Wednesday, December 28, 2011

"Oh I Want To Show My Gratitude"


“Thou that hast given so much to me give me one thing more, a grateful heart: not thankful when it pleaseth me, as if Thy blessings had spare days, but such a heart whose pulse may be Thy praise.” 
― George Herbert

So today I attempted to make Spinach Manicotti. It actually didn’t turn out too bad (you can scroll down for some pictures and the recipe).  The best part of making this recipe is that I got to make it for my immediate family and my extended family while we are all at the beach together. No matter how crazy my family is one thing I love is getting together with my cousins at this time of the year. 

Proverbs 31:15 says that “She gets up while it is still dark; and provides food for her family.” This has obvious meanings, this woman probably really did get up super early to make food for her family. But I started thinking about what else this passage could mean. This woman’s actions probably went unnoticed. Because people were not awake they couldn’t see all the hard work she put into making the food. They didn’t understand the sacrifice of getting up early and not getting much sleep.

 I am by no means a theologian but reading this I couldn’t help but to think about what Jesus did for us.
Jesus stood up in the midst of a world of darkness and gave himself to us as the bread of life. He was/is underappreciated for his actions.

But, both the Proverbs 31 woman and Jesus were ok with being underappreciated; because they did what they did not to be appreciated. The woman provided food for her family because she loved them and wanted to see them being taken care of. Jesus did the same thing.

My whole family thanked me for making the meal I made, and it felt great to be recognized. I quickly realized how often we forget to thank those people in our life that “get up while it’s still dark” to help us, and how often we forget to thank Jesus.

So even though he doesn’t need it, and loves you all the same, thank Jesus today for getting up in a world still dark to give himself to you.

Spinach Manicotti
Makes 14 servings
6 Egg Whites
30 oz. Ricotta Cheese
2 pkgs. Frozen Spinach (thawed, chopped)
1 pkg. Mushrooms
4 Cloves of Garlic (minced)
1 bag Mozzarella Cheese
1 Bag Parmesan Cheese
2 Boxes Manicotti Noodles
2-3 (depending on how much sauce you like) Cans of Vodka Sauce

Directions:
1.       Preheat your oven to 350⁰. Boil the manicotti noodles (tip: only cook the noodles for a few minutes, they are easier to stuff and less likely to break if they are harder)
2.       Sautee mushrooms and garlic in butter.
3.       Mix all remaining ingredients together.



4.       Add mushroom/garlic mixture to the cheese/spinach mixture.
5.       Stuff the noodles with filling.


6.       Place the stuffed noodles in a casserole dish.
7.       Cover noodles with Vodka sauce.
8.       Bake for 40 minutes.


Enjoy!!!

Monday, December 26, 2011

"All We Need is a Little Patience"

“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Recently the word “patience” has come up in most of my prayer time. I am an admittedly not patient person. I want to see a result. I want to see change. I want it now.  But God has called us all, male and female, to live a life full of patience.  The Bible says “Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience…” Colossians 3:12 (ESV).

Reading this I thought “ok, patience. I can develop that!” But I quickly learned that I am human and I am flawed. Patience will not just come to me exactly when I need it.

A couple of days ago I set out to make crock pot potato soup (thank you Pinterest). Potato soup is one of my favorite things and the thought of throwing some ingredients into a crock pot for six hours sounded appealing. Little did I know that those six hours would drive me crazy! I probably looked every thirty minutes to check and see if my soup looked or smelled any different than the last time I had checked.

Did my soup cook any faster? No. Did it taste any better? No. Did I waste time when I could have been doing other things? Yes.

What I’ve realized is that God calls us to be patient and do what we can while we are waiting on him.
I do not know where God has called me, but I wait patiently on him to show me and in the meantime I serve him in small ways.

In closing, the good wife in Proverbs 31 is seen making clothes, buying land, cooking, etc. While it may not explicitly say that this woman is patient we can draw our conclusions. If she’s making linens, cooking, taking care of her kids, waking up at the crack of dawn and still has the grace and beauty to be called more precious than rubies-she has to have patience. 

Sunday, December 25, 2011

"At Least We've Made It This Far"

So I know I just wrote my first post but I thought I would upload some pictures of the things I've done before I started this blog but after my journey began!

My Great-Grandmother's recipe for Biscuits


Oreo and Chocolate Chip Cookies


Brown Sugar Cookies, Potato Soup, and Sugar Cookies

Apple Fritter Bread

Hear My Roar Die Down.

So this is my very first post to my blog! I'm actually pretty excited about using this as an outlet to rely my journey into being the kind of woman God has called me to be. But to fully appreciate this blog you will need to understand some of my history. I was raised in a Christian home and have always had an extremely independent spirit. I started to take this independence to a whole new level and through a series of events began to see men as the enemy. During an episode of one of my favorite shows of all time (Boy Meets World) Topanga states that she wants to be the ruler of the world and that "men will be hoarded underground and used for breeding purposes only." This may sound drastic, but it's the way I felt! I became what can only be described as a Femi-nazi. I literally almost got Rosie the Riveter tattooed on me. "I am woman, hear me roar!" became my cliche catch phrase, and so on and so forth. Needless to say cooking, cleaning, children, and marriage were no where in my book.

Just recently though I have come to realize that not all men, and especially not Christian men, are bad. Furthermore, I have begun to realize that maybe staying home, cooking, cleaning, and having children and a marriage aren't things that stifle independence. I have realized that my hatred towards these things came out of  insecurities and past hurt. Through God's all powerful and redeeming love I am working through these things.

So by using scripture and the guidance of many wise women in my life (who are all pretty happy I've stopped my campaigns) I am beginning to explore these traditional activities to try to figure out the kind of woman I was created to be.