Life Application: Suffer The Little Children

Mark 10:14-16
Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his arms, put his hands on them, and blessed them.

I bring this verse up with several thoughts in mind, and I may have to break this up into a few topics so please bear with me.

I will start with a young boy from my church. He is about eight I think, or close to it. He has cerebral palsy. He also has the most steadfast faith of anyone I know.

He holds weekly (sometimes bi-weekly) services, in which he offers eucharist. He has been given special permission to use consecrated elements with his parents supervision. He has a few friends that even come for these services. He even baptises his friends that aren't baptised, and leads them into lives filled with God's grace.

This child is even a prophet of sorts. He occasionally has a word for us that no child of eight should even be able to comprehend on a good day.

He is an amazing gift of God. So full of unquestioning faith in God, so ready to be used as His instrument.

Think for a moment with me. What if this boy was not allowed to follow God's will in his life? What if he were quieted every time he tried to speak? Told that he couldn't bring his friends into the loving grace of God? What if he weren't allowed to tell his friends that God loves them and that Jesus died for them?

Mark 9:42
And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone be hanged around his neck, and he be cast into the sea.

Children are far more intelligent and intuitive than we realize sometimes. Even I have to remind myself of this constantly. We must be responsible for allowing our children to come to Jesus even when we don't see God's call for them.

Works-For-Me-Wednesday

It's time for another Works-For-Me-Wednesday hosted by Rocks In My Dryer. Please visit Shannon's site for more great Works-For-Me-Wednesday tips.

My tip today is Super-Easy-Any-Time-You-Want-It-Cookie-Dough. This is a great one for the winter, or if you have a good sized freezer.

Make a batch of your favorite drop-cookie dough.
Version 1: Line a baking sheet with waxed paper (or tinfoil or parchment paper works too). Using a cookie scoop, scoop the dough into balls and release them onto the baking sheet, as close as you can place them together. You will not be baking these immediately, so closeness does not matter at this point. Place the entire tray in the freezer, or in your garage in the middle of winter, or somewhere very cold. The fridge works too, but not as well as the freezer. You can also use smaller dishes to place the dough on if you don't have a large freezer.

Freeze the balls until they are at least mostly hard on the outside. The harder the better. Take them off the baking sheet and place them in a resealable plastic bag. You now have homemade frozen cookie dough, and you can make small batches of cookies whenever you want them. I often do this when I really want cookies but I don't have the time to make them all at once. You can bake the frozen dough as directed in the original recipe. Sometimes they might need an extra minute or two, but for the most part they cook up about the same.

Version 2: Roll the dough out into a rectangle that is roughly 1-inch thick. Chill the dough in the fridge until very firm. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into 1-inch squares, and freeze in a resealable plastic bag.


Chocolate Chip Cookies (perfect for freezing into balls)

½ cup butter

½ cup shortening

¾ cup white sugar

¾ cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 eggs

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2-¼ cups flour

1 12 oz. package chocolate chips

1 cup chopped nuts, optional

Preheat oven to 350*. Cream butter, shortening, white and brown sugars until creamy. Add vanilla and eggs. Add baking soda and salt. Stir in flour gradually and mix well. Add chocolate chips and nuts. Drop by teaspoonfuls on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until brown on the edges. Cool on racks.

Respect

After reading this story, I realized that there are still a few respectable people in positions of power.

KEWASKUM, Wis. -- It's not usually news when a police officer writes a ticket -- unless it's the chief and he gives the ticket to himself.

Village of Kewaskum Police Chief Richard Knoebel said he was driving to work when he became distracted by a truck stopping on one side of the street.

He said he didn't see a school bus with its lights flashing and a stop sign out on the other side of the four-lane road.

The chief said he didn't know he had passed the stopped bus until it was too late.

When he realized what he had done, he issued himself a $235 ticket.

"When we get someone for not stopping for a flashing school bus we give them a citation. So I shouldn't be any different so I did," Knoebel said.

Not only did the chief have to pay a hefty fine, he gave himself a four-point penalty on his license.

Now, I can respect that.

Feminists

Thanks to Amy from Modern Commentaries for providing this topic on Feminists. As my post was begining to become a bit lengthy, I thought I'd redirect here for a more in-depth discussion.

Please visit Modern Commentaries for the full discussion.


I believe the idea of feminists has been somewhat skewed over time as well. What the original feminists wanted was to be treated like human beings with an opinion, instead of like property. Male chauvanism had gone a bit far and women had become non-entities. While I understand and agree with the idea of women not voting, among other things, women are not 'property' in the sense that they were being seen as at that time.

We actually talked about a portion of this issue in our study yesterday, we've been reading Back to Virtue by Peter Kreeft. We discussed the idea of women and feminism, and the discontent that many women are told to feel when things aren't going their way around the house. Many women are told that they don't get enough 'me' time, they are doing too much around the house and their husbands aren't doing enough, and so on. The conclusion that we came to is that the women we know who are most content in their lives and their marriages, were the ones who prayed for their husbands, helping to bring their husbands in tune with God, and thereby in tune with their needs. They prayed for the strength of their husbands and their families, and the needs were met. Perhaps not in their own time, but in God's time.

I think many women also have this idea that if they stay at home their lives will be full of boredom and tedium and so on. And it can be, if you let it. I still have my days, but I'm working towards a goal of making things organized, efficient, and well-run. Something any manager can do for a salary, but with a lot more headaches because not all co-workers are as cute as my three-year-old who constantly comes up to me, batting his eyes, and telling me he loves me and trying to convince me that he is five years old. I don't think I'd appreciate that as much coming from a co-worker.

In short, or as short as I'm going to make it, today's feminists think that it's all about them. Women are the end all to be all, and men are just a side dish. Families are outdated, and why would we want to take care of our own children when someone else can do it for us? The problem with that thinking is that it is not the way God has called us to be. God has called us to be in submission to our husbands. Submission is not a dirty word. We are called to be submissive to our husbands and so shall they be in submission to us. In a healthy relationship that means we communicate with eachother for the best path the family should take, and move forward in agreement. If each side is trying to fulfil their own selfish desires, the family will be divided and in constant flux. We can only go where God has called us if we want to be truly happy. Everything else is headache and heartache.

Works-For-Me-Wednesday

I love giving my kids pancakes and waffles in the morning. They're quick, they're nearly healthy (if you make 'em right), and the kids love them.

My one dilemma, I have 4 kids of pancake lovin' age, and they all want their pancakes cut, by me, ten minutes ago.

My handy little trick? A pizza cutter. Yes, a pizza cutter. Sort of like this one.


Okay, so I don't actually have the Caddy of all pizza cutters, but a mom can dream, can't she? Anyway, all you have to do is stack the pancakes or waffles, two or three at a time, and cut right through them. Right into little bite-sized pieces, perfect for chubby little fingers or for the hopeful fork operator. The older ones like it too because I don't let them use knives yet. If ever. We'll talk about that later though...

Be sure to check out more great Works-For-Me-Wednesday tips at Rocks in My Dryer.

Dinner 1.0

Dinner. This is not always an easy task in my household. I have a picky eater for a husband, and occasionally some of my children will decide to become discriminating food critics, as long as it gets them what they want (or removes what they don't).

One dinner I made surprised me to no end that all (yes ALL) of my children of solid food age absolutely loved. Hamburger Pie. As odd as it sounds, it's really just good old comfort food that is very easy to make, and not very expensive either. Add some biscuits on the side and you've just about got yourself a complete meal for very cheap.

NOTE: With this recipe I tend not to really measure anything. I just cook up as many potatoes as I feel like peeling, dump in as much cheese as I can stand, and use up all the leftover cooked ground beef from tacos or whatever else might have had some left. I have made this for so long I don't use a recipe anymore. Feel free to mess around with the amounts and even try adding different seasonings. We've tried the Northwoods Seasoning from Penzey's and it made it a very interesting dish.

Hamburger Pie

• 1 lb. ground beef, cooked and drained
• 2-3 cups shredded cheddar (depending on your tastes)
• 6 medium sized potatoes, cooked and mashed with butter, milk and salt

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Farenheit. Spray a 2 qt. baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.

Evenly layer the potatoes on the bottom, half of the shredded cheddar, the ground beef and the remaining shredded cheddar in the baking dish. Bake for around 20-25 minutes or until cheese is melted and starting to brown.

For your biscuits, try these:

Cornmeal Biscuits

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
  
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter cut into small pieces
  

Preheat your oven to

Combine all of the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry fork until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. (For a little more flaky layer action leave a few bigger chunks of butter). Don't let the butter melt or overmix the dough or you will have flat nasty biscuits.

Add the buttermilk and stir with a spatula until the dry ingredients are moistened. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead about 5 to 10 times just to get everything to stick together. Roll out until the dough is about 1/2 inch thick. Using a biscuit cutter, cut out biscuits and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Serve with butter and a little honey and these are great with any meal.

Homemaking 101

A homemaker is a person whose prime occupation is to care for their family and home.


That is my job. I have five children and a wonderful husband. I educate the ones that are old enough for school (and by proxy the ones that aren't). I bake, I sew, I clean... The list goes on. Here I am hoping to share some of my skills, life lessons learned (or being learned), and hopefully just try to keep my sanity, one post at a time.