Quieting Your Heart for the Holidays. Week Four – Part 1
Pssst… Don’t forget to check out the special announcement at the bottom of this post!
THE TRUTH ABOUT FRUITCAKES
Walk into any bakery at this time of year, and what do you find? Fruitcakes. All kinds of fruitcakes.
I’m not a big fan of them, but my brother-in-law Jerry? A huge fan! One year he got about ten of them for Christmas. Everyone knew that he liked fruitcakes, and everyone decided to buy him one.
The good thing is that they don’t spoil as quickly as regular cake. He kept a few out, and was able to put the rest in the freezer for later.
I remember hearing about about wedding couples who held onto their cake for years on end as a keepsake. In fact one of my older sisters did that back in the day. Apparently people keep these for decades.
Is it true, or is this a myth? Does it really keep for years? I got to wondering and decided to Google the topic. Here’s what I found on Wikipedia,
A fruit cake baked in 1878 was kept as an heirloom by a family (Morgan L. Ford) in Tecumseh, Michigan. In 2003 it was sampled by Jay Leno on The Tonight Show.
An 86 year old man brought the cake out saying that his grandmother made it in 1878. Tradition was that they would bake the cake one year, then put it up on a shelf in the pantry and eat it the next. For some reason it didn’t get eaten that year and they’ve been passing it down in the family ever since.
(Just a side note… even fruitcakes should be preserved properly if you want to hang on to them for years. I wouldn’t want you eating old cake and getting sick after reading this… m-kay?)
9 INGREDIENTS THAT MAKE MARRIAGE LAST
Back to my point. You know what this says to me? If you want your marriage to last longer than your wedding cake, preserve it. Bear fruit.
Fruit is long lasting. Some bake cakes that last them for decades, others make wine and bottle it for hundreds of years.
Galatians 5:22-23 tells us that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”
Those are the nine ingredients that make marriage last.
For better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health… we need to stand by one another with everything that we’ve got. We need patience, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, and faith if we’re ever hope to make our marriage last.
You have a legacy to pass down from generation to generation. A fruitcake of sorts. A long-lasting reminder that love never fails.
Fruit is the result of a life that is rooted in truth, and led by the Spirit. And so if you want to quiet your heart for the holidays–if you want to bring peace to your home and to your marriage, partner with the Holy Spirit. Listen to your conscience as God leads you in truth. Stay connected with Jesus by spending time in prayer and reading the Bible.
You are loved by an almighty God,
Darlene Schacht
The Time-Warp Wife
LOOKING AHEAD
We’re on the last week of the Quieting Your Heart for the Holidays study,
but there are two exciting Bible studies to look forward to in the new year!
The first one is the book of Job, with Women Living Well.
The study starts on January 4th.
For all of the details, click here.
Courtney has also put out a new journal for the study. It’s so pretty, as always!
Note: All of the resources for the study will be available for free on her blog. The journal is optional.
Click here to view it on Amazon or click the image below.
FEBRUARY 2016
Also, coming In February we’ll be doing a study on the four loves here at Time-Warp Wife. I’m so excited about it. I’m reading The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis, and thought it would be a great study to do for the month of February.
I’m also working on a prayer journal that’s almost finished. This one has larger images for colouring, since I realized that people wanted to colour in the last journal I made. I wasn’t expecting that! And it’s designed with a love theme, which will be just in time for Valentine’s Day. I’ll tell you more about the journal and the study mid January, but for now, here’s a sneak peek. It’s not for sale yet, but will be soon!
I’m a HUGE Archie comic fanatic, and so when I saw this girl with the pink hair, I had to have her. She reminds me so much of warm summer days at the cottage reading comics and eating sunflower seeds by the truckload. *smile*
Really glad to hear you are doing another ‘Quieting Your Heart’ series! I just started coloring in my holiday one last night. I’ve been doing the journals–I just don’t always have time to color.
This has been such a blessing to me. I appreciate you doing this! **Maybe it will become a tradition*?
I also would appreciate continued prayers for my marriage and our family. Thank you!
You’re website it such an encouragement to me.
I love the Quieting Your Heart for the Holidays study. Excited to see the one for Valentine’s Day…
Dear Darlene,
Quieting Your Heart for the Holidays is the best Bible study I have ever done! I am so, so, so, so grateful for the gorgeous resources you created. I love the study because there is something manageable to study/complete each day, you can complete the study on your own time, the prayer journal, the Scripture cards, and your biweekly emails with fantastic commentary. I had planned on putting in a request for another Bible study with the same format for Easter so imagine my delight to see you have one planned for February! Thank you so much for creating this format. I am very grateful!
Wow. Thank you! If you don’t mind, I’ll probably save this quote and use it next year if I do another one. I love your feedback, and I’m so happy that it’s positive. Thank you so much!
I would be honored if you chose to do so! Recently I have started challenging myself to 1) connect with others and 2) share positive things instead of keeping those thoughts to myself. Therefore, you’ll probably see me comment on all your future posts. Your blog has been a wonderful blessing to me for about two years so it’s high time I shared that with you 🙂
Natalie, thank you so much for your sweet encouragement! I love your challenge. 😀
Thank you again for the quiet in your heart study. I’m looking forward to the study in February as well. Unfortunately I got behind in the busyness of the season and want to refocus. What day are we on I’m thinking it’s day 25 for quiet in your heart, am I correct?
Oh, sorry I didn’t respond. I missed this comment. Argh. It turned out that we all happened to be on different pages in the journal because some counted the weekend and others didn’t. I’ll be clear about the days in the future. 😀
AKAIK yo’uve got the answer in one!