Gulf State Park, Gulf Shores, Alabama
Scripture now leaves Joseph and turns to things happening in his brother Judah’s life – sort of a “Meanwhile…” moment. Remember, Judah is the son chosen by God Himself to be Jesus’ direct ancestor. As human beings, we’d like to think that all His ancestors are pure and upright people, but they weren’t; look at what we’ve learned about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They were, however, human. And God chose to use them despite their sin-filled humanness (as He does us), proving His decisions are based on His sovereignty and grace, and not by our own merit. At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah. ~ Genesis 38:1 So, we have Joseph who was forcibly taken from his family, and Judah who chooses to leave. Joseph, whom we’ll continue to learn, was a man of integrity. And Judah, whom we’ll continue to learn was anything but. Joseph, who walked with God. Judah who did not. You may be asking, “What’s the big deal? He’s an adult and wants to live his own life now.” The big deal is in how and with whom he chose to do that. He went to a Canaanite – his friend. “So, what’s the big deal?” Yes, we should befriend those who don’t know God, elsewise, how would they ever be introduced to Him? But Judah didn’t just have a friend who happened to be a Canaanite. He wandered deliberately into the Canaanite lifestyle and beliefs, and gave up the opportunity to be a godly influence. How often we do that! Either because we allow the world to shape us, or because we assume a ‘holier than thou’ stance. By the way – there’s a cave in Adullam where David went to hide from Saul, but that’s a long way into the future.
I’ve been thinking about food waaaay too much lately – confirmed by a dream I had last night. I’m thinking maybe God’s trying to tell me something? There’s a restaurant not far from here that we visited three years ago when we were closer to Mobile. It’s called Lambert’s and it’s billed as the “Home of the Throwed Rolls”. Maybe you remember? I wrote a big long diatribe on it back in 2018. Anyway, the gist of the place is Southern home cooking – all you want to eat – and a guy walking around the restaurant throwing rolls to people, sometimes from clear across the room!
I don’t usually remember my dreams, but I remember a snippet of one from last night. We were sitting in Lambert’s and instead of a guy throwing the rolls, every so often, the ceiling would open and the yummy, warm, golden-brown rolls would drop down on everyone. Is that crazy, or what?!?
This afternoon, I was dying for some chocolate cake, but discovered I didn’t have a box in my cupboard, so I went in search of a scratch recipe. Found one. Got out my bowls and prepared to bask in the smell – and taste – of baking chocolate.
And then I discovered I had no Hershey’s cocoa! Bummer!
At least I have my 3-2-1 Cake mix, and I can add chocolate chips and pecans and top it with caramel sauce and a scoop of this scrumptious dark chocolate ice cream we picked up at Publix the other day! The 3-2-1 is not very bad for you in and of itself, but start adding all the other stuff, and, well, you get the picture. Of course, you could also top with fruit or something else healthy, but why would I want to do that? 😊 Although, now that I think about it, lemon cake with strawberries and blueberries sounds pretty yummy!
What’s 3-2-1? It’s so simple, even a child can make it!
1 box any flavor cake mix
1 box angel food cake mix
Mix them together in a plastic gallon zipper bag (or something else that seals tight)
When you’re ready to snack, that’s when the 3-2-1 comes into play. Pull out a ramekin and add:
3 heaping T. cake mix
2 T. water
Add any additional things you want
Stir well
1 minute in the microwave
Voila!
And if I don’t stop thinking about food, I’m gonna be glad I bought those 3X stretchy pants!
If you didn’t already know, I take most of the pictures we put in this post. The fact that I forgot to take my phone for our bike ride today is proof positive. We have one. One. Uno. Eins. Ett. Un. Odin. Bat. Moja. (English, Italian/Spanish, German, Swedish, French, Russian, Basque, and Swahili) In any language, it’s not enough when you’re trying to keep a journal/blog running. Especially since I’m pretty sure most of my readers only scroll through the pictures. 😊
Since there’s only one picture, I have no idea what to write about our 16.1-mile bike ride today, other than to repeat that those pants are really comfortable when you ride. Hopefully you learned something from our linguistics lesson. 😊
Or how to bake a tiny ‘healthy’ cake.
After we got back, Blaine said he was taking more trash down (we already did that when we left). I shoulda known it was just a ruse for him to bike some more. Tack on another few miles for him. I texted him when he was gone much longer than he shoulda been, but it turned out he was just getting back. I knew I was holding him back……