Resist and Draw Near

It is always interesting to me that way I can have a verse memorized and still not really understand- until one day God uses it in the pruning and teaching process and a light comes on and suddenly a new and personal truth is discovered.  This has happened lately with two passages that God has brought together in my quiet times and reflections. 
    James 4:7-8a "Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.  Draw near to God and he will draw near to you."  Now I know this probably appears obvious, but drawing near to God and resisting the devil are very much tied to eachother.  In fact, when you draw near to God, you are resisting the devil.  By spending thoughtful, prayerful time in the Word, time in worship, time in God's presence, time in confession, then you are very much resisting the devil.  You are making it very difficult for the devil to deceive you- to plant lies in your head.  I have discovered this connection because I have not been drawing near enough to God.  Sure, I have a quiet time and I learn things from the Bible and through other believers...but I haven't really been drawing near to God- abiding, dwelling in his presence- letting him teach me and fill me...  Anyway- it was at this time that the deceiver was able to do just that- deceive me- make me doubt the very core of my faith in a way that I had never done before.  This is where the other verse comes in. 
    2 Corinthians 10:5 "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."  A thought in and of itself is not sinful- but when we allow it to fester, keep entertaining it, keep meditating upon it, that is when it can lead to sin.  Satan fed me a lie, but I kept meditating on it.  Instead of immediately recognizing it is a lie and replacing it with a truth from scripture, I kept dwelling on it until it so plagued me that I couldn't worship God.  And then that is when I cried out to God and asked for his deliverance- and then got my husband to pray for my deliverance.  Then I was set free.  My mind and faith was set right again.  In a way I am thankful for this crisis of faith, but I also know that if I had stopped the thought from the get go it would not have lead me to the blasphemous thoughts that I entertained. 
     So that was a few months ago, and I write this now because I was reminded of the same verses a few days ago when my thoughts gave way to a different kind of sin- that of speaking in frustration and not honoring a sister in Christ.  I realized that the reason this response came out of me when pressed was because I had been meditating personality traits and actions that bothered me about her instead of focusing on love, patience, humility... Because I did not take the thought captive to the truth- the truth that she is beloved of God, redeemed, precious in God's sight, worthy of my respect...- it multiplied and caused me to lose self-control.  It was a fairly small thing, mostly unnoticed by others, but something that I was not proud of- something that God has helped me to overcome in the past, and something that I had to apologize for. 
   1 Corinthians 10:13 says that God gives you a way out when you are tempted so that you can stand.  I think that often the way out is really in the beginning- it is preventative.  It is drawing near to God daily, hourly, moment by moment so that deceptive thoughts can be immediately taken captive and replaced with the truth!

Peppers...and apology

First- I paid $.02 per bell pepper today at the market.  I picked out 5 bell peppers and asked the lady how much they cost and she said 6 rupees.  I really wasn't sure that I had heard her correctly, but she took my 6 rupees and didn't complain!  You just can't get cheap vegetables like that in the US in any form and definitely not frozen.

Apology- I have not been faithful in taking pictures lately.  I don't really think I have taken any pictures of our new city.  Therefore, I resolve to take my camera with me every day this week and take pictures of the things I see around town.  There really is a visual overload here and want to share it!  Plus my baby is getting so big and I am not documenting it.  So be on the look out for new pictures coming soon!

Photo Dump

It was impossible to get a good picture of Silas and Joyce together (I should have just used the flash).  This was our across the street neighbor in our language school city.

Motilal, aka The Hindi Doctor, and his family

My conversation partner Tina

JP always comments that I take a lot of pictures of his arms,

Our cook Kamla Didi- we miss her.

My 17 month old looking "smart".  He got a hair cut the other day at the mall and he did not like it one bit, but it turned out well.

Just Thoughts

I have recently seen different posts pop up on facebook commenting on two different blog posts- www.biblicalwoman.com called Decorating for Real Life, and one from www.powerofmoms.com entitled, Your Children Want you. I found that it was interesting how they kind of contradicted eachother on the subject of Pinterest. Whereas neither was really about Pinterest, they both made mention of it and it made me think about the way we spend out time as women.
The article on decorating said that the Proverbs 31 woman would have certainly been a fan of Pinterest, however I kind of feel like she would have thought Pinterest was a waste of her time. I am in no means criticizing Pinterest, in fact I really don't know much about it, but I have seen comments about it being addicting and more time being spent looking at other people's projects than actually doing them yourself.
I think that the Power of Moms article really hinted more at the true Proverbs 31 woman. It is a common temptation among women to compare ourselves with other women in many facets of our live: decorating, cooking, fun activities we plan for our kids, creativity, how much we saved on groceries, fashion... and sites like Pinterest, facebook, blogs, tend to add fuel to this fire if we are not careful. But God has not called me to be any other woman than the woman he has made me to be. He has given me certain gifting, talents, skills, interests... and he wants me to use those to the best of my ability to be the best wife, mom, friend, and witness for Him that I can be. While sometimes we need a little help with a creative idea and we can learn from eachother, ultimately a lot of that stuff is just fluff. True hospitality is not how nicely decorated your house is, how well you can set the table, or even how good your food tastes, and the best mother is not the one with the most fun ideas or cutest dressed children. As a wife, mother, hostess, friend, witness, I must love the Lord my God with all that I am and use the love and gifts that he gives me to love those around me.
As a personal confession, I don't feel much like a good Proverbs 31 woman. Thinking about these articles has really made me think about the way I spend my time- being a good steward of the time that God gives me during the day to spend time with my precious son- teaching him to love God and all those other things he needs to learn. God also gives me time to love and honor my husband, to serve him, to help him accomplish all that God has called him to do. And God gives me time to be a neighbor, to be a servant.
I have a long list of projects in my head that I want to do to get my new house looking HGTV ready and to help Silas learn about the world around him and how to read... and I think God wants me to do those projects because he has given me creativity and I enjoy them, but I must remember that my first priority is God and then the people he has put in my life. If these projects draw me away from those things, then they are just not that important.

Learning Hospitality Asia Style

The more time I am here the more I am learning that what I thought was hospitality is not true hospitality.  In America I thought it was fun to hostess-ie- plan an event, set a date and time, cook, decorate, entertain...by invitation...but I have come to learn that this is not hospitality in its fullest form.  I have learned from two weeks of observing people that true hospitality is unexpected, spontaneous, flexible...
    Imagine it is 4:00pm and you have just started preparing things to cook dinner (which takes a long time because it is all from scratch) and there is a knock at the door from guests who plan to stay and talk a while.  What do you do?  Or the kicker, what do you think in your heart?  Hospitality stops what you are doing and gives full attention to your guest, meeting their needs, getting them water, chai, snacks, and then sitting with them to talk.  Hospitality never looks at the clock to think, "oh I wish they would leave soon so that I could get dinner cooked".  Hospitality keeps offering more.  So at 5:30 or 6 when your guests leave it is finally time to cook dinner, and a 6 o'clock meal becomes an 8 o'clock meal... (This is a true story)
    I have observed this a lot over the past few weeks.  An unexpected visitor will come to the door- they are invited in and offered water, snacks, chai, and full attention is given to them.  It doesn't matter what is on the to-do-list, right now your guest is your priority.  The past two weeks I have been a guest in other people's homes and I have certainly observed true hospitality.  Not only do they let us stay in their homes for free but they serve us with happy hearts.  Our national hostess prepared food early just for us because she knew we weren't used to eating at 9:30, she did our laundry (even though I tried to do it myself), helped make special food for Silas, and the couple gave up their bedroom for us so that we could have an a/c and western toilet.  And they didn't seem to begrudge it at all. 
   I am learning that much of my time here is going to be spent being hospitable.  Taking time to be ready for whoever comes our way, planning my day in such a way that I can be flexible, teaching my heart to not have an agenda but to just love people.  I am also finding that my schedule would be less interupted if I adjust to local time of eating.  Then I wouldn't have to worry about people coming over while I am cooking dinner during the local tea/visiting time.  But it is a big adjustment and something we will have to figure out with our family.  Anyway, I so want my heart to be right in hospitality and not just my actions. 

House Hunters International

HGTV would have a blast here. Day 1 of our house hunt we looked at 5 places. The first one was in an unfinished neighborhood and we would be the very first to move in. It was a two-story "bungalow" with about 1200 sq/ft and every bedroom had a pink wall. My favorite thing about this place was that it had an American style playground and a running trail. 

The 2nd place we looked at was an apartment complex right next door- also brand new but there were some people already living there.  It was 1415 sq/ft, had a small walk in pantry, and a window seat in the master bedroom.  I liked this place because it has a safe one-story layout and didn't need any work done.  (These two places are far from a market which was a big downside).  #3- In the middle of town, close to the biggest vegetable market in town, 10 years old, termite problems, open spaces in the ceiling that went who knows where, a shared balcony,- but a spacious kitchen.  (All 3 of these places were $200 a month). 

#4 On the outskirts of town close to a village, and wheat field, a water tower, and a market.  Around 1560 sq/ft, $170 a month, two story.  It needs a lot of work, the kitchen is a little smaller, but it has a good community feel and a good landlord.  #5- We found an add in the newspaper for a place in the part of town I liked, but ended up winding back to the worse part of the neighborhood.  The place had 3 bedrooms, 2 eastern toilets, cement floors, and very small living space.  We did not spend much time looking at this place.

Day 2- In the morning we drove out to the west side of town to look at a place we had seen from the road.  AMAZING.  The main office had squash courts, and a kids play room in the lobby.  The facilities have a skating rink, movie theater, several kids play places, a few swimming pools, putting place, basketball, running trail, and several other things.  They also have centralized AC in some flats.  Of course this place was not finished yet and way beyond our budget.  Then we went with an agent to view two places closer to the center of town.  They were both about 5 years old and and both over $300/mo.  The 1st one had a fairly nice kitchen, but it was dirty.  It was in a nice apartment complex with a gym.  The 2nd one was more like a downtown type of apartment right on a street with a lot going on, but did not have  good play area for Silas.  This was the only place we looked at with cabinets already in the kitchen and it was a big kitchen too, but it was expensive and not a very good floor plan.   The next day was Sunday so we did not get to look at any places (see previous post). 

On Monday we looked at a few places close to #4.  The first one only had 2 bedrooms so we didn't really consider it.  The second one was seriously out in the middle of nowhere.  It had one bathroom outside under the stairs to the roof and one bathroom inside with an eastern toilet.  It was very small and each room was painted a different bright color with pinstripes. 

The 3rd place we looked at was really nice, but over our square footage allowance and also out in the middle of nowhere. 

And that is enough for now.  To be continued..

House Hunting

I could write a short book on our cross-cultural house hunting experience, but I will just do one story for now.  I found an apartment complex that I liked that is close to a market, a main road with transportation, shopping, an orphanage, language route possibilites... and has a children's play area, a residential carpenter, and beauty salon.  Normally you should go to a complex with an agent, but we just pulled up on Sunday afternoon and asked the gate guard if there were any places for rent.  He introduced us to the Society President (home owners association) who is an elected official and has some clout.  He talked to us for a while, was greatly impressed by our ability to communicate in his language, and then invited us up to see his apartment and drink chai.  He invited us to come back the next day at 1 for lunch and then he would also show us an apartment.
     So, we showed up a little after 1 on Monday and sat around his apartment chatting with neighbors while food was prepared.  Then all of the guests (4 of us) sat down at the table and the neighbor girls and the Society President served us lunch of Dal, rice, Aloo Ghobi (potato and cauliflower), yogurt stuff, and Roti with homemade ghee (we ate it all with our hands).  After we finished the SP and his male neighbor friends sat at the table and asked me and the lady with us to serve them their food.  Once we had finished eating we sat around, men on one side and women on the other, and talked about cultural things while we waited for the supervisor to come show us some flats.  The college aged girls were so nice and told us that we had to move here and how great the apartment was (which by the way was really nice).  At 3:30 or so we found out that he could not show us a flat that day but we could come back the next day at 5.
      So, Tuesday around 5:15 (we had another appointment to go to before that) we showed up and he was not there.  So while we were waiting a lady came down from her apartment and invited us up to her place.  So we went up there and she served us snacks and warm milk with sugar (I can't drink tea or coffee) and then showed us her place and the empty flat next to hers.  Some girls came in and told us about a flat for rent and then we went down and met the SP.  The SP told us there are no flats for rent and offered to take us to another place to rent but we had had enough, so we left. 
      It was very strange, but we assume that they just did not want foreigners to move in.  The society is all Punjabi and Veg, and we are non-veg Americans.  Even though all of the women and children we met wanted us to move in, aparently the men disagreed, so the door was closed.