Peanut Butter and Other Desires of Our Hearts

Years ago, I worked as a private duty nurse for a man who was paralyzed from the neck down. Prior to a near fatal automobile accident, Bill Campbell was a political cartoonist syndicated in 50 states in the U.S. While Bill was no longer able to draw, he was very well respected among the political sorts and still invited to attend their galas. One year, he was invited to attend a Christmas party at the Governor of Illinois’s mansion. Realizing that, due to his health condition, Bill never ventured out without his private duty nurse or a family member who could care for him, the Governor encouraged Bill to bring his entire entourage.

My son, Jake and I were pretty much a part of the fixtures at the Campbell house. From a few days after his birth, Jake and I would adventure off to work at the Campbell’s. So… when it came time to make plans to attend the Governor’s party, Jake and I were included! We were all invited to spend the night and have breakfast with the Governor, his wife and young daughter the next morning.

Pancakes were on the breakfast menu! At our house we love piping hot pancakes smothered with melted peanut butter and drizzled with maple syrup. While the maple syrup was being passed around the Governor’s table, there was no peanut butter insight. Jake leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Momma, do you suppose they have any peanut butter at this house?” The Governor heard Jake’s desire and jumped up to fetch the peanut butter.

Jake was thinking, “Wow! Even the Governor’s family eats peanut butter!” I was thinking, “If someone as prominent as the Governor is so quick to respond to our desires, imagine how responsive our heavenly Father is!

Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him (Matthew 7:9-11)!

Yet, where is the assurance in this for the imprisoned missionary who has prayed to no avail that the torture would stop? What comfort is this to the parents standing next to their child’s casket for whom they had relentlessly prayed for healing? What about the starving child who has pleaded with a seemingly unresponsive God for food? How do we explain this “unfulfilled promise” to the wife kneeling next to her bed while her husband lingers at the local bar once again? Where are their good gifts? Are they to blame for their “unanswered” prayers? What about you, does God always respond according to your requests?

Scripture says:

• Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours (Mark 11:24).
If only the missionary had a tad more faith!

• If two of you agree on earth about any request you have to make, that request will be granted by my heavenly Father (Matthew 18:19).
If only the parents had contacted one more prayer group to pray for their dying child.

• Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 37:4).
If only the starving child would have praised God ten minutes more each day!

• Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be open to you (Matthew 7:7)
If only the lonely wife would have prayed the right words more often!

Don’t they know
that the power to rule the world is at their finger tips
if only they would get it right!

A little exaggerated? Yet, if we would honestly consider what we often promote regarding prayer, this claim would ultimately be the end result of our reasoning, wouldn’t it? Evidently our heavenly Father must have a different idea of what “good gifts” mean than what most of us think! Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows (James 1:17). In other words, our heavenly Father does not dish-out gifts according to a certain measure of faith, a certain number of praying people, a certain period of praise or a certain prayed phrase. We don’t have to guess at what satisfies Him!

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him (1John 5:14-15).

Stay tuned for part II of Peanut Butter and Other Desires of Our Hearts regarding prayer according to His will.

Whole-Heartedly,

Bonnie

P.S. Please feel free to contact me with questions, thoughts, topics you’d like to ponder or to read past articles at: http://whole-heartedlife.blogspot.com/. You may also contact me at:
Bonnie Jaeckle
In Search of the Whole-Hearted Life
Diagonal Progress
505 Jefferson St.
Diagonal, IA 50845

Training as a Draft Horse Teamster - The Greater Purpose in Suffering - Part III

This is the third and last article in a series about my getting hurt while working with our draft horses.

When we suffer any kind of trial or sorrow we must consider:

• Do I proclaim my lack of faith to the World by feeling sorry for myself, complaining, blaming, reacting negatively or responding harshly when I suffer? Do I attempt to pray it away?
• Or like Paul and Timothy, do I consider it pure joy when I face trails (James 1:2-8, 12) and rejoice in my suffering, proclaiming to the World that I trust and honor Father (1 Peter 1:6-9) in all things:

In everything we do, we show that we are true ministers of God. We patiently endure troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind. We have been beaten, put in prison, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights, and gone without food. We prove ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, by the Holy Spirit within us, and by our sincere love. We live close to death, but we are still alive. Our hearts ache, but we always have joy. We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others. We own nothing, and yet we have everything (2 Corinthians 6:4-10).

In the face of the cross, Jesus said, Abba, Father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will (Mark 14:36). Obviously, it was not the Father’s will that Jesus be rescued from suffering. Instead, the Father’s will was and still is that we be “delivered from this present wicked World.” This isn’t to say that we will be removed from the World. Rather, as we walk in the footsteps of Jesus we are delivered from responding in ways that reflect the darkness of it.

When we respond to trials and sorrows in faithfulness to the Father and His ways

we continue to overcome the rulers, powers and principalities

of this place and system of suffering.

(Ephesians 6:12)!

So… what happened that caused our horses to be so confused? I was taught to always stand behind the implement in order to prevent getting trapped between it and the horses. I did this. I was also taught to fasten the reins to the implement in order to give the horses a sense of tension so that they don’t pull ahead until I am ready. I did this. What I wasn’t aware of is; if I don’t leave a bit of slack in the reins when I fasten them and begin to mount the implement, my weight on the back of the implement will pull the reins more tautly, signaling to the horses that I want them to back up! Not doing so lead to suffering!

While scripture tells us, if we put the bits into the horses’ mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well (James 3:1-3), it never directs us to steer clear of suffering by attempting to live righteously! The reality is… we don’t have such power over the reins in our lives! Thinking that we do just might get us plowed over!

It never entered my mind that this event was a result of how unrighteous I might be. If suffering was dished out according to how righteous we are, we’d all be burning in hell! What I did consider however is this, My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). My greatest desire in all of this was to boast of the things which show my weakness (2 Corinthians 11:30) because I knew that in my weakness my Lord’s power was being demonstrated!

In my weakness I was reminded, “There is only One Who reigns over all” and I wanted to proclaim this to anyone who asked me, “What happened?”

Whole-Heartedly,
Bonnie

P.S. Please feel free to contact me with questions, thoughts, topics you’d like to ponder or to read past articles at: http://whole-heartedlife.blogspot.com/. You may also contact me at:
Bonnie Jaeckle
In Search of the Whole-Hearted Life
Diagonal Progress
505 Jefferson St.

Training as a Draft Horse Teamster - The Greater Purpose in Suffering - Part II

Last week I shared a story about getting hurt while discing with our draft horses. Some people’s conclusions about what went wrong were quite interesting. One deduction in particular stands out in my mind: “You must not be living right”!

Do only good things happen to those who are “living right”? If so, how do we explain Jesus’ warning to His followers, In the World you will have trials and sorrows; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the World (John 16:33). He never mentions that our trials will be matched according to how we live! Instead, He tells us that the World is a place and system of suffering. We are to expect trials and sorrows as elements of living in the World.

If afflictions are dished out according to how “wrong” a person is living, how would we explain Apostle Paul’s suffering?

Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches (2 Corinthians 11:23-28).

Would we warn him, “Paul, my dear brother, you must be living wrong or God would feed, clothe and protect you. You’ve got to get it right, Paul or you’re a dead man!”

What about Jesus? He was beaten so badly that his appearance was… marred beyond human likeness (Isaiah 52:14b) and was crucified unto death (John19:30). Would we pity him saying, “Holy cow, Jesus! You must have been living wrong to be facing the ultimate trial! I guess it is too late to get your life in order so that you can skirt around this crucifixion!”

We are minimizing the sacrifice of Jesus,
if we don’t understand and demonstrate the greater purpose for suffering, including death:
…that he might deliver us from this present wicked world…
(Galatians 1:4).

This deliverance isn’t a down the road reward for “good” behavior! It is a here and now victory! Walking in the footsteps of Jesus, we are also to be overcomers of this World (Romans 8:37); today. It isn’t about how much or how often we suffer that communicates anything of importance. It is about how we respond to suffering that speaks loudly of Whom we are made.


Stay tuned next week for the conclusion of this series.


Whole-Heartedly,
Bonnie

P.S. Please feel free to contact me with questions, thoughts, topics you’d like to ponder or to read past articles at: http://whole-heartedlife.blogspot.com/. You may also contact me at:
Bonnie Jaeckle
In Search of the Whole-Hearted Life
Diagonal Progress
505 Jefferson St.
Diagonal, IA 50845

Training as a Draft Horse Teamster - The Greater Purpose of Suffering

The first day of the Spoon River Valley Scenic Drive at Marigold Meadows was quite an adventure! Excited about having the opportunity to drive our horses, Gary and I were having great fun discing the field in preparation for other teams to plow. I can’t even begin to describe how it feels to be a draft horse teamster. Ponyo and Nettie were responding well and seemed to enjoy the work as much as Gary and I.

After giving our horses a break from the labor, we decided it was time to return to the field. We hooked Ponyo and Nettie to the disc, double checked that we’d followed all that we’d been taught and I began to climb up on the disc. Having one foot on the implement and the other on the ground, the horses began to backup! My foot got trapped under the disc and the pressure of the moving implement pushed me down. The next thing I know, I’m lying on the ground with both legs caught under the disc!

While I certainly wasn’t comfortable, I was screaming, not so much from the pain, but in an attempt to get the attention of someone to help. Needless to say, Gary and the horses were frightened. Gary couldn’t leave the head of the horses in order to help me or we could have had worse problems. He was frantically attempting to get the horses to move forward in order to get the implement off of my legs. I feared that this would result in slicing my legs to pieces. Instead, the disc was inching further up my legs causing more and more twisting and crushing injury. While it was likely only a few minutes before helped arrived, it seemed to take forever.

It’s amazing what goes through a person’s mind in such a predicament! While my life could have been taken within seconds:

• I was concerned for Gary.

• I feared that I had let my brother down by not following his instructions in some way.

• I wanted to learn from what had gone wrong and was pondering the possibilities.

• I felt badly for the horses who were so confused.

• I didn’t want to frighten the visitors at Marigold Meadows.

• I was concerned about my sister-in-law’s camera which was in my pocket.

For a split second, I imagined the horses backing the disc and themselves right over the top of me!

The thought left me as quickly as it came.

I knew what I needed.

I had to get someone’s attention who could lift the thing off of me!

I went back to screaming for help and within a few minutes I was rescued.

What in the world went wrong? Stay tuned for next weeks article.

Whole-Heartedly,

Bonnie

P.S. Please feel free to contact me with questions, thoughts, topics you’d like to ponder or to read past articles at: http://whole-heartedlife.blogspot.com/http://whole-heartedlife.blogspot.com/">http://whole-heartedlife.blogspot.com/
>. You may also contact me at:

Bonnie Jaeckle

In Search of the Whole-Hearted Life

Diagonal Progress

505 Jefferson St.

Diagonal, IA 50845

Marigold Meadow’s Pie

The first two weekends in October are busy times at Marigold Meadows.  While I have much to share with you about the last two weeks, I’ve had little time to write!  This note will be short and sweet!

Fox News came yesterday to do a clip on what was happening on the farm and interviewed several people, including one of the pie bakers!  Knowing more about keeping the fires burning and getting those pies in and out of the oven in due time than most of the helping ladies, my nephew, Craig was the chosen spokesperson!  Showing the flames from the firebox of our wood stove, Craig explained, “Many assume that we are baking in a gas stove which looks like a wood stove.  But, there is no comparison!  You can’t set a timer and just walk away from a wood stove!  You have to “baby sit” it to make sure the right temperature is maintained by adding wood, opening or closing the damper and sometimes even propping the oven door open.”

While a wood stove is more work, we think the results are worth the effort and evidently so do those who come to visit Marigold Meadows.  Even in the stormy weather, people were lined-up outside to purchase a slice of warm pie!  There’s just something about the taste of piping hot pie straight from a wood stove!  After sampling the melt in your mouth crust, it isn’t uncommon for our visitors to ask for the recipe.  We have little business cards with the recipe on them ready to give to those who ask.

While it won’t taste quite the same if you’re not baking in a wood stove oven, I thought you might like to try your hand at making

Marigold Meadow’s Pie

Crust:                                    Filling:

2/3 cup Crisco oil                  1 quart fruit

1/3 cup water                        1 ½ cup sugar

dash salt                                3 tbsp. corn starch

2 cups water                         cinnamon if making apple

Measure ingredients for crust accurately and mix in medium sized bowl.  Divide dough and roll between wax paper to desired size (makes two large or three small crusts).  Place dough in pie plate and fit into corners.  Cut remaining dough from edge of pan.  Mix filling ingredients and pour over crust.  Place top crust over filling and pinch top and bottom crusts together at edges.  Bake at 400 for one hour or until golden brown.

I thanked the reporter for coming out in the storm and gave him a slice of hot apple pie!  He ate it on the spot!  We’re hoping that he shared with his audience what he told us, “This is one of the best pies I’ve ever eaten!

Whole-Heartedly,

Bonnie

P.S.  Please feel free to contact me with questions, thoughts, topics you’d like to ponder or to read past articles at: http://whole-heartedlife.blogspot.com/.  You may also contact me at:

             Bonnie Jaeckle

             In Search of the Whole-Hearted Life

             Diagonal Progress

             505 Jefferson St.

             Diagonal, IA 50845

The Butt of the Pork Roast

I was recently in a setting where I was reminded of how ridiculous it is to listen to newlywed couples’ silly bickering in an effort to adjust to one another’s ways of doing things.

You aren’t supposed to do dishes on the right side of the sink and rinse them on the left!  You do it backwards!
Not only is her potato soup too thick, she puts carrots and celery in it!  When I eat potato soup, I want potato soup!

Differing ways of doing things can cause tension even in the best of relationships, including those in a Christian community.  The tendency is to assume that our way is the best way and to consider any other way as bizarre.  Often our way is simply a developed habit that we’ve never even considered.  The following is a good example:

Husband: Honey, why do you always cut the end of the pork roast off before you place it into the roaster?
Wife: I really don’t know!  That’s just what mom always did.  I’ll call and ask her.

Daughter: Mom, why do you always cut the end off of the pork roast before you put it in the roaster.
Mom: I really don’t know!  That’s just what grandma always did.  I’ll call and ask her.

Mom: Mom, why did you always cut the end off of the pork roast before you put it into the roaster?
Grandma: Because I didn’t have a big enough roasting pan.

Before criticizing someone else’s approach and assuming that yours is better, it would be wise to consider:

• Fools have no interest in understanding;
 they only want to air their own opinions.
Proverbs 18:2

• “Why do I do it the way I do?”  You may find that you really don’t know!
• the other person’s way of doing it.  You may find that it is better.
• that it never hurts to learn more than one way.  You may need an alternative someday!
• “Is sharing my opinion in this situation really necessary?”
• that it is encouraging for other people to feel as though they occasionally have something worthwhile to offer.

While there is certainly nothing wrong with considerately sharing an opinion or a piece of knowledge, a “know it all” is only exposing his foolishness (Proverbs 12:23)!

In Paul’s letter to the Christian community in Philippi, he writes, 

Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.  Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others (Philippians 2:1-4 (NASB)).

If you truly desire to be a part of a community united in love, be careful about assuming that your way is the only way and condescendingly voicing your opinion.  Not only is this very detrimental to community relationships, you could end up being the butt of the pork roast!

Whole-Heartedly,
Bonnie
P.S.  Please feel free to contact me with questions, thoughts, topics you’d like to ponder or to read past articles at: http://whole-heartedlife.blogspot.com/.  You may also contact me at:
             Bonnie Jaeckle
             In Search of the Whole-Hearted Life
             Diagonal Progress
             505 Jefferson St.
             Diagonal, IA 50845

God's View of Pigeon Poo

While most people wish that pigeons would home elsewhere, we’d like to have a few on our farms. So… my brother Art, husband, Gary & I showed up in the night at another farm seeking pigeons. The owners opened their grain bin, allowing us to go in, and then closed the door behind us!

There the three of us stood with a cage, flashlights and a fishing net in hand!

Needless to say, the pigeons were frightened of these three intruders and were not only frantically flying all around us, but landing on us! Before we even arrived, I assumed that I’d get to laughing so hard that I wouldn’t be able to accomplish what I was there for. Pigeons landing in my hair, totally missing the target that I was swinging at and watching the others attempting to capture their prey was about all I could handle! I worked really hard not to become so hysterical with laughter that I would be of no help! At one point I felt that I was near to rolling on the floor in laughter. The urge didn’t last long when I considered what I’d be rolling in, if I gave into it!

We were quite the team. One of us guarded the door to the cage, while another netted a pigeon and the third carried it to its temporary confinement. When we caught the 30 some that we were after, the owners “released” us from the bin and we stood around reminiscing about our experience. The three of us were sniffling and coughing due to the dust that was stirred-up by the anxious birds. Rubbing my nose to relieve the itching, I ended up with a nostril full of pigeon poo! Can I be hysterical now!

I wasn’t thinking about it while confined in that dirty, ammonia smelling bin, but it’s since come to me that pigeons were considered sacred in the Bible. For those who were poor, pigeons were used as a sin offering which was a mandatory atonement for cleansing from defilement and as a burnt offering which was a voluntary act of worship, expressing complete surrender to God. The person making the offering laid his/her hand on the head of the animal symbolizing that his/her sin was now transferred upon it and then he/she slew it. The blood of the animal was accepted as atonement for that person’s sin making it possible for him/her to commune with God.

Prior to the Passover Feast, Jewish dealers set-up booths in the temple area specifically set apart for Gentile worship. They were selling, at extravagant prices, ritually pure items required for temple sacrifice.

Just as thieves hide in caves and think they are safe,
so the religious leaders were using the temple as a cover for their fraudulent activity;
that is until Jesus shows up and ruins their business!
Outraged by their blatant disregard for God’s provision for non-Jewish people,

Entering the Temple, Jesus drove out all who were buying and selling there,
and overturned the money-changers' tables
and the seats of the pigeon-dealers.
“It is written,
“My house will be called a house of prayer,
but you are making it a den of robbers
(Matthew 21:12-13).

While emphasis is typically placed upon the deceptive activity of the dealers, by clearing the temple of the sellers and the buyers, Jesus was announcing to the thousands of people who were there from all parts of the ancient world that He was preparing a new way for all people to have communion with God through Him. By specifically reacting toward the pigeon-dealers, who were getting wealthy off of those who could not afford grander sacrifices, Jesus was deliberately announcing that even the poor were included in His plan.

A few days after Jesus cleanses the temple of such deception, He offered Himself upon a cross to bear your sins and mine as the all-sufficient sacrifice. His Father is completely satisfied with the atonement that Jesus made on our behalf.

You also, like living stones
are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood,
offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ

(1 Peter 2:5).

The spiritual act of worship that is holy and pleasing to God is to offer ourselves to Him as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1). Don’t let anyone deceive you into believing that you have to come to a certain place on a specific day, wearing certain clothes, offering money in order to satisfy Him. Our Father has no requirements that we have to pray in a specific way, read our Bible any particular amount or praise Him from a mandatory position. If anyone speaks to you of such deceptive requirements in order to commune with God, you might want to look and see if they have pigeon poo on the back of their hands!

Whole-Heartedly,
Bonnie

P.S. Please feel free to contact me with questions, thoughts, topics you’d like to ponder or to read past articles at: http://whole-heartedlife.blogspot.com/. You may also contact me at:
Bonnie Jaeckle
In Search of the Whole-Hearted Life
Diagonal Progress
505 Jefferson St.
Diagonal, IA 50845