Forever Beloved

Right away, you’ll notice that there aren’t many measurements here. That’s because the amount of leftovers varies! Just sort of eyeball it.

• left over beef roast and gravy
• frozen corn
• refrigerated pie crust
• frozen cubed hash browns

Preheat oven to 350º.  Line your casserole or pie dish with one of the pie crusts {two come in a box}.  Although if you’re using a casserole dish, it’s sometimes hard to stretch one crust over it all.  Just keep at it, trust me, it seems impossible but eventually it will cover it all.  Once I get the crust in, I prick it with a fork a few times and throw it in the oven to cook it a bit before adding the filling.  Make sure to watch it so it doesn’t burn.  

For the filling, I heat up the leftover gravy on the stove, adding water if necessary.  Shred up the leftover roast and throw it in the gravy.  I thaw the hash browns out first and put them in the gravy mix.  If it’s getting too thick, add more water.  I normally only add half the bag.  I have fresh corn in my freezer that I did up last summer.  So I thaw that and add half the bag, saving the rest to eat alongside the pie. Once everything is heated through, I add it to the bottom crust.  Put the other pie crust on top and cut slits to allow the steam to escape.

Cook for 30 – 45 minutes, until top crust is golden brown.

This is a subject God has been laying on my heart for quite a while now. And I kept saying “Awwwww God, are you sure? This is a hard topic!”. I seriously doubted I could do it and I made a million excuses as to why I couldn’t. Honestly, I’ve been putting it off. It’s a risky subject to talk about. It’s a subject that every. single. person. in the world likes to weigh in on. As I keep putting it off, God keeps nudging me and has met me at my doubts. He even put a book in my path that was filled with this topic. Finally, today, I’m trusting Him with it.

The topic…judging others.

First of all, let me get it out there: I am a recovering judge. Not the good kind, who approaches sinners in love and addresses sin in a biblical manner. But the bad kind, who casts judgment with a condescending glance {y’all, I have this look down pat}, a whispered tsk-tsk and an eye roll. When I was first married, my husband would say “You think you’re so much better than them” and I would promptly respond with “No, I know I’m better than them”. I know, I know…not my most shining moment as a Christian. I’m telling y’all, I bet working on this girls heart wore God out some days!

How many times have we all heard ‘Don’t Judge Me’, ‘Judge not’, ‘Stop Judging and Love’, ‘Who am I to judge?’ or other similar ones these days. And I’m sure we’ve all saw the quote below. I see it just about daily either on a friends Facebook wall or pinned on their Pinterest. While I agree, we all do sin differently, I was curious about this subject from a Biblical perspective.

As Christians, we are often accused of being judgmental. Goodness, poor Phil Robertson created two media crazystorms being accused of being judgmental. As soon as you start talking about judging, the first verse pulled out is Matthew 7:1, Judge not, that ye be not judged.

I do agree with this…tearing others down, judging harshly, judging their hearts, making rash and unkind judgments is all wrong. Totally wrong. It’s absolutely not our place to judge others hearts. There is only one person that can do that, God.

But if we were all honest, don’t we all judge every day? Don’t we all make calls every day based on wisdom and discernment? Y’all, that’s judging! As a Mama, don’t you judge television shows to see if your kids can watch them? As a wife, don’t you judge what actions you should and shouldn’t do? Don’t we make daily calls on what is wise to spend our money on? And hello, have you ever sat on a jury? Yep, that was all you judging someone. So can we really actually say we should all just stop judging?

Did Jesus judge others? I mean, surely He came into contact with tons of sinners. How did He handle it? When Jesus encountered people who were caught in sin, first He showed them love, (the woman at the well, the woman caught in adultery), then He told them to go and sin no more. He never insisted they stop sinning first.

Wow. So before He judged them, He loved on them. He didn’t scoff at them, roll His eyes and treat them poorly.  He didn’t throw His hands up and say “Yeow, is this one ever a doozy” {actually, He may have said that while working on my heart, ha}.  What did Jesus do?  HE LOVED THEM! Is it easier to hear criticism from someone if they loved on you first? If they said it with kindness and you knew their heart was in the right place? You betcha! It’s all about love people. Gods greatest commandment was love one another {John 13:34}.

Now let’s get to the hard part, the actual judging. The Bible tells us that we are our brothers keeper and we are to care about each other. If we see someone in the church that is struggling, it’s our place to go to them in love and talk to them. In essence, judge. Honestly, what our “judging” should look like is being filled to the top and over flowing with love, caring and helpfulness. We all stumble and fall and we all need someone to help pick us up.

Is there a pregnant teen in your church? Take her to lunch, see what she needs, throw her a shower…SHOW her God’s love. Is there someone in your church having an affair? Go meet privately with them, tell them you know what’s going on and ask how you can help, direct them to a marriage counselor…SHOW them God’s love. Is there a new member of your church that is homosexual? Take them to lunch, get to know them, reach out to them…SHOW them God’s love. That, my sweet friends, is what our judging should look like.

Let me end this by saying I’m far from perfect myself and sure need lots of reminding from the Lord as to how my walk should be going. But thankfully His grace is new every morning. I just hope to maybe give a little honesty and hopefully open your heart to God’s direction.