chocolate, provision, and stories.

Oh-my-word....one word: CHOCOLATE! I'm telling you, I can't seem to get enough of it lately! Chocolate pancakes, chocolate pudding, chocolate coffee, peppermint hot chocolate...the list goes on and on. Do the french particularly enjoy rich chocolate? Since I've had France on the brain so much the past few days (note the music at this point) it would make sense that I'm beginning to crave some rich chocolate french dessert....right? ;-) Here's the thing though, I'm a bit of a health nut, so regular chocolate (though don't get me wrong, I LOVE it) is out for the moment since I'm currently trying to stay away from sugar. Enter the most AMAZING recipes for everything mentioned above (especially that chocolate pudding that can be made into these incredible FUDGE popsicles) without the sugar or any artificial sweeteners. Anyone interested in the recipes? Just imagine, chocolate pancakes, peppermint hot chocolate, FUGESICLES, and all of it completely guilt free. That's right, you heard me right ladies! So, if you're interested, just leave me a comment on this post and if I get enough, I'll post how to achieve all this decadent chocolate magic;-)

I've been thinking a lot the last few days about what it truly means to have "no thought for your life" and know that if you are in His will, He will provide all that you need. I desire that to not only be head knowledge, but heart knowledge as well. Whenever I'm faced with a financial issue, I so quickly become discouraged and think, "How can I possibly make it through this one?" It's a ridiculous thing to even think, because you know what? My Father owns cattle on a thousand hills and at any moment He can sell one and boom, I'm provided for once again...or something like that anyway:-) The point is that I desperately need to trust Him, no matter what the circumstances look like. I want to be like George Mueller, who would sit the kids in his orphanage down with no food on the table, bless the non existent food (because he knew no matter that the food had not appeared yet, that God would provide it) and then the milk truck would break down out front of the home and the milk man would offer everything he had to the kids because it was going to go bad anyway! This is how my every day life should be and I desire it more than anything. To know that even though I cannot see the provision or where in the world it will come from, He is absolutely faithful and will provide  all that I need, just for the simple reason that He loves me and delights to have His glory seen in my life. And you know what else? I would rather live every single day of the rest of my life not knowing where any provision is coming from and utterly trusting in Him, rather than to make lots of money, have all that I need and forget that dependance that each day merits on Him.

Isn't it amazing to depend on Him and have Him write beautiful stories of such dependance through our trust? Though it may be hard in the moment when we're going through such times, afterwards, when it's all said and done, such situations make for the most wonderful stories! Stories that we can sit around and tell our children and grandchildren, "There was this one time when I was young, that God did the most amazing thing..." Though, I hope it's not just "this one time" but many, many, many times that warrant such story tellings.