My heart, the idol factory.

Have you ever read The Pearl?

The Pearl is a children's book by Helme Heine. And it goes like this:


So this beaver is swimming one day in the river and finds this shell. He smells it and holds it and looks at it, and he is sure that it is a a freshwater pearl mussel- he had found a treasure! He had no doubt that there was a big shiny pearl inside. "Beaver hugged the mussel to his heart, closed his eyes and began to dream..."

He dreams that his friends all look at him in astonishment, filled with envy.

They want a pearl of their own, so they begin looking in the water near the shore. A lot of his friends couldn't swim and they tore down his dam so all the water ran out. They begin fighting over every mussel. They became angry and threw mud at one another, and at night they lit a fire so they could protect their mussels from owls and bats.

Well a big wind blew and the forest caught fire. It burned and burned and there was no water in the lake to douse it out. And the flames consumed everyone and everything- including beaver and the pearl.

Yikes, right!

I certainly know what it feels like, clutching onto that shell. I roll it through my enslaved fingers and marvel at it's shimmering splendor. Like Bilbo Baggins with his ring...doesn't it change you?

I hope you don't know this feeling, but I'm afraid we all do. What idol factories our wicked hearts are!

Aren't we so confused to think that these things give us freedom? What bondage!

Isn't it the very idols we create that enslave us?

"...Beaver awoke terrified from his horrible dream. While he thought about it he looked at the mussel he had not yet opened. Picking it up, he hurled the mussel as far as he could into the lake."

May God, in His power and His mercy, free us from our bondage and give us the strength and determination to cast away our pearls. Pin It

Bloggers can't be choosers...

Just a quick note to say, "Life is busy, and I haven't 'seen the story' in the mundane happenings of the Morgan house lately. But I do promise that RIGHT THIS SECOND I am putting my bloggy eyes on. So in the next day or so, I will be blogging."

Love to all! Pin It

A yummy Recipe for you!

Here is a new recipe I threw together! I thought it was pretty amazing myself, so try it!

Black bean salsa

1 can black beans
1 can petite diced tomatoes (or fresh diced tomatoes)
1 can sweet yellow and white corn
1 tsp fresh chopped cilantro
1/4 tbsp taco seasoning
2 tbsp finely diced white onion

**Boil black beans in 1/8 tbsp taco seasoning until soft. Drain. Mix all ingredients together. Enjoy with a bag of your favorite chips!

Perfct combination of sweet and salty. Mmmmm. Pin It

Not for your edification...just your entertainment.

The other day, Brandon and I were flipping through Netflix to see what was on, when we ran across this obscene movie cover.

It was obviously anime, and boldly sitting on the front cover was a half-naked woman!

In total shock I exclaimed, "Oh my goodness! Is that dirty anime?" (BTW--I only know what dirty anime is because I attended college for a brief stint. Also, I was an art major. Just sayin...in case you might think....nevermind.)

So anyway, Brandon quickly scrolls off the page.

Unfortunately, Graysen was sitting next to him on the couch, and nothing escapes her attention.

I looked at Brandon, mouthing Oh my goodness once again, when Gray says, "Mommy, I want to watch that one!"

Brandon and I both explain that that is not a good movie, and Graysen retorts with, "Awe...but I love dirty anime."

Oh, ****. Pin It

Keep your eye on the prize!

I soooo desire to be a Godly woman.

I read Proverbs 31 and my heart flutters with excitement as I mentally prepare new ways to live out this passage practically in my life.

I bake homemade bread, and I buy books on training up Godly children and becoming a Godly wife. I decorate my home and wash the dishes and sweep the floors-- all in the attempt to "look well to the ways of my household".

A woman at church the other day offered to come help me with laundry one following day of the week. I laughed with gratitude and beamed proudly that I was all caught up with laundry. She stopped me short saying, "Oh I know! You're the mom who has it all together! Maybe I can just play with the kids and let you rest?"

(Of course, my mom is chuckling to herself as she reads. I can hear her now. "Callie? My Callie has it all together? Ha!")

See, I let the mask fall off around my mama. She can peel back the layers of my heart-- laying bear the raw, ugly reality behind the Proverbs woman visage!

Even when I have it all together on the outside, I so often fail at Godliness. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say, I rarely succeed at Godliness!

I am terrified at the thought of being a pastors wife! I am selfish and needy. I make HUGE idols of acceptance and love. I'm fickle and inconsistent. I take on way more than I can handle, then let people down. I suck up praise and attention like a sponge! Oh man, I am a huge mess!

I can feel myself breaking out in a cold sweat when I think about being put under a microscope by a congregation or session. Nervously biting my fingernails I think, "Oh my...what will they uncover?"

But do you know what God does?

Right in the midst of all my worrying and planning and reorganizing--my striving relentlessly to keep my eye on the Proverbs 31 prize...

I read His Word. And He graciously and loving says to me once again, "Child, I am the prize. Take your eyes off the fruit and put them on me! I'll worry about the fruit. Just love me!"

And just like that, the panic stops.

I get so caught up in the pursuit of being the Godly woman that I forget to love and seek Jesus!

There is no "being the Proverbs woman" without the work of the Spirit. And am I in pursuit of the Spirit? No! I'm in the pursuit of good works!

Silly girl, seek Him! Stop making gods of things that aren't God! The goal is not to achieve a certain level of Godliness. The goal is to love Him! The delight is not in being the Proverbs 31 woman. The delight is in knowing Him. And in knowing Him, I will become the Godly woman!

The Pastor John Piper says,

"To delight in the good of all the universe, but not to delight in God, is like being glad that a candle is lit, but being indifferent to the rising sun. Apart from embracing God as our chief delight, we are (quite literally) infinitely parochial."

I know I'm not the only one guilty of this. Let's delight in Him, ladies! Let's take our eyes off the candle, and fix our eyes on the Son!

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Feathers feathers everywhere- As far as the eye can see.

Yeah...so today I took a trip to Kroger to get groceries, (which for me is like payday...oh yeah!) and when I returned, I found that a small, Graysen-like explosion had gone off in our house.

Luckily, everyone survived--with the exception of the hot pink feather boa that Gray received for Christmas, which had molted on every visible surface of our house.

I choked back the flames that were slowly igniting in my sinful, justified little heart, and calmly demanded that Graysen pick them all up and put them in the trash.

Reasonable...right?

I spun on one heel and returned to the kitchen to gloat over my fresh green beans and granola bars. (What a wonderful job I had done buying groceries! Oh come on...ladies, you know that feeling! You know what I'm talking about!)

After almost an hour of checking on Graysen, who had cleaned up nothing, I pulled out the big threat. "Graysen, I am going to throw away every toy that I find on this floor!"

She immediately started crying...though not moving.

She looks up to me and says, "Mommy...I figured it out. I've realized that this is just one big, bad dream."

"What is a big, bad dream?"

She grunts--still not moving a muscle--and says, "Having to pick up all these feathers. It's just a terrible dream!" She then bursts into tears.

Trying not to smirk at her obvious over-dramatization, (wonder where she got that?)I reply, "Well you shouldn't have unleashed your passive aggressive on the feather boa." It's messy.

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Place your order.

So Brandon, Graysen and Noah have all been sick.

Well, yesterday, Gray turns to me and says, "Mommy, I would like some homemade chicken and rice soup!"

And I reply, "Of course, baby! I'll make you some."

She then turns to her daddy and says, "Daddy, I ordered chicken and rice soup...what do you want?"

Brandon gasps and looks at me, then says, "Graysen! You don't say ordered! You say asked...you asked your mommy to make you some soup."

Graysen then looks at me, shrugging nonchalantly. She responds, almost in question form, "Well, yeah. Okay, but I just ordered some?"

She looks at the shocked expression on Brandon's face before looking back at me like, "what. is. the. big. deal?!".

Brandon, who is obviously "running on half a tank" skips straight on over all the speech-making and arguing, and in a voice of authority and declaration says, "Graysen...your mommy is not a drive through!"

(Word...I hear that.)

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