~ JOY In The Kitchen ~ 
A FREE weekly newsletter from Sarah's Tent, a Loving Internet Community of Pastor's Wives. 
Isaiah 51:1-2 ~ Isaiah 54:2-3 ~ Heb 10:24 ,25

Learning Curves & Grace
by Shannon Parish

A blood curdling scream brought me running from the back room. What met my eyes was both amusing and frustrating. My year and a half old son had opened the kitchen cupboard and pulled out my rubber drain board.  The chilling scream came from his unbridled frustration that he was now unable to pick it up.  Considering he was standing on it, picking it up was an impossibility.  I started to laugh. His mouth, in mid bellow snapped shut and he looked at me with unbelieving eyes.  Suddenly, his face melted and he burst into tears at my mirth.

On another day, a year later, this wonder child walked into the front room covered from head to toe in white flour. In reply to my shocked question of what he was doing, he replied proudly, "I bake bread Momma! I baked bread!"  Not really wanting to see what I knew I must, I followed him back into the kitchen.  He strutted over to my gas oven and pointed excitedly at the oven door.  Next to the oven, my flour barrel, minus the lid, was half empty of flour.  I opened the door.  Now it was my turn to cry.  Inside was a pile of approximately 5 pounds of flour.  It took me weeks to get that flour out of my oven and the pilot light back in working order.

Learning curves.  I hate them.  When ever I start a new job, my heart goes into mild panic at all the new information and tasks that fly at me.  Like my son with the rubber mat, I find myself screaming at a computer program that has me baffled, only to learn later that my pressing an incorrect key was the cause of my earlier anguish.

Learning how to put up and maintain our web page was nearly the end of me in the beginning.  Wild panic would take my breath away as I struggled to learn new terminology and understand 'Geek-eeze". However, the rewards are far more exciting than I would have ever imagined.  Once we overcome our learning curves, we are empowered and energized into greater things.  

My encouragement to you this week is to take a chance.  Learn something you've not learned before.  Go ahead...make that heart of yours pump a little.  Our loving Heavenly Father is right behind you, ready to instruct and help clean up the mess.  

To never try, is to fail.  There is nothing worse than failing without having tried.  Even if you fail, you have learned something you would not have learned otherwise! By the way,  my son figured out real quick that you cannot pick up a drain board while you are standing on it. 
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Ps 25:4-6
Show me Your ways, O LORD;
Teach me Your paths. 
Lead me in Your truth and teach me,
For You are the God of my salvation;
On You I wait all the day. 
Remember, O LORD, Your tender mercies and Your loving kindnesses,
For they are from of old. 
NKJV
________________________

"I have not failed. 
I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

-Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931)

In response to why he kept working on the light bulb:

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BUDDY GROUP TIPS

How can I get to know someone?  
Listen! Or in this case ... read! Sometimes we skim through letters, and completely miss the heart of the person that wrote the note. When we stop to think of others before ourselves, and to really find out about their interests, we uncover a whole new world. Often, we are challenged in ways we never imagined!

Remember - it's summer time! Don't get discouraged if it takes awhile for someone to answer your email.  They could be on vacation!
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WE HAVE A WINNER!!!

  Pattie Reitz from Milan, MO found last week's colored ball. Her free art print is in the mail! Congratulations Pattie!
NEW GAME! Find this colored ball on one of our web pages, (not this page) and be the first to send us an email telling us where you found it, and you will win a free art print signed by the artist!
He's still dancing! Find the dancing penguin and win 3 prints!
Each week the winners will be named in the next newsletter...(if the objects are found.) Once the ball and penguin are found - they will move to another page to begin a new game!

If you would like to donate a prize towards this game, you can! 
It's a great way to show off your talents or business! 
Contact Sarahstent@sarahstent.com for more information.
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Ps 32:8-9
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will guide you with My eye. 
Do not be like the horse or like the mule,
Which have no understanding,
Which must be harnessed with bit and bridle,
Else they will not come near you. 
NKJV
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The recipes are rolling in! Here's one from Camellia ... 

CORN CASSEROLE

1 box Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix
8oz Sour Cream
1 can regualr corn do not drain
1 can cream corn do not drain
1/2 stick buter melted

bake uncovered @375 for approx 1 hr

VERY TASTY!

Camellia Puffer

Keep those recipes coming! Thanks Camellia! 
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CHUCKLES & THOUGHTS
Submitted by: prayermum@alpha1.net

By now you have probably seen the catchy television 
commercials for MasterCard. They start by identifying some 
things that people can buy with their MasterCard, then show 
a moment that is priceless and end by saying, "There are 
some things money can't buy, for everything else there's 
MasterCard." I'm not unlike those agencies promoting their 
favorite credit card. I'm here to advertise. You see, my 
life is a commercial for others to see. I'm a card carrying 
representative for the Master's Card. That's right, the 
MASTER'S CARD. Let me tell you about it. 

WEB SITES & RESOURCES

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Joy in The Kitchen Volume 4 Issue 16