Thoughts from my book reading

Well, I have been reading Fit to Burst on my Kindle and by the time I got to chapter 12, I was frustrated that I couldn't flip back to chapter 2 easily, and remind myself of the great thing she had said that broke my heart.  It's no good reading it if I don't remember it, put it in my brain, and make some application.
So I went back to the beginning and started taking notes.

So, I thought I'd share one of the short and sweet things I keep saying to myself when I feel under-appreciated and bitterness starts creeping in.
I was actually preparing food for mother's day lunch.  I absolutely love cooking.  love cooking for family because they're great.
However, even doing this thing that I love for people I love, I can manage to let the bitterness creep in.  Nathan took a couple of girls to the lake to go fishing, therefore, I am cooking the mother's day meal, again.  Somehow it works out that I have done this every mother's day weekend for the past few years.  And I really am happy to!  I just want Nathan to smother me with appreciation for it. :)

So, I was chopping vegetables when my back and feet started hurting and the bitter thoughts came and I started to say, "This is enough giving.  This is my limit."  I was having what Rachel calls "hot thoughts" about my sacrifices.
And then I remembered, "Don't count the cost."  I've said that so many times this week, while I tromp through the house cleaning up their messes.    "Stop it, Amanda.  Stop counting the cost."  Sacrifice is not sorrow!  Giving is not an empty life.  If you seek to be full, give.  But I need truth to define/change my thinking.

Phil. 2:3-8 - "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit; but in humility count others more significant than yourselves...Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus...who emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant...even to death!"

One of my favorite passages from chapter 2 in Rachel's book:

We do things that are hard and cost us much because we want our gifts to be free to others.
That is the gospel.

Also, I just don't want to be the lady who put lots of good food on the table, but resented it.
We need to discipline our emotions, and see that the opportunities for blessing our families are most ripe when we least feel like it.
Show them that worshiping with them matters more than all the other stuff.
How fitting that we still get to serve our families, even if it is mother's day and we romanticize about meals being served to us in bed.  I really do feel my heart grow tender toward those I get to serve when I really think about the price that was paid for me; a work that was done, so that I don't have to work, but I am free to work with joy.