Mama Reed was a good person. She worked hard all of her life raising up ten good hearted, hardworking kids. She ran a farm, took care of her family and anyone else that needed taking care of whenever the need arose and she had the ability to do so. She grew a garden to raise food for her family and canned whatever she didn’t use. She went to church and lived her life according to the principles taught there seven days a week rather than just the one.

As she grew older, her children moved away and had children and even grandchildren of their own. My mother loved to spend time at Mama Reed’s house because as they visited, she’d put Mama to work helping out in the kitchen – and Mama got to learn how to cook! Isn’t it funny how we see some things as jobs but when we give them to kids they see them as opportunities for fun?

As the kids moved away, they all had a habit of calling to check on their Mama. She’d answer the phone and they’d say “How are you doing today, Mama?”…

Well, without many people to talk to, in her later years Mama Reed fell into a habit that all humans are prone to do without realizing – and rather than her usual “Fine, how are you?” she began answering the question with a litany of aches, pains, and complaints.

Without her even realizing it, this had become a habit.

Boy, have I been there!

Sometimes, our aches and pains get so loud in our lives that they drown out the sound of our blessings, and we forget that there is a volume knob on each one. We often have to consciously reach and turn down the aches and pains and then give the blessings so much attention that we hear them all the more louder.

One day, when my grandfather was over visiting his Mama, she answered the phone this way and he sat there while she went through her list of complaints on the phone. When she hung up he said “Mama, if you keep doing that people are going to stop calling you. All you do is complain about things. People care about you and they want to help you when they can, but you’ve got to do more than complain.” This took her aback.

You see, Mama Reed was never one to whine or complain in her life and she hadn’t realized that she’d started doing it then. Of course we have things we need to complain about and sometimes we talk about things because we need people to support and encourage us, this isn’t about that. This is about asking ourselves, when someone asks about the state of our life, do we immediately look for the blessings or the curses?

Mama Reed took her son’s advice to heart and the next day he received a call from his brother. “I just called Mama and when I asked how she was doing, she said ‘Just fine, how about you?’”. He said “I almost hung up, I thought I’d got the wrong number!”

Mama Reed just temporarily forgot, as all of us are prone to do, to reach for her blessings first and when she realized she’d left the path she had intended to be on all along, she corrected her course.

If someone called me and you today and asked how we were, if we were to answer “Just fine! How are you?” would they think they had the wrong number?

You’ll need: An onion, two packages of corn muffin mix*, Spicy Brown Mustard, 5-6 slices of cheese, a few slices of ham or some other lunch meat of your choice.

*You’re also going to need whatever the corn muffin mix package calls for but I’m not listing that here because between all of us, there is no telling what brands of corn muffin mix we may come back with so the instructions will be different. This is the package size that makes six cornbread muffins so that is the size you should try your best to get. Then we’ll prepare that mix according to package directions.

Mix up corn muffin mix according to package directions. 

Chop your onion, and add it and the spicy brown mustard.

Stir that up really well. 

Spread about half of it in the bottom of a greased 8×8 or 9×9 pan. 

Top with ham slices. If you need to get creative in tearing them up so the spots are covered, go for it  

Top with your cheese. 

Pour the rest of your batter over the top and…

Spread it to cover everything. 

Bake at 400 for 25-30 minutes or until nice and golden brown on top. 

Allow to cool for 5 minutes before cutting. 

Serve warm. 

Enjoy ! 

For a quick supper, These go great with Simple and Delicious Tomato Soup and are also great with Sweet and Sour Green Beans (which I make ahead of time and keep in my freezer!).

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“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts to us in our pains. It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

~ C. S. Lewis

Submitted by Debbie Strum, thanks Debbie! Submit your quote by clicking here. 

We have a lofty goal of taking our kids to as many states in the USA as we possibly can and this summer’s state is ARKANSAS!
Can you believe we’ve never been there?

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click here to visit our Arkansas Event Page on Facebook.

We’d love your ideas!

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