Peace family, over the weekend, I visited NASA and as always, I felt inspired, but also a little sad.

As a child, I dreamed of becoming an astronaut. My brother and I went to space camp, and we loved it. Unfortunately, around 6th grade, I lost all confidence in my mathematical abilities, so engineering was not a good field for me to enter. However, I still love space, space exploration, and mechanical things. Whenever I visit NASA, I am in awe of the science, skill and dedication of those involved, and I feel a pang of regret that it’s most likely too late for me to ever be involved in the space program. I always wonder if I missed my chance to become a mechanical engineer, and what my life might have been like if I had chosen that path.

Don’t we all have a longing deep inside of us to be part of something greater than ourselves? We all want to be part of something big and exciting, even if that looks like different things for different people. Many of us long to have children or be rich or famous, to invent something wonderful or write something important. We want to be exceptional, and to try to find some way to “live on” and not be forgotten through history.

Sometimes, it’s easy for us to forget that we matter, merely because we matter to God. Sometimes, mattering to God still doesn’t feel like enough.

Peace family, it’s okay. Something I have to remember is that God will never forget me. God will never forget who you are. God will remember you through all of time.

Each of us also has a special part to play in God’s timeline of history. God has a reason behind everything that he does. He created you because he wanted someone just like you, born right where you were born, and born right when you were. Additionally, God is all of the greatness we will ever need. We don’t need to be great, because the God we follow is great. We are part of his winning team.

Peace family, instead of becoming discouraged or feeling insignificant, let’s focus on God’s greatness and wisdom. Let’s celebrate the amazing things he has made, such as the stars and our planet, and let’s allow ourselves to experience awe at his greatness. Let’s remember our significance to him; we are valuable, because we are valuable to Him. He is a wonderful, helpful, powerful and relevant God, and we reach our fullest potential for life when we make him our focus.

Coffee and Bible in the Peace 107 studio!

Peace family, when was the last time that your life devolved into seemingly total chaos? If it’s any clue for the state of my affairs, today has been a two-full-mugs-of-coffee-plus-a-full-mug-of-green-tea day!

The beautiful thing about a time like this, is that when God steps in and provides for you, it is so much more obvious that it is He, not us, who truly reigns in our lives! Chaos is an opportunity for us to experience God’s peace and provision in a deeper  way.

I have been going through 2-3 extremely chaotic weeks. In a whirlwind of dilapidation, I got a notice from the HOA for some serious yard work needing to be done, my guest bathroom toilet broke, my kitchen sink faucet broke, my dishwasher broke (and is still broken,) I had to buy all new tires for my car, and to top it all off, a tree fell on my house (my garage door was also broken, but that happened a while back.) Meanwhile, I have three foster kittens running, chewing, and scratching around my house which had to get spayed/neutered, given a special de-worming medication, and a round of vaccines. I’m also babysitting a friend’s cockatiels for three weeks (the kittens are very interested in them), and a Japanese friend and two of her children are staying with me for those same three weeks! All of us have weeks like these, every once in a while.

I have been working very hard to fix the problems and to do a good job at my responsibilities: some of them I fixed for myself, some of them a friend graciously stepped in to help, and some of them, I hired someone to help. Some of them, I am still working through. No matter what has come up, God has provided what I needed. When my appliances break, I can thank him for the ones that are still working. When I am fighting a cold (or maybe allergies?), I can praise him for all of the times that I am usually well. When my tires are ruined, I can thank God for my faithful, old car. When I need two mugs of coffee, I can thank him for creating it. When I can’t figure out a solution to a problem, I can pray and brainstorm. It has been an exercise in trusting God.

Amazingly, though I got less sleep last night than I’ve had in a long time, the peace and presence of God feels so near to me today. I know that I can trust him. I know that He is listening. I know that He is the one who has provided every good thing in my life, and He is providing the means to face every trouble and frustration that comes up. I know that He is using me to do his will, even in my brokenness and limited energy.

Peace family, if you are in the depths of chaos today, hold on! You are going to make it. God is with you. Trust Him and believe that He is good. This season will not last forever, so use it to grow as close to Him as you can. Frustrations never feel like blessings, but you never know what good things God is doing in your life, despite them.

Peace family, all summer long, we are so excited to have our Peace 107 Peace Pals on Tuesday mornings from 8 to 9!

This week’s Peace Pal, 11-year-old Zione from College Station, was a wonderful friend to have in the studio! She told us about wonderful camp trips, delicious meals she likes to cook (like homemade fettuccine alfredo!), her best friends, and her favorite animals.

We really enjoyed having Zione as our special guest! We can’t wait for our next Peace Pal, the Tuesday after next on Peace 107!

Peace Pals are brought to you by Wells Counseling Services.

Peace family, all summer long, we are so excited to have our Peace 107 Peace Pals on Tuesday mornings from 8 to 9!

This week’s Peace Pal, 10-year-old Jacob from College Station, was a wonderful friend to have in the studio! He told us about some fun trips to Pine Cove, Colorado and the beach, as well as the roller coasters at Disney World, cool animals like grey wolves and cheetahs, rock collections, and dinosaurs!

We really enjoyed having Jacob as our special guest! We can’t wait for our next Peace Pal, next Tuesday on Peace 107!

Peace Pals are brought to you by Wells Counseling Services.

Peace family, ever since Amazon Prime day, I have had so much fun cooking with my Instant Pot, but I thought I had killed it this weekend!

If you haven’t heard of an Instant Pot, it’s basically like a slow cooker and a pressure cooker had a baby together. It’s good for the cuts of meat that need to cook slowly in order to be tender (and it gets them done in a lot less time), for soups, grains and beans, and you can also make yogurt in it. It has a steel pot that you can remove, much like the ceramic pot in a slow cooker.

Things were crazy in my kitchen as I threw together a meal for a friend and unfortunately, I tossed a bunch of dry rice into the housing without the pot being in there! Oops! I was dismayed, and got to googling, but without much success.

I saw a lot of articles online about people who accidentally poured water inside (they turned the pots over and let them dry for 24 hours), but no matter if I searched for, “I accidentally spilled food into the inside of the instant pot” or “I spilled rice into the housing of my pressure cooker,” or even, “how to take the bottom off an instant pot,” there weren’t any blogs specifically saying what to do. They talked about preventative measures, such as getting yourself into the habit of putting a lid on your pot any time that you take the inner pot out, or laying a wooden spoon across the top to remind you not to put anything into it, but nothing for after you’d already messed up. Therefore, here is my walk-through, in case this happens to you!

So, if you accidentally poured rice into your instant pot, don’t feel bad, don’t feel stupid, and don’t panic! Unplug and turn it over to get most of the rice out. If you are like me, some of that rice slipped down under the heating element and got inside. That’s ok! It’s actually surprisingly easy to take the bottom off (some of these specifics might change on a different pot, but I’m sure they’re probably all pretty similar; mine is an 8 quart “Instant Pot DUO80 7-in-1 Multi-Use Programmable Pressure Cooker.”)

1.) Unplug the cooker, find a comfortable place to sit, and get your tools out.

Observe and assess

2.) Turn the cooker over, and look at the screw. Mine uses a torx screw, a screw that was invented in the sixties and is often used on electrical appliances (hopefully you can see from the picture that it has a little six-pointed star shape in the head.) Don’t panic! You don’t have to have a torx screw driver; I used a flat head screwdriver.

3.) Select your bit; for my specific Instant Pot, this was a 1/8 size flat head bit (it’s missing in the picture to show which size I selected).

Select a bit (this needed a 1/8 flat head bit)

4.) Remove the screw (lefty-loosey!), being careful to get a good grip so that you don’t strip it (unscrewing it was a lot easier than I expected it to be.)

Remove the screw

5.) Remove the plastic panel, then pick it up and shake out the rice!

Pot guts

Screw the bottom back on, and you are ready to cook!

Anyway, I hope this never happens to you, but just in case it does, I hope this blog helps! Have a great day! 🙂

Peace family, all summer long, we are so excited to have our Peace 107 Peace Pals on Tuesday mornings from 8 to 9!

This week’s Peace Pal, 13-year-old Damien from Bryan, was a wonderful friend to have in the studio! He told us about doing tricks off the diving board, his love of singing, his family’s pets, and his enjoyment of soccer and running!

We really enjoyed having Damien as our special guest! We can’t wait for our next Peace Pal, next Tuesday on Peace 107!

Peace Pals are brought to you by Wells Counseling Services.

Peace family, how can we keep our words sweet today?

The Bible is clear about the power of our tongues to build up or tear others down. Whether we’re tired, sick, frustrated, or hurting, we still have a choice of how to speak to the people around us. I speak for a living, and I still struggle with this problem; I’m pretty sure that everyone does!

We all say things we regret from time to time. For example, I recently said something that was dishonoring about a good friend of mine. I was frustrated with my friend, and the coworker that I spoke to doesn’t even know that friend, but as soon as I said what I said (I wasn’t asking for advice or even explaining anything- I had no excuse), the Holy Spirit convicted me. I thought, “Wow, there was no reason for me to say that and point out my other friend’s faults.” I felt like a big jerk.

It was an unloving thing for me to do, I apologized to God, and it made me re-evaluate my speaking habits. I want to have a life that loves my friends and honors them, and doesn’t tear them down. I want to remember my own faults, and have grace for others.

If we aren’t speaking in a way that is unloving about someone else, it is also crazily easy sometimes to speak in a way that is unloving to someone else. We use rude tones of voice, and say rude things like, “Wake up!” if our friend doesn’t seem to be as focused on us as we’d like. We are impatient, and tell our loved ones, “Get to the point,” in a frustrated voice as they hem and haw or take longer to relate information than we’d like (I’ve been guilty of this one from time to time.) We are sarcastic, we scoff, and we talk as though we had everything all together, and are right about everything. Are we right about everything? Absolutely not. This attitude is not the love for others and humble spirit that God asks of us.

We can also get focused on negative things. Sometimes complaining can become a habit. We complain about our jobs, our families, our spouses, our children, strangers, the weather, our health, our houses… is it just me, or could most of the things I’ve mentioned above also be listed as a blessing?

There are all kinds of other ways we should be careful with our words- using language that honors or dishonors God, flattering others with insincere compliments, and speaking the truth or lying, hiding truths, and exaggerating, and not doing what we say we will do- but guarding our mouths in how we speak to and about others is a great place to start.

So how can we keep our words sweet? If we focus on God and his goodness and mercy, those are the quality of things that will most likely come out of us. If we are meditating on his scripture, and telling him about our frustrations through prayer, praying for those people and situations that hurt and anger us, then we won’t feel so compelled to complain. Let us live lives that love others well, including with our tongues.

Peace family, all summer long, we are so excited to have our Peace 107 Peace Pals on Tuesday mornings from 8 to 9!

This week’s Peace Pal, 9-year-old Radley from College Station, was a wonderful friend to have in the studio! He told us about his family’s goal of visiting all 50 states before his littlest sister turns 16, as well as the places he’s been so far this summer, and the summer Bible camp that he is looking forward to!

We really enjoyed having Radley as our special guest! We can’t wait for our next Peace Pal, next Tuesday on Peace 107!

Peace Pals are brought to you by Wells Counseling Services.