Liefde beskerm waar mense beskerming nodig het; liefde glo altyd die beste van ander mense en verwag dit ook van hulle. Liefde ken ook geen einde nie (1 Korintiërs 13:7 Die Boodskap).
Liefde kan dreinerend en uitputtend wees, veral wanneer jy voortdurend eise van ander in beroepe soos kliëntediens in die gesig staar.
In uitdagende verhoudings waar liefde nie wederkerig is nie, is dit maklik om uitgeput te voel en te dink: “Ek is klaar.”
Hierdie reaksie is menslik, maar strook nie met die Bybelse standaard van liefde nie, wat volharding en uithouvermoë aanmoedig (1 Korintiërs 13:7).
Om sulke liefde te behou, is dit noodsaaklik om maniere te vind om emosioneel te hervul.
’n Kragtige analogie word getrek uit ’n lugskou waar stralers tydens die vlug brandstof hervul word; sonder hierdie noodsaaklike proses loop hulle die risiko om neer te stort. Net so ervaar individue wat versuim om hul emosionele tenks in verhoudings te hervul, dikwels ineenstortings. Hervulling begin met die ontvangs van liefde van God, soos uitgelig in 1 Johannes 4:19, wat sê dat ons liefhet omdat God ons eerste liefgehad het.
Hierdie vers beklemtoon dat liefde van God afkomstig is, wat ons eerste liefgehad het (Romeine 3:10).
Ons kan nie krediet neem vir ons vermoë om lief te hê nie; dit spruit uit God se invloed in ons lewens.
Ware liefde omvat beide die liefde vir God en ander, soos uiteengesit in die Groot Gebod wat ons oproep om ten volle en opofferend lief te hê.
Om God se diep liefde vir ons te verstaan, soos geïllustreer deur die offer van Sy Seun, kan die krag gee om ander aan te hou liefhê, selfs wanneer ons moeg of uitgebrand is. Om hierdie goddelike bron van liefde te erken, kan ons bemagtig om deur moeilike tye te volhard en die onwrikbare liefde te behou wat God wil hê ons moet toon.
Gebed
Vader, wanneer ek dink aan die diepte van U liefde vir my, word ek oorweldig. Ek kan nie liefhê soos U liefhet nie, tensy U, U bonatuurlike liefde deur my uitstort, sodat dit deur my en na ander kan vloei.
Mag die saad van liefde wat U in my hart geplant het, blom in ’n goddelike liefde. Neem my lewe as ’n instrument waardeur U liefde uitgestort word in ’n wêreld waar ware liefde korrup is. Ek het U lief, Jesus, en ek bid in U kosbare Naam, AMEN. (PIETER WESTLEY)
The curious case of the mysterious trifle
Believe it or not, Christmas is around the corner! This really happened a few years ago.
A TRUE Christmas story. Christmas without trifle is like a cupcake without icing, or (at my age at least) a woman without lipstick. Unthinkable! So, for our family to get together, I was going to make a trifle. I planned for days, I even dreamt about the ingredients, I was determined to make a traditional mouth-watering dessert.
How many ingredients, fresh or canned fruit, homemade custard were not negotiable in my mind. I could visualize the family loving it and was drooling over the kitchen floor like crazy just thinking about the amazing trifle. As husbands tend to do sometimes, MY husband threw a spanner in my workings… “I have cognac, why don’t you use that?” Who uses cognac in trifle, it needs to be Old Brown Sherry?
But alas, my dream pattern was disturbed, and the cognac thought started to infiltrate it. The idea actually started to grow on me, so I did what I always do when I am in doubt; I googled, and I googled, and I googled. There were quite I few cognac recipes, but I decided to listen to my taste buds and concoct my own version. This was the Saturday before Christmas, not Celine Dion’s the day before Christmas (hehe) that would have been too late as Christmas that year were on a Monday. I took the juice of a small tin of pineapple pieces, 120 ml cognac, and mixed it together. I also sliced an orange and added it to the cognac juice.
This stayed in the fridge until the Monday morning. The other layers of the trifle was, 1 tin (410g) peaches without the juice, 1 tin (410g) pears without the juice, 1 tin (410g) strawberries without the juice (or if you want to use proper English, drained), the pineapple pieces, 2 cups of home-made custard (not negotiable), 1 packet pineapple jelly, 1 packet green sage jelly, orange cake (I wanted ginger cake but couldn’t find any), ground ginger, pecan nuts, cream, Diddle Daddle caramel popcorn, and vanilla essence. I also had to make a salad for the gathering of the gluttons, so I decided to be adventurous and made something new in the form of a bread salad with the most amazing mustard and apple vinegar salad dressing.
I got up early Monday morning to first make the jelly (it must not be runny, but not set, the in-between stage). When the jelly was ready, I started to build the trifle. I also had to do the croutons for the bread salad, which I quickly did, but the trifle was urgent as it still needed to settle, and the cognac had to soak into the cake.
First, a layer of orange cake is cut into fingers. This was also packed upright to make a nice ring for display. I placed the orange slices behind the cake for decoration. Then I poured the cognac mixture over it (I left plus minus 1 tablespoon of the juice for the cream).
Next came half the peaches. As I opened the fridge, I saw the bowl with the custard, grabbed it and spooned a thin layer over the cake. I didn’t want to use too much, as the bowl was huge, and most of it needed to be on top. My mouth was watering, and I had to be careful not to drool on the trifle.
The green sage jelly, then the rest of the peaches, pears, strawberries, pineapple pieces and lastly the pecan nuts. This was followed by a layer of pineapple jelly. Only two layers left… the custard, and just before serving the whipped cream (the cream had the tablespoon of cognac mixture with a little bit of vanilla).
To top everything off, I was going to decorate it with caramel popcorn, a few slices of orange, and more nuts. When I spooned the custard on top of the last layer, I saw that I didn’t have enough custard, so I only spooned it over one half of the pineapple jelly. I will quickly make more custard and pour it over just before serving, no problem.
As I turned around to put the spoon in the basin, I succumbed to the temptation and licked the spoon. The world started to move in slow motion, my whole body felt heavy, and I am sure my heart stopped for a few seconds! This cannot be!
The spoon tastes like amazing mustard salad dressing! “Oh Lord, there is “custard “right at the bottom of the trifle” that was my first thought. As I looked at my creation, the pineapple jelly and the mustard sauce were busy having an intimate affair. I had to do something, and it better be quick. A grabbed a teaspoon and simultaneously while praying in tongues, spooned the sauce back into the bowl. The jelly and sauce were still doing their thing, but I sort off managed to get most of the sauce off. This was a disaster.
Not only is this an expensive dessert, but mustard vinegar sauce at the bottom of a trifle, arghh, I do not want to think about it! Then I did the only other thing I could do. I grabbed the bowl and shouted, “Lord, if you can turn water into wine, You can fix this!
You can either turn the mustard sauce into custard, or You can make this the most amazing trifle ever.” To top it all off, I only had half my mustard sauce left for the bread salad. I took the custard out of the fridge and layered the now more than enough custard over the jelly, back in the fridge and finished the croutons for the bread salad. In the car on the way to the lunch (I was praying in tongues like crazy till then), I looked at my hubby and repeated the mustard turn into custard, or best, amazing trifle words and told him that he better say amen to both.
That was it. Nothing I could do could change the outcome, so I stopped praying and stopped being anxious. Believing is seeing. The Christmas lunch was like all Christmas celebrations.
Amazing food, amazing company, and celebra-ting a special birth. Fits perfectly into my motto for life – whatever you do, make good memories. In the car on our way back home my husband said, “so I guess miracles still happen.” I guess this story should not be the curious case of the mysterious trifle, but the curious case of the most delicious, amazing, miracle trifle!