pressure cooker–totally annihilating everything that needs done between now and tomorrow. Ha. Yet, strangely true.

Sometimes the next thing to do is to sit down and write. Not pick out clothes for family pictures or clean the house for tomorrow’s showing or clean up lunch or do the dishes or think about supper or worry about the little girls’ hair that never got combed or put the fall wreath up or put away the spring flower pots. It’s just to let the kids play and clear my head. Everybody does that differently, but for me it’s to read and write. Especially to read (that’s everyday without exception)–but on days like today, to write.

Reading and writing are remembering. And right remembering is how we grow and get vision. What we remember is the cast or mold that our future will take. How I remember matters–remembering and replaying the junk (or “stuff” to use Joe Biden’s word from last night) of my life with no eye for God’s redemption and work, that’s poisonous remembering. It’s called bitterness. But remembering His good works and declaring them, remembering that my story is part of His story and it ends in glory forever, no matter how pit-like it may get down here–that’s a life-giving kind of remembering.

That’s why I read the Bible and write about the Bible. It’s what I must remember. It’s what I’ve been given to remember. It’s what shapes how I see and remember my own life and circumstances. It’s how I learn to tell the story that God has given me the right way, truthfully, with Him at the center.

“I remember the days of old;
I meditate on all that you have done;
I ponder the work of your hands.
I stretch out my hands to you;
my soul thirsts for you like a parched land. Selah”
(Psalm 143:5-6 ESV)

Everything I remember must be seen through the eyes of Truth, that is, that I was once far off from God and a slave to sin but God crushed Jesus on the cross before the foundation of the world and He raised Him from the dead and has given His Living Spirit. And before anything existed, my name was written in the Book of the Lamb who was Slain.

“Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. The saying is trustworthy, for:
If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
if we endure, we will also reign with him;
if we deny him, he also will deny us;
if we are faithless, he remains faithful—
for he cannot deny himself.”

(2 Timothy 2:8-13 ESV)

So, in the ridiculousness of pencil-shavings dumped out (again!), I remember Jesus. In the futility of the sticky floor, I remember Jesus. In the unhappiness of unmet expectations, I remember Jesus. In the frustration of my own sin, I remember Jesus. I remember that His Word is NOT BOUND! It is powerful to reach into my life and shake things up for the glory of God. I remember that it’s His work.

Lord, grant me faithfulness to remember Jesus Christ in every part of my life! Help me have the vision to remember.

Remembering God’s goodness in His creation at Fawn-Doe-Rosa!

Unflappable Faith

By: Abigail Dodds October 3, 2012

body of Christ, everydayfaith, JesusLeave a Comment

That’s what we have in Christ. A sound assurance of a real thing–faith that is based not on myth, but on events. Faith that rests on the work of Another, Jesus, and goes deep into our bones, actually waking them up and putting flesh on them and assembling them into a body, a bride.

This deep-into-my-bones faith is unflappable. Not because I’m unflappable in my personality or wiring, but because the object of my faith–it’s Founder and Perfecter is unflappable, unchangeable and utterly peaceful.

When God called me through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, He didn’t give me a better personality. He gave me flesh and heart. He didn’t give me a new outlook on life. He gave me a life. Faith in Jesus isn’t a tweak on my personality, it is His death for my death and His life for my life.

Faith in the Son means death and resurrection, for Him and for me. It means dry bones being raised up and given a name.

Even a weak faith can be unflappable. A weak faith sustained by the Word of His power is unflappable. It survives amid the tumult of the soul and the voices that seem to want to stamp the flicker out of existence. So, I take heart and courage, that it is the object of our faith that makes it solid. It is the reality that is believed in that makes our faith more than wishful thinking.

My faith and the grace that I received through Jesus is as real as the water that dripped down my face at 15 years old when I plunged into waters of baptism. It is as present and near as the bread and the cup that I taste in my mouth at the Lord’s Table.

Strong faith in something make-believe is piteous. Faith in an idol, made with human hands, however strong and self-assured that faith is, effects nothing. But a weak faith in the real and saving YHWH is worth more than any earthly thing.

What can I do when I’m weak in faith? Stop looking at my weak faith and keep looking at it’s Founder and Perfecter. Quit talking about my faith and look at the cross and empty tomb (and here I am talking about talking about faith, hello irony!). Stop agonizing over my weakness and being troubled by its presence and keep gazing at and proclaiming His Gospel of grace and peace through Jesus. There is peace in the soul for those weak in faith–unflappable peace, because it was founded by the Prince of Peace before the foundation of the world. That’s a truth to hang everything on. A truth to actually have, not just talk about. Thank you Lord, for your peace.

“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”
(1 John 5:1-5 ESV)

When Paralysis Takes Over

By: Abigail Dodds September 11, 2012

body of Christ, everydaythe Helper, the Word, weakness2 Comments

Some days I get paralyzed.

The amount that needs done and my intimate knowledge of my own finite abilities freeze me up. And often there are other factors at play as well–normal life difficulties that feel abnormally hard.

Today has started as one of those days. So, I’m going to stop, drop and roll. Just kidding. Well, not really. I’m going to write my paralysis down, own it, and with God’s help and very imperfectly, try and move.

This isn’t willpower. This is neediness and desperation. This is trusting that the Lord will meet me and that as I put one foot in front of the other, because I must, he will be doing the heavy lifting, and the light lifting, and all the lifting.

Enter my crash course in Reality 101. My feelings versus external reality:

1) I feel overwhelmed by today. I feel like I can’t get school done and the house ready to show and, and, and. Reality is that I am overwhelmed, but God’s love overwhelms the overwhelmed. His love for me and detailed care for me is endless.

I will recount the steadfast love of the LORD,
the praises of the LORD,
according to all that the LORD has granted us,
and the great goodness to the house of Israel
that he has granted them according to his compassion,
according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
(Isaiah 63:7 ESV)

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved-
(Ephesians 2:4-5 ESV)

2) I feel weightiness on my chest. I feel burdened by many things. Reality is there is much to be burdened by, but bearing other’s burdens is my calling and privilege as part of the family of God. And the burden of my sin, I do not carry any more.

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
(Galatians 6:2 ESV)

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
(Matthew 11:28-30 ESV)

3) I feel inadequate, weak in faith. I feel like a better woman wouldn’t be having these problems. Reality is, I am inadequate and there are better, godly women who aren’t having my problems, but God specializes in the inadequate. He comes for the sick and the broken-down. He helps those with weak faith. And He uses those godly women to teach me, because he’s kind.

“But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”
(Mark 9:22-24 ESV)

4) I feel alone. This is the worst one. This is the one feeling that is an outright lie. The other feelings are all legit–incomplete without the application of the Word, but truthful. This “alone” feeling has done its terrible work time and again. But it is simply untrue, and the Spirit testifies to its falsehood. Reality is, I am not alone; I am never alone.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
(John 14:16-18 ESV)

“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But 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. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
(John 14:25-27 ESV)

Thank you Spirit, for being my Helper. Thank you Jesus, for being my Savior. Thank you Jehovah, for being the great I AM who I AM, unchanging, solid, perfection. Sanctify me in the truth, your Word is truth. Thank you for being God over my paralysis and feelings. Thank you for your great love and pardon. Thank you for being with me in it all.

One Day’s Trouble Met With One Day’s Mercies

By: Abigail Dodds August 28, 2012

body of Christ, everydaygrace, homeschool2 Comments

Today was our first day of school. It went well, overall. We dove in, there was nothing else for it.

After a pep talk given by me (and for me, if I’m being honest) about committing our year to “work heartily as to the Lord,” even in multiplication tables and lamentable fractions, and encouragement that we’ve been given a Helper and Comforter called the Holy Spirit who helps us turn from anger and frustration to working heartily as to the Lord, we began.

Sometimes when things go well it’s as daunting as when they go poorly. The kids did well, and in that, they showed me what a “good” day is going to take. It takes a lot–a lot of time, a lot of patience and a lot of sticktoitiveness. By the end, I was sapped and wondering what a bad day might do to me.

Then I remembered Matthew 6, “Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” A day’s worth of trouble is all I can do, even if it’s only a good day’s worth of trouble. And I remembered Lamentations, “His mercies are new every morning.” New, clean mercies for old, rotten troubles.

The troubles just seem to recycle themselves and I just keep being troubled by them, even knowing there is nothing new under the sun. But the mercies aren’t recycled. They’re new–fresh mercy and grace from the cross everyday. God grants “grace to help in our time of need.”

There are times when I’d like to short circuit the whole thing and and have the two somehow cancel each other out in perpetuity, so that I don’t have to deal with the trouble or applying the mercy! But that’s not the Christian life. The Christian life is day after day, step after step, a plodding (sometimes racing! whee!) kind of life–not coasting, legs going up and down.

Trouble is part of the deal, so is mercy and grace. So today I face the trouble and triumphs of today and I receive the mercy and grace for the present moment from a God who makes the earth spin around everyday, and causes the tides to move everyday, and makes flowers bloom everyday, and makes our hearts beat every second and does a million other repetitive glorious things.

I imitate His constancy in the repetitive everyday work of facing trouble and receiving daily grace and mercy. Make this sinner faithful, Lord, because of your steadfast-everyday-fresh-repetitive-irresistible love.

1st Day of Homeschool 2012. Elianna-K; Eliza-3rd; Seth-1st (Evangeline, not pictured, in the School of Napping and Potty-Training par Excellence).

My Too-Late Art Contest Entry: “I Act The Miracle.” -JP

By: Abigail Dodds August 15, 2012August 15, 2012

body of Christ, everyday, Uncategorizedart contest, Desiring God, John Piper, quotesLeave a Comment

Desiring God is having an art contest to make this quote by Pastor John into a graphic.

“When it comes to killing my sin, I don’t wait for the miracle, I act the miracle.” -John Piper

I wanted to enter, but hey, I’m a mom whose spare time doesn’t come on a schedule. So, I missed the entry deadline. And I’m not sure I followed the rules, since I used a photo, but I couldn’t resist putting the text to a picture I took in Montana that illustrates the miracle of God-produced life from death so perfectly. Christians die and grow when told. We can’t help it–that IS the miracle.

Summons, Beasts, Judgment, Calling, and Salvation

By: Abigail Dodds August 6, 2012

body of Christ, everydayPsalm 50, salvation, Word of God2 Comments

That’s Psalm 50 in a nutshell.

Recently in Montana, my mind was drawn to this Psalm as I observed the cattle scattered about the foothills of the Crazy Mountains.

“For every beast of the forest is mine,
the cattle on a thousand hills.”
(Psalm 50:10 ESV)

**You own the cattle on a thousand hills.**

The Psalm starts with a summons:

“The Mighty One, God the LORD,
speaks and summons the earth
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God shines forth.
Our God comes; he does not keep silence;
before him is a devouring fire,
around him a mighty tempest.
He calls to the heavens above
and to the earth, that he may judge his people:
“Gather to me my faithful ones,
who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”
The heavens declare his righteousness,
for God himself is judge! Selah”
(Psalm 50:1-6 ESV)

**The heavens declare his righteousness.**

Then God judges His people; he testifies against them–not as a final judgment, but in correction, as a Father.

“Hear, O my people, and I will speak;
O Israel, I will testify against you.
I am God, your God.
Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;
your burnt offerings are continually before me.
I will not accept a bull from your house
or goats from your folds.
For every beast of the forest is mine,
the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know all the birds of the hills,
and all that moves in the field is mine.”
(Psalm 50:7-11 ESV)

**He knows all the birds of the hills.**

God owns everything; He needs nothing from us and we give Him nothing but our neediness, our call in the day of trouble.

“If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
for the world and its fullness are mine.
Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?
Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and perform your vows to the Most High,
and call upon me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”
(Psalm 50:12-15 ESV)

**“I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” -Ps 50:15**

God mercifully warns the wicked. He is not like man–He does not stay silent forever.

“But to the wicked God says:
“What right have you to recite my statutes
or take my covenant on your lips?
For you hate discipline,
and you cast my words behind you.
If you see a thief, you are pleased with him,
and you keep company with adulterers.
“You give your mouth free rein for evil,
and your tongue frames deceit.
You sit and speak against your brother;
you slander your own mother’s son.
These things you have done, and I have been silent;
you thought that I was one like yourself.
But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.”
(Psalm 50:16-21 ESV)

**God warns and makes a way for the wicked, even me.**

Salvation has come! His name is Jesus. I order my way rightly by seeing my needfulness and His ownership.

“Mark this, then, you who forget God,
lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!
The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;
to one who orders his way rightly
I will show the salvation of God!”
(Psalm 50:22-23 ESV)