Hello everyone!
It’s a cold, rainy October day here in southern Missouri. Austin and Jonathan are faithfully keeping our wood furnace going, which keeps our home cozy, and smelling so good.

After several hours of fairly intense study this morning, I rested my fried brain by making a batch of pumpkin scones for lunch. :) They turned out delightfully! I used partly whole wheat flour, and the added pumpkin made them moist and fluffy. You can find the recipe here. Enjoy them with a cup of tea, and you’re in heaven…OK not quite. :)

The combination of cinnamon, pumpkin, and a firewood stove is so pleasant. And though tea and scones may minister to your taste buds :), I also wanted to share something on finding fulfillment for our souls. Here’s something from my very wise mother that I have been pondering of late. Mom wrote this for a young lady who was just entering upon the season of motherhood. Here is what she said, modified slightly to apply to us as daughters and young single ladies.

“If you want to pour out blessing, sweetness, and grace over your family, you have to consistently hold your cup out to Jesus and have Him fill you. Only Jesus can fill you completely, and when you are full of Jesus, you are overflowing…spilling onto everyone around you, especially your family. It is impossible to pour anything out of an empty cup. As women, it is so important for us to consistently spend time in the Word, time in prayer, and have accountability and encouragement from other like-hearted sisters in Christ.

Here is a passage from a book that has encouraged me: ‘We are experts at getting things done, at least for a season. But somehow, in the scramble of details and production, we begin to expect that impressive accomplishment will fill our souls. And of course it doesn’t. Little by little, over time we can unwittingly turn our eyes from our Savior to ourselves, our circumstances, and our families. The changes are subtle, the turning is ever so slight, and the years can go by before we recognize that the distance from us to God has become a canyon. When we have not stayed with God, when we do not abide in His presence daily, then we wander recklessly through life, holding our cup out to anyone and anything, doing bigger and better tricks, hoping that one of them, or some mysterious combination of all of them, will fill the empty place.’ The author finishes by saying, ‘Your season of young womanhood can be radically transformed if you will bring the empty cup of our soul and hold it out the life-giving water of Jesus. His presence is like a huge cup of java for the soul. His indwelling wakes up our sleepy spirit. To have a soul full of Christ alone is to be overflowing with the water of grace…soaked through and through by His compassionate love. Sopping wet with the blessing of tender mercy.’ “

Though most of us are not yet mothers :), we can apply these things to the season of daughterhood and singleness as well. Are we staying in the Word, are we abiding daily in His presence, holding out our cup to Him alone to be filled? We have such a huge opportunity right here, right now, to bless our families. God has put us where we are now for a reason, and it’s such a joy to bloom and flourish in the very place where He’s chosen to plant us.

I want to challenge you, dear sisters, as I challenge myself (because I definitely need to grow in this area!), to seek your fulfillment Christ alone, that your cup may overflow, and that your joy in the Lord may spill onto all those around you. To Him alone be the glory!