Author: LAH

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Dating God: One-on-One

Quiet Time. Devotions. Personal Bible study. The concept has a lot of names, but it all boils down to spending time with God.

When you consider who God is… all powerful, all loving, the Creator of the universe, faithful, merciful, gracious, (the list could go on and on), one would think that spending time with Him would be our first priority.

Most of us would jump at the opportunity to spend time with the president, whether or not we approve of his policies. Who would turn down an evening with their favorite movie star, or musician? And what about those people closest to us? I know I’m happiest when I’m spending time with those I love most.

Why is it that so many people who claim to love Jesus, and call themselves Christians, find it a chore to set aside time to focus on Him? It really makes no sense, yet I am among those who have struggled with this for years.

Why is this, and what can we do about it?

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Chicken Paprika

After 10 days in warm, sunny Arizona, we arrived back in Colorado just in time for a blizzard. The thermometer is at 28 and falling. While the snow accumulates outside, I’m craving something warm and comforting to fill up my insides. Tonight I’m making this Chicken Paprika, with wide noodles, steamed broccoli and lots of hot tea.

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Dating God: Personal Retreats

Last week, Jeremy (see previous post) made the following statement: “For a while now though I’ve felt like I need to go camping alone for a few days and do nothing but fast, read the Word, and pray. The idea just hit me outta nowhere once, and it pops back into my mind every once in a while.”

My first thought was, “Wow, God wants to spend time with you! How awesome is that?” I sure want to encourage him to follow through on this. Here’s why:

For centuries, Christians have taken themselves out of the busy-ness of everyday life and “retreated” to a quiet place in order to reconnect with God. Jesus set the standard for this. All throughout the gospels, we’re told that Jesus went away to a lonely place to pray. Sometimes He invited the disciples to go with him.

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College: Where You’re Liberal or You’re Wrong

Pete and I are on the road this week, attending a retreat/conference in central Arizona. I’ve been out stalking the local birds, hiking in the desert, and enjoying time with friends who share our ministry calling. I have not been writing. So I thought I’d turn today’s soapbox over to my son-in-law, who has been writing about his college writing class. It’s a bit long, but I couldn’t find any content I was willing to delete. My questions are:

  • How should Jeremy respond to his professor? What would God have him do and say?
  • Have other people experienced this much harassment in a classroom? Is this common?
  • What place should a professor’s personal beliefs and opinions take in a classroom discussion?

_____________________________

So I finally did it; after many months of consideration, prayer, consultation, and jumping through financial aid hoops, I’m officially a college student. Since I’m still working full time I’ve had to take it easy on the classes, starting with only two at first, then hopefully working in more as I go. I’m taking a fairly basic math class online and a lecture-style English class, which I was looking forward to because I enjoy writing and reading. Unfortunately though, my excitement and positive attitude ended up being short-lived, as I had no clue what English actually held in store.

I showed up for [the first] class full of enthusiasm about beginning my long-awaited college career. As soon as the class before mine let out, I walked into the room, grabbed a seat close to the front, and just watched in anticipation as all my classmates slowly filed in and took up the remainder of the empty chairs. So far, things were good. Then my teacher started to talk.

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Cheap Eats: Membership Warehouses

The current issue of “Real Simple” magazine contains the statement, “… members-only markets can be an indispensable source for saving on essentials, such as steak, shrimp, and [washed and bagged] salad greens.”

OK, here’s mom’s advice: If you are trying at all to cut costs, steak, shrimp, and bagged salads are not essentials. They are special treats, maybe even reserved for occasions such as birthdays or anniversaries.

Buying groceries at Sam’s, Costco, or similar store can definitely save you money. But remember, just because something is cheaper doesn’t make it cheap. This brings us to the question: is a membership warehouse always cheaper?

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Bearing Fruit: Garden Musings

We’re taking a break from talking about food and budgets. I’m an avid gardener, and it’s time to start this year’s vegetable garden. A “blessed event” this morning inspired the following thoughts:

My lettuce seedlings are coming up! Seeing those tiny cotyledons spread under the plant lights always gives me a thrill. This year is no different. After months of stark leafless branches and brown fields, anything green is a treat. Plus, there’s the promise of salad in those tiny leaves.

In a strange way, this is my favorite time to garden. In my tiny indoor plot of germinating plants, there are no bugs. No hail comes to flatten the fragile seedlings. No dry winds, or freezing temperatures. My growing conditions are as close to perfect as I can make them. This is a great place to be if you’re a baby plant.

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Cheap Eats: Marketing tips

You want to eat like a king, but your budget is more on the peon level. What to do? Don’t despair. Help is on the way.

How you do your marketing can impact how much you spend on food, as well as how healthy your meals are. Now that you are learning to cook, you can skip those frozen dinners, boxes of mixes, and the tasty-but-expensive pre-made meals in the deli. Instead, look for staples that can be used in a number of different ways.

I have a number of ingredients that I keep on hand at all times. Granted, I live quite a distance from the nearest market, plus I have plenty of storage, which makes it more convenient for me to store stables, compared to someone with a closet-sized kitchen and ready access to groceries. But there are some basic foods that most cooks use often enough to stock. You can see my list on my Mom’s Pantry page. Yours will be different, of course. This is just a starting place.

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Mom’s Vinaigrette Salad Dressing

Salad dressing is a relatively expensive item in the market, but it’s amazingly easy to make your own. This is my basic vinaigrette recipe. You can vary it by substituting different vinegars (balsamic, raspberry, etc.) or lemon or lime juice, or adding blue cheese crumbles and/or fresh herbs. If I’m using the dressing right away, I use all olive oil. However, if it will be stored in the fridge, the olive oil will solidify. Using part Canola helps solve this problem. This recipe makes about 1½ cups, but if you keep the approximate proportions, you can make as much or as little as you want.

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Cheap Eats: Learn to cook

So you would like to spend less on food. This is one of the easiest places to trim the budget, but it will require a little effort on your part.

The single best way to save money on food is to learn to cook!

It is usually much cheaper to purchase ingredients rather than prepared meals. The results are more nutritious and frequently lower in sodium, fat, and calories.[1] With a little bit of practice, your meals will taste a lot better than the packaged, frozen “convenience foods” available at the market. Cooking doesn’t have to use a lot of time or expensive ingredients. Plus, it just feels satisfying to serve a meal you made yourself.

Learning to cook isn’t hard. A recent Amazon search turned up 93,928 cookbooks, while a Google search turned up 98,400,000 hits for “recipe.”  Most functional adults are able to follow at least  simple directions for preparing a dish.

I never learned to cook when I was growing up, so I had to figure things out on my own. Since I was a college student at the time, it seemed totally logical to pick up a textbook and start reading. At the time, the most popular comprehensive cookbook was The Joy of Cooking, so that is what I read. It provided a solid foundation that still serves me today. The fun started when I got to the point where I could wing it, inventing my own recipes as I went along.

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