May Memories

 How was your May, friend? 

For me, it left an abundance of fun, good memories. Here's some photos to document.

The formation of the clouds and the beauty of the skies each day amaze me.

My little friend Carter picked these dew-soaked flowers one morning. My heart. He's a sweet, tender-hearted little kid. 

He cracks me up. Not only does he randomly pause on our walks by laying on the sidewalk, but he also takes breaks like this when playing at the playground. 

We're huge into playing Monopoly, if you didn't know. 😂In this space version of the game, I ended up with almost all the properties.

We also have the funniest, most random conversations. One time we were driving to the pool and before we left, I told them to sit correctly in their seats. Well, we rounded a sharp corner.  Carter: "Woah Ashley, you made a sharp turn and I almost fell into Noah."

 Me: "Who's fault is that?"

Carter: "Yours."

Me: "Actually it's your fault because you weren't sitting right."

Noah: "Ooooooh, you got roasted by a girl. I didn't know girls could roast boys. I know boys roast girls, but they don't do it back. You got burned." 😂

Carter complained Noah was making fun of him, but I couldn't help but laugh with Noah. Clearly, he has a lot of experience in roasting people at school and the whole thing was just hilarious. 

Visited the jail twice again. A small group came the first time and one lady the second time. It was truly a God-appointment though. Having gone multiple times and getting to hear these women's hearts makes me all the more grateful for God's salvation. He is in the business of putting humpty dumpties back together again. Some of the women are more broken than others. Some have experienced so much trauma it breaks the heart to hear - and even in these stories God is working. For some of them, going to jail is a wake-up call and for some it's what God's using to get their attention. One thing I've noticed since starting in women's jail ministry is that you can give a person all the literature, Bible verses, advice, and books, but if she doesn't know Jesus, she won't be any better. For example, when my friend and I met with the one lady, she talked and talked about her life, the pain, trauma, and heartache she's endured. We listened with our hearts and tried to enter into her pain. At the end, what I heard her saying was that she didn't have peace. No inner peace and definitely no outer peace. So, I told her about a man called Jesus and that through him we can have peace with God the Father. The problem of the heart can't be fixed until the heart of the problem is solved first.

Random beautiful flowers from walks

Little kids melt my heart to pieces, especially when they use me as a foot stool. 😂

Saw this cute mug at the international market.

Eating great food with great people probably makes up about half of the month. lol

Vietnamese Banh mi dac biet sandwich- rich in flavors and a Vietnamese staple. 

My sister friend made us Vietnamese noodles and dumplings for lunch one Sunday. The noodle experience was 10/10, complete with all the toppings, just like you'd find in a restaurant. :)

Tried this Japanese pickled daikon radish for the first time. One word: interesting. 😅You'll have to eat it for yourself to form an opinion. It cleanses the palate, so if you're eating something spicy, then you eat this, you'll be able to taste other flavors.

Each Chashu bun is enhanced with eel sauce, Japanese mayo, and Yum Yum sauce to give it a unique and highly flavorful taste, uncommon in many American dishes. If you have the chance to try these, definitely would recommend it. :) 

Sister friend and I ate Vietnamese food again and this time at a restaurant. Honestly the flavor of this soup lacked a little (not as good as her homemade one lol), but we still enjoyed it. To correctly eat this kind of dish, you have one bowl of the soup/noodle, and then other plates with all the toppings. You can put however little or however much toppings into your soup according to your taste. 

How I love these dear, special sister friends. 💜

My housemate's outside cat posed for a picture. 

On Memorial Day, 2 kids and I spent almost the whole day at a riverside festival. 

May we never forget the sacrifice. 

How I love to see Old Glory flying high. By the way, did you know the nickname 'Old Glory' for the flag was coined by William Driver in 1831? He prized it and hid it from the Confederates during the American Civil War.

Pictures by the riverside. As I was taking them, Carter stuck his face in front of the camera. 

At this festival, there was a water bounce house area....and a giant soap pile. Hence why we spent the whole day there. lol. 

One kid exclaimed, "this is a disaster!" Indeed, it was. But a very fun one for all the kids. 

Now that's a warp. I'd love for you to reply and let me know what fun things came with May for you! 

Have It Your Way

  A couple months ago a group of older people and I gathered weekly to study the books of Judges, Ruth, and 1 Samuel. One major part stuck out to me and has lingered in my mind since finishing the study. It's very sad but yet it teaches us a valuable lesson and gives us a glimpse of the heart of God. This is a little longer passage but read it and notice what's going on. The context is that Samuel's years of judging concluded. and he appointed his sons as judges. However, when they perverted judgment and made wicked choices, Israel decided they needed a king. 

1 Samuel 8:6-19

But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD. And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them, according to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day; wherewith they have forsaken me and served other gods, so do they also unto thee. Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them. And Samuel told all the words of the LORD unto the people that asked of him a king. And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them for himself, for his chariots and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots. And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war and instruments of his chariots. And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyard, and give to his officers, and to his servants. And he will take your menservants and your maidservants and your goodliest young men and your asses and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day. Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay, but we will have a king over us.

Israel's asking for a king displeased God because they were rejecting him as their ruler. But even though they were mistaken in this request, God still says, "go ahead, have it your way." Then he tells Samuel to warn the people about the consequences, and Samuel gives a whole long list of negatives. Red flags. Notice how many times Samuel says "he will take..." There's not one positive in list. And how shocking that at the end, Israel's response is still: "Nay, but we will have a king over us."

God's response of "...the Lord will not hear you in that day" to the people's cry reminds me of wisdom in Proverbs 1. She says, "I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded. . . I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh. When your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you, then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me" (1:24,26-28). 

 Because of God's foreknowledge he knew what was going to happen and that Israel would end up regretting their choice. But God didn't stop them. He didn't force them to keep a theocracy with him as their ruler. God created mankind as individual people with the ability to think independently - not as robots who emotionlessly obey the commands programmed into them.  God loved Israel but he let them choose their own path because love does not demand. As children of God, God leaves room for choice; He doesn't impose love on us. He desires our love but never forces our hearts. Instead, he seeks a willing heart that freely loves him unreservedly. 

 I've been thinking about this passage a lot and realized that even today, there are situations where God still sadly says to his people, "fine, have it your way." It's said, not in an anger-filled, slamming-of-the door kind of way. Instead, it's spoken out of a broken, pained, full-of-love heart that the people won't hear. Because we aren't robots, we can make either foolish or wise choices. Someone might say, "well if this was a bad decision God would stop it." But this is a wrong view of God because he is not like a genie who will just appear to grant our desires or stop something bad. No, instead he will place a whole list of negatives in front of us. He'll place other people in our lives who will say, "WATCH OUT!" "DON'T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE AS I." "BE PATIENT."  He'll show us red flags. 🚩And it's our choice to either take heed and proceed cautiously or ignore every one of the negatives and still insist on our own way. If we choose to follow our own desires rather than God's will, he will say, "go ahead, have it your way." Then we'd better be prepared to deal with the negative consequences that come along and take responsibility because it's not God's fault when pain, brokenness, death, and hurt ensue. It's our own fault because we choose that way. For example, if we choose to reject God's salvation, we'll deal with the consequence of hell. It's 100% a person's fault if he ends up in that place - not God's.  Choosing our own path is not peaceful. Just look at Isarel. They were in constant battle with the enemies, millions of people died throughout the Old Testament from battles, and God had to send judgement several times as a result of their choice in wanting a king. Proverbs says, "[Widsom's] ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace (3:17)." 

Decisions shouldn't be made out of impatience, desperation, or fleshly desires. Matters need to be taken to God in earnest, sincere prayer with a heart ready to hear what God's thoughts are on the matter. When Samuel talked to Israel, their hearts were already pretty set on having a king. Even after the list of negatives, they didn't go think about what Samuel had said, nor did they go seek the Lord with open hearts, willing to change their ways or thinking. This demonstrates a non-teachable spirit. Unfortunately, we as Christians can have this same attitude if we're not vigilant and constantly asking God to search our hearts. If we were really teachable, we'd be willing to take criticism and rebuke when we're wrong and willing to change. Hard pieces of clay are useless. That's just the way Satan desires Christians to be though. If he can't keep you from trusting in Christ for salvation and becoming a Christian, he'll do his best to keep you un-moldable and ineffective for God. But we each must be on God's train rather than expecting him to be on ours. 

May each of us follow God closely so we don't have to hear those sad words of "have it your way."