The Message of the Tip Jar

"Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them." (Mark 11:24 NKJV)

"Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart." (Psalm 37:4 NKJV).

To make a long story hopefully short ... Deb and I, a vendor at the Freighthouse Farmers Market where I sell my baked goods, were talking on one of the Saturdays about her tip jar. She said her clients were always so generous and that she made quite a bit of tip money (she called it free money). Well, I liked that idea and took it a little further and wrote a little message on the tip jar. I wrote that I was saving up for a dough sheeter, a machine that would help me greatly to roll out the dough for me. I had been looking around for a dough sheeter for a long time and it seems that I had been praying for it all the time. 

So, listen to this now: A client of mine, Maria, saw the message on the tip jar and took it also a little further. She spoke with her friend Katie, that happened to have a dough sheeter she wanted to sell and told her about my project. Then Katie called me one evening when I was in the midst of rolling out the dough by hand and wishing I had a dough sheeter. It just happened so, that she had a dough sheeter I had been wanting (there are so many out there ... but the Lord answered my prayer by giving me more than I asked for). To my great joy I learned that she was living at the time in the same town as I. She initially asked for $ 2800 but then kindly offered me $ 2000 which I did not have right away. Two of my clients/friends though suggested I open up Go Fund Me account. Within one month we were able to raise $ 2101 through generous donations and tips. The funny thing was though that when we went to pick it up we realized that the seller lived only one street away from us. All the time that dough sheeter was so close and we did not know until we put that message on the tip jar.

What do we learn from the story of the tip jar? Well, everything starts out with prayer. Then we need to be specific. We need to put a message together of our desires and dreams. You know if I think about it, this story with the dough sheeter was no different than finding my husband Mark. I prayed, I was specific in what I was looking for and then two lady friends told me to go online and the rest is history :-) 

Know this, the Lord is completely good and He wants to bless you and make your heart glad. Trust in Him, even if it takes a little longer (I waited for my hubby for over 13 years).

With much love,
-Suzanne

No Doubt

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9 NKJV)

An unusual story ...

So one evening I was rolling out 8 croissant dough's and folding them multiple times. It was a time consuming job and whilst I was doing that I thought how nice it would be if I had a dough sheeter. This is a machine that does the "sheeting", the rolling out for you. And then it happened. Just a few minutes later I received a phone call from a lady I don't know. She says she got my phone number from a local business owner that said, I might be interested in a dough sheeter!!! Talk about divine intervention.

Over the years I have looked over and over again for a dough sheeter and came to the conclusion I wanted a table-top dough sheeter by the company Somerset. Well, this lady that called me that evening happen to have a practically unused table-top dough sheeter by Somerset. She wants $ 2,800 but is willing to negotiate down to $ 2,000. I have been saving up for a dough sheeter for quite some time now and received in the past $ 500 so far in donations and in tips. Just a few days ago I received another $ 200.00 in donations from a friend that believes in making Switzerland famous here in America is a good thing :-)

It looks like the dough sheeter is in Rock Island til the end of June. The owner is willing to keep it for me to see if I can get the money together. Just thought I would post this story for you and I to enJOY. and let's see what happens ...

If you think like I do and that I should have a dough sheeter, if you believe this would be a good thing for the bakery, would you consider helping me? I have a donate button here on my blog page and every amount will help.

Thank you very much in advance.
For the sake of expanding the Kingdom of God here on earth.
-Suzanne Tanner

His Glorious Presence

^"If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1: 6-7 NKJV).

For a couple of years now we have had fluorescent tube lights downstairs in the basement where I operate my micro bakery and my husband has his man cave. I didn't know anything else and they have always served their purpose. But my husband Mark, that knows how to improve the quality of life, always wanted LED lights. So the time finally came and we were able to install them within the drop ceiling. 

Oh, how glorious these lights are. Everything looks different, so clear, so warm, so precise. I enjoy going downstairs even more so and work the bakery with these kind of lights shining down on me and my baked goods. And I am thinking, why did I wait so long? I don't know, I just thought that the previous lights were good enough. I did not know any different. Now there is such a peace when I stand in the light and I can imagine how it must be like to be in Heaven in the Presence of Almighty God.

The Bible talks a lot about light. Walking in the light, that Jesus is the Light of the World, that He wants us to be light, that His word is a light to our feet. There is a beautiful verse I found in Ephesians 5:14 where it says "This is why it is said: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” 

This story with our ceiling lights reminds me of my own life but also that a lot of people are satisfied with what they have. But truth be known, the Lord wants so much more for us. There is a glory and a peace that comes from being in His presence not only when we reach heaven but already here on earth. And there is nothing better to know that He will make known to us the path of life; He will fill us with joy in His presence, with eternal pleasures at His hand (Psalm 16:11).

May the Lord bless you today dear reader and make His face shine upon you.
For the purpose of making Jesus real here on earth.
-Suzanne Tanner

"The Power of Trial and Error"

"For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, but the wicked shall fall by calamity"(Proverbs 24:16 NKJV).

One of the nice things of having a small basement bakery is, that you can experiment ... I tried out a certain recipe several times with no success and decided yesterday to have another go at it. Unfortunately I experienced another failure and was disappointed for several reasons (time, effort and cost). My initial thought was, to scratch the batch and throw it away because I did not see any other use for it.

But I changed my mind and decided to experiment a little. I poured the batter into cupcake liners to see what would happen. Oh my, right before my eyes I was able to create from scratch something new and so delicious that was initially destined for the trash can!!! Mistakes can pave the way for something totally awesome, don't you think so? :-) To my surprise, I sold them out at the Market and have received my first pre-order for next week.

I read a while back, that Thomas Edison's teachers said he was "too stupid to learn anything." He was fired from his first two jobs for being "non-productive." As an inventor, Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb.

Oh wow, does that ever speak to you, the story of the batter and the light bulb? You are valuable and it is not about making mistakes, but what you make out of them! You might say, I am useless, but the Lord says I have have purpose for you. You might think oh this is useless, but the Lord says, no I can use it. You have a God given capacity to create and even invent things that are ready to be released from Heaven. Doesn't that make you confident and hopeful. God's got you! Don't give up! Know that there is an opportunity for greatness even in the trial and error moments of your life.

Blessings to you and your loved ones.

-Suzanne Tanner

"But ... wait!"

"The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21 NKJV).

Don't you love it when the Lord takes you by surprise. While I am writing this devotional I have a smile on my face and I nearly have to laugh out loud because what I am going to tell you is so funny, so surprising and so awesome :-)

Well if you know my husband, he hates it when things break and if they break, he wants them to be fixed right away. Unfortunately he had to endure our trucks right side-view mirror malfunction for about 5 years. The function is that you press a button and both side-view mirrors fold in towards the doors. This is especially useful when you park your car on a busy road and don't want any cars to knock off your mirror. Fortunately it was only the right one, but like I said, my husband likes everything to work nicely. Because of the hassle of having to find a replacement and then installing it he let it go for years, to my surprise.

But you know what? One day just so unexpectedly and out of the blue our right side-view mirror decided to operate again. After 5 years! We have no explanation for it. First we thought this was just a coincidence, but it's not, it has been working for at least a week now, every single time. Every time we push the button we have to smile in sheer unbelief and inexplicable amazement.

It's like you cannot put God in a box. You cannot explain Him, He is too amazing. He gives and He takes and sometimes He locks you into a situation where there no escape. It's when He does something profound in you and you endure with great patience and you let go. And all of a sudden you break free.That's our God. He gives and He takes and He is awesome :-)

Blessings to you and your loved ones,
Suzanne Tanner

"True Strength is Found in Weakness"

The world oftentimes thinks we are weak because Jesus is our Lord and Savior, but for the task He has called us, we need to be weak so we can draw on Him, the power of Heaven.

I have to add that we are not building a kingdom of man but the kingdom of God here on earth.

"Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men" (1 Corinthians 1:25 NKJV).

"You Don't Know Until ..."

"Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him" (James 1:12 NKJV).

The worst thing that could happen, well, it happened to me. I forgot to add yeast to the dough for an important order. The client was introducing his shredded beef sandwiches for the first time on that particular Saturday morning together with my signature rolls. Terrible, terrible. But the story ended good. My client was very understanding and kind and I got a second batch done just in time. All I could say was, thank you, thank you Lord.

When I prepared the dough I did not realize the yeast was missing. The dough looked good. Nothing seemed to be wrong. It worked just fine and I was able to kneed the dough without any obvious problems. I shaped the rolls with much care and the whole process took me several hours. Then the time came to put them in the oven. After a few minutes I noticed something disturbing as they were not rising to the occasion. Observing them a little more the worst thought dropped into my mind: "Did I really forget the yeast???" Yes Suzanne, you did!!! It was 6:30 am and I had to deliver the rolls at 8 am. I was hyperventilating.

Later on I thought about a principle. You never know what a person is thinking, what a person is really like until pressure comes upon them. That's the moment where you see what comes out of them and you see the true personality. The same applies of course to ourselves as well. So truth be known, all humans look alike very much like my dough. From the outside everything looks fine, you would not detect anything until of course the test comes.

So, what do we learn here? Don't be impressed by the looks, by the outside, by people. Just wait until the test comes and you will see what comes to the surface. Rule of Thumb would be to look out for the qualities of Christ.

Wishing you all a blessed Sunday and don't forget the yeast :-)
For the sake of expanding the Kingdom of God.

-Suzanne Tanner