Pictures of poppers, crazy string, and funny hats as we celebrate the New Year:
Archive for the ‘Family Life’ Category
Poppers, Crazy String, and Funny Hats
Saturday, January 1st, 2011Apple Crisp
Friday, November 26th, 2010
I love to make easy, delicious food. A few weeks ago, someone gave us two huge bags of apples. The green ones especially needed to be baked into something, since they were too sour to eat raw. Being tired, I decided to make apple crisp first.
Peel and chop the apples. Grease a baking dish. Throw the chopped apples in and sprinkle with the following ingredients:
1/3 cup margarine stick
1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup flour
2/3 cup brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
It doesn’t matter how many apples you chop. I stop whenever I’m tired of chopping. For this picture, I used 10 tiny apples. Other times I’ve used 2 apples, and I just shook a little bit of those ingredients on top. Either you can melt the margarine in the microwave before stirring it all together, or you can cut the cold margarine with a table knife, and just sort of mix it in a bowl with your bare hands. Other times, like I said, I just throw the ingredients on top of the apples without mixing it because it’s one less dish to wash.
If you sit down while you are chopping, you will end up being more cheerful as you chop apples, especially if you don’t particularly like doing it. Don’t watch TV, or you’ll chop your hand off.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Mixed berry crisp is even easier. Defrost the mixed berries the day before. Throw them into a greased dish and put the topping on. Serve with ice cream. (Good enough for company!) Apple crisp is also good with ice cream, I forgot to say.
Cherry crisp is easiest of all. Dump a can of cherry pie filling into a greased dish. Throw the topping on. Yum! This is my favorite. No, wait. Blueberry pie filling is my favorite. Double the recipe for a rectangular dish. Then dig in and enjoy! (Plus, your dessert counts as a serving of fruit. How cool is that?)
Linked to Love Bakes Good Cakes
How to Be the Best Parent
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010
God gave you your children. He didn’t give your children to someone else. God chose you, often to sanctify you, but also because there are things about you that only you have, that your children need. God made you who you are, with all your strengths and weaknesses. If we cry out to God for wisdom and are led directly by God, our parenting efforts will be mind-blowing. I’ve seen it in my own life, and it humbles me and makes me want to praise God.
On the other hand, if we force ourselves to parent the way that other people parent, we will not always see good results. For example, in my family-integrated church years ago, people were criticizing my parenting because they didn’t want their children to wiggle whatsoever during the church service. My children were completely silent and even paid attention to the sermon. Their bottoms wiggled a lot, but their hearts were soft toward God, and they didn’t feel like they were in a straight jacket at church.
Then I failed. I did the wrong thing. I cared that other people were frowning at me, and the result was anger toward my children. I sinned. But my children now looked better than ever. They looked perfect, but they were suffocating inside. It was sin for me to copy other people. It was wrong for me not to graciously forgive the person who was frowning at me. I ought to have prayed that the frowning person would yield to the Spirit so that the fruit of the Spirit would shine out of that person’s eyes. I didn’t even know that person was sinning. Instead, I was sinning as a gut reaction to the person’s frown.
One time my (then) 6-year-old son cried out right before a Scripture passage was read. I know many parents who disciplined their children for any sound their children made, no matter what, no exceptions. But what they didn’t know about my son is something that only I knew. I knew his heart. He wanted to find the Scripture passage, and he tried so hard to find the passage before it was read, but he failed. I knew that he loved the Word of God with all his heart. His crying out was not sin. I would have sinned if I had disciplined him for crying out. Only parents know the heart of their child.
Of course, if your children disobey you and you don’t discipline them, you are sinning. But most Christian parents are following God to the best of their ability, and they don’t need people slamming them down.
It took years for me to get over the whole parent criticism thing. My husband went so far as to have all the children sit by him. He wanted me to sit on the aisle. Whenever one of my children would make the slightest noise, I would close my eyes, yield to the Spirit, and praise Him for humbling me. It was God’s will for me to be humble. It always is. There was actually a point where, whenever my children made any noise, my gut reaction was sweetness. I radiated the Spirit of God out of my eyes. Because when you have your face smashed in the dirt, you have nowhere to look but up.
In fact, it wasn’t until a gray-haired man from our Bible study told my husband and I (with tears in his eyes) what outstanding parents we were, that my life as a parent was changed. He saw how we shepherded each child, and we knew the spiritual strengths and weaknesses of each child. It finally sunk into my soul. At that moment, I knew that I was a good parent. Yes, I fail, mess up, and sin, but I love God with all my heart, and I actively shepherd my children. God is pleased with me. The wind is blowing through my hair on the top of a mountain, and I am free!!!
It’s Hard for the Righteous to be Saved
Friday, November 19th, 2010
My third son Nathaniel has always been quite obedient and easygoing. He never went through the “terrible two’s” stage; he simply put his chin down when he was upset. He was such an easy child that I guess I forgot to train him. Not really, but my focused training always went to the other children who seemed to be lacking in ways that were more obvious. I still taught him about God and required obedience, but parents will naturally give more attention to the squeaky wheel rather than the one who is not causing resistance.
My husband and I used the book The Lamb (by John R. Cross) to present the gospel to our son when he was five. He didn’t seem to fully grasp the gospel at the time, almost like he wasn’t paying attention. He enjoyed the story, though.
We waited about six months, and it was December of last year when we read the book again. This time he understood it, but something was off. My husband sensed it, too, and we couldn’t quite put our finger on what it was. We waited.
I asked God for wisdom to know what my son was lacking, and I saw that he always felt that he was in the right. If he was ever disciplined for anything, he never took responsibility but would blame everyone else. I realized that he didn’t think he ever sinned. How can the righteous enter the kingdom of God? It is impossible. I asked God to show me how to get through to him.
One day he was upset and went into his room and tore his outer space poster. I can’t remember if he came and told me what he did, or if one of his brothers tattled on him, but there I was, standing in his room, looking at how ugly the poster looked as it hung there, torn and mangled. I saw the doorway through which to reach my son. As I prayed for the right words, I said, “That is your heart without God.” I pointed to the poster. My son cried. It actually seemed to sink in.
He took responsibility for what he had done. He didn’t play the victim like before. He said what he had done was wrong. I told him that was because all that was in him was sin. He needed a Savior. He needed Christ in his life to help him live the way he ought to live. He said he wanted to be saved. I waited for my husband to get home before telling him, “Today is the day of Nathaniel’s salvation. His heart is right where it needs to be.” Nathaniel explained to his dad what he had done, and my husband talked with him and led him to Christ. Once again, there were tears streaming down my face.
“Why are you crying, Mom?” my son asked with joy in his face.
I was too choked up to speak. My husband explained to my son that this was the most important day of his life, and that I knew it, and that’s why I was crying, because I was happy.
