Each Spring, I make the same mistake – I plant too much yellow Summer squash. You see, I love sliced squash, well salt and peppered, and fried in butter, but my children have a different opinion of this vegetable. I guess my over planting comes from my Spring-time hankering and the fact that the squash plants are sold in a four pack at our local nursery. I know I should plant just one of them and throw away the rest, but I feel badly for the cute little squash plants and cannot bring myself to deny them life.
By the height of Summer, my neighbors know to lock their doors for fear of me sharing more of my bounty with them. I cannot even give them away at church, because others in our congregation obviously share my problem and have already crowded the information desk with their harvest. So, I get creative by making squash bread and squash casserole. I try to hide the squash by pureeing it, mixing it with coco powder, sweetener and flour and calling it Vegan pudding. I add lemon extract to the puree and pass it off as a mock lemon meringue pie. I leave the seeds in it and make muffins (the seeds, when baked, taste like nuts). I spiral it and serve it with Spaghetti sauce for a low carb meal. I also can it in slices to be used in soups over the Winter, but there is always more.
By August, my children and husband have had enough and open mutiny looms on the horizon. My squash grew large. Their skin becomes orange and tough, and I chop it up to feed my chickens.
Malachi 3:10
Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
It was during one such harvest of these squash that the Holy Spirit began to speak to me (No he did not tell me to have mercy on my family and stop planting squash, although I am sure they were all praying for that). I was asking him what to do with all my squash when he whispered a question,
“ Honey, would you have any problem giving all of your squash away?”
“Well of course not Father – I would be overjoyed to get rid of this stuff.”
“Why daughter?”
“You know why father. Even if I give it away, it’s no big deal, because I know in a few days there will be plenty more where that came from.”
“Exactly!”
And that is when it hit me. I should not give to the Lord because I am trying to strong arm him into financially prospering me. I give because I trust him. I can afford to give because I know there is plenty more, a whole heaven more, where that came from –and that makes me cheerful.
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We can’t out give God!