Jesus & Mold

I am always amazed at the lessons I learn through the strangest of places. Sometimes God whispers, sometimes He just says it nice and loud so that there is no mistake and sometimes, like this past weekend, He speaks to me through moldy cheese.

You see, I like to be aware of the food I put into my body and that I feed my family. I try, as best I can to eat clean food, free from hormones, free range, as little processed food as possible and if I am splurging on ice cream it pretty much needs to be Häagen-Dazs...I mean, seriously, it doesn't get much better than this when you read the ingredients.....Vanilla Bean: cream, skim milk, sugar, egg yolks, ground vanilla beans, vanilla extract...So good!!

Saturday night I decided to make chicken quesadillas for dinner. I had everything ready to go...the chicken was cooked, seasoned and shredded, the tortillas were ready to go on the stove, the salsa was made...all I needed to do was grate the (rBST Free-grass Fed) cheese and it was on! As I unwrapped the block of cheese I noticed the mold. Uggggg!! It was all I had left, so I decided to cut the moldy parts off, but I was not sure that I cut a safe distance or how much it could have spread. I thought it best to discard the chunk of cheese....but that meant no quesadillas, so I quickly rationalized the moldy cheese as not being a big issue....WHY?..because I WANTED a quesadilla. 

I went back and forth in my mind between.."I want a quesadilla" and "Not worth the risk just to have a quesadilla"...I asked my husband and He told me to throw the cheese away. But, I replied "What if I just pretend like I didn't see it?" to which he replied "That doesn't change the fact that there is mold on the cheese, throw it away!" So I did.....and so we ate something else.

What does this have to do with God speaking to me? It's this. Right now in my life there are things going on in my life and more importantly, there are things going on in my heart that need to go, that need to stop. Things that I want to hold onto, things that I think aren't really hurting anyone and even if it hurts me, it's not that deep so I can survive.....things that I can just continue with and pretend like it's ok...things like a little mold growing on my heart, that if not tossed out, will continue to grow and multiply until it starts affecting so much more than if I would have just cut it out of my life completely.

Pretending like the mold is isn't there, doesn't change the fact that it is. Pretending like there are acceptable sins in my life, doesn't change the fact that it is sin and it has to go. I long to be as label reading about the things I allow in my heart as I do my meats and cheeses. Things like anger, unforgiveness, distrust....it becomes crippling and hindering.

As I struggle, I love that I have a husband that prays for me. A husband who understands my days and is patient with me. His deliberate intercession for me, changes me. I can say that this day, I am beginning to see a bit of that mold in my life, be lifted away. So because my husband, who stands with Jesus, prays.... and because God hears and because God cares the prayers are powerful and effective.

The reality is that we don't all have a husband that can pray for us, we may not even have a friend that we can confide in and trust with our struggles, but prayer,as we struggle, is important.

Can I encourage you today to ask God to search your heart, to show you the mold in your day and ask him to help you to throw it away. 

If you need someone to pray for you, we at Deliberate Women would be honored to, just send us a message and consider it done. email: deliberatewomen@gmail.com 

You are not alone. 


"Lord, I thank you that you know our hearts, our struggles and our battles each day. I thank you that you are stronger and through your Spirit we can stand against temptation. Lord, help us to throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. Help us run the race marked out for us with perseverance, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. Help us, help me, help those we love, to get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice and to replace it by being kind and compassionate, forgiving to others, just as in Christ, God forgave us. Amen"

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