Borrowing

I'm borrowing tonight. Yep, I'm borrowing my post from our family recipe blog and letting it do double-duty and be my post for "Shine" tonight.  With VBS going on this week, I'm just too tired to "think".  I'm sure you understand.  I think you'll enjoy this recipe for these cute little sheep cupcakes.

From "Life's a Bowl of Cherries":
First of all, I must admit that my sheep cupcake has some flaws. I used a chocolate cake mix instead of a white cake mix because that's what I had in the pantry. SOOOO, there are a few crumbs in sight as you can tell by this picture! But, the real reason there are crumbs is because this little sheep was made as a sample and trial run for tomorrow.

This week is VBS and tomorrow my 1st and 2nd grader class are learning about God, the Shepherd and studying about Psalm 23. Their snack craft will be these cute little sheep. I made this one just to see how it would look. I didn't want to use up ingredients trying to make him perfect (There's a lesson there: Sheep aren't perfect. People aren't perfect. But, sheep cupcakes are sweet. We should be sweet, too :). I can't wait to see what the VBS children's sheep look like! I'm pretty sure theirs aren't going to be perfect, either!

CUPCAKE SHEEP

1 cake mix (white is best, but any kind will work.)
Homemade buttercream or store-bought vanilla icing
Large marshmallows
Small marshmallows
Mini chocolate chips

Mix cake mix according to package directions and bake into 24 cupcakes. Allow them to cool completely.)

Ice cupcakes with a thin layer. Put a small mound of icing in the center. Cut mini marshmallows in half. Arrange them in two circles around the edge of the cupcake. Cut one large cupcake in half. In one half, using a toothpick (use a twisting motion), make two holes for eyes and one hole for a nose. Place the half with the holes on the icing mound, making the face. Cut the other marshmallow in half and place next to each side of the face, making ears. Cut a few more small marshmallows in half and place them behind and on top of the little sheep's head.

BAA! BAA!

Hawaiian Roll Sandwiches

Posted by Lori:
I've been out of town for several days (which I'll write about tonight), but today I wanted to share a recipe with you, which was first published on my family's recipe blog, "Life's a Bowl of Cherries".  This recipe continues to be a favorite of ours, as well as most everyone who has eaten them.  I was given this recipe by one of my children's teacher's last year.

Hawaiian bread/rolls can be purchased at most supermarkets. If you are not familiar with them, they are sweet bread/dinner roll packaged in an orange plastic wrapper. Sometimes they are not with the regular breads on the shelf, but you know how supermarkets move stuff around so we have to search for them???? I have noticed these rolls keep moving locations so that I have to hunt for them! I think they do that on purpose....so we'll find something else we (don't) need.

Hawaiian Roll Sandwiches
24 King's Hawaiian Rolls
1 pound of ham, thinly sliced
3/4 to 1 pound sliced swiss cheese

To assemble sandwiches, slice the entire package of rolls at once to make the bottom layer. Place bottoms on a large cookie sheet. Add ham and cheese equally to each bottom and replace tops.

Mix together:
1 stick butter, melted
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 Tablespoon onion flakes or powder
1 1/2 Tablespoons poppy seeds
3/4 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
Drizzle a little of the mixture over the ham and cheese layer before placing tops of rolls. Drizzle remaining mixture over the rolls. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.

You can also use the huge round Hawaiian bread loaf.  The baking time will increase to about 40 minutes. Then slice into individual sandwiches to serve.
These are so yummy!! Enjoy!

Spiritual Ingredient - Self Control

“add to your knowledge self-control”.

From the passage 2 Peter 1:5-11.

As we learn more about God and His Word, we will begin to see that some things in our lives are not right. We will learn to recognize the sin in our lives. Have you ever noticed that it is much easier to recognize the sin in someone else’s life than it is our own? We sometimes think to ourselves, "If you sin like I do, then you’re okay and I’m okay, BUT if you sin in a way that I don’t then "WATCH OUT" because you're wrong!"

So, let's think of self control as a spiritual "ingredient" we should have in our life. Self control is quite possibly the hardest ingredient for us to have because it can involve so many aspects of our life.

"Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control." Proverbs 25:28

Self control involves the following: what we think, what we say, how we act, what we wear, what we eat, what we drink, how we drive, how we work, how we discipline and much, much more. In fact, pretty much EVERYTHING in our life!

Self control is a hard ingredient to find at times. But, God's Word tells us that this ingredient is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). As Christians, God's Spirit dwells within us (Acts 2:38; 1 Corinthians 6:19) and will help us develop self control, as well as the other fruits we need. I'll be honest and tell you the hardest things for me to control.

#1 - My mouth

#2 - My eating (which also, ironically, involves my mouth)

#3 - My attitude (which may involve my mouth)

#4 - Drinking (no alcohol - haven't ever had that stuff!) No, my "addiction" is Diet Cherry Coke with the REAL Cherry Syrup from Sonic. (also involves my mouth...I'm seeing a pattern here.).

Besides praying for self control, I have found that if I will meditate on this scripture, it helps me a lot: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," Philippians 4:13.

Ask yourself these questions:
1. Do you find it easy to overlook the sins in others as long as they sin in the same way you do?
2. How much self-control do you have? Remember that these spiritual ingredient should be increasing in measure. (2 Peter 5:8)
3. In what areas do you need self control in your life?
4. What helps you to have self control in your life?

Spiritual Ingredient - Knowledge

“...and to your goodness, knowledge”.
From the text of 2 Peter 1:5-11.

What does this mean? Knowledge of what?

If you click the text link above, the passage says to "add" to your goodness, knowledge. So, think of knowledge as a spiritual ingredient we need in our lives. We can fill our minds with all kinds of things that will make us knowledgable. We can learn statitics and data and be able to compete in all sorts of trivia games and contests. We can spend thousands of dollars and years upon years learning more and more, but it's not the knowledge the Bible is talking about. Degrees are great. Statistics are intersting. Trivia games are fun. But, the most important knowledge we can ever have is the knowledge we can find in God's Word. In doing so, we learn about Him and about His Son and Our Savior, Jesus Christ! But, let's think about another type of knowledge. God wants us to read His Word to know about Him and about Jesus, but He also wants us to read His Word to gain in knowledge for ourselves.

Do you have old recipes that you’ve made for so long, you don’t have to even get out the cookbook or recipe card? That’s what God wants from us. He wants us to know the Bible so well that it is deeply imbedded into our brains and in our hearts. He wants us to know the Word - know the scriptures - know the "recipes". Of course, we will only get this knowledge by studying the recipe book - the Bible.

Questions to ask yourself:

1. How is your knowledge of God?
2. How is your knowledge of His Will for your life?
3. Do you search the scriptures to learn more about how God wants you to live?
4. Do you look to God's Word for how to handle situations that come up in life?
5. Do you look to God's Word to find the Way, the Truth and the Life, that only comes through Jesus? Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6
6. Can you tell others why you believe what you believe?
7. Is your spiritual ingredient of knowledge increasing in measure? 2 Peter 1:8

"This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 1 Timothy 2:3-4

Spiritual Ingredient - Goodness

“...add to your faith goodness..."
from the text of
2 Peter 1:5-11

What does goodness mean to you? Simply put, it's being good, isn’t it? Other versions of this verse say moral excellence or virtue, all of which mean "the quality of doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong". God wants us to be exemplary citizens, both of the Kingdom of God and of the society in which we live.

I've mentioned before that a motto we use in our home is: DO THE RIGHT THING 'CAUSE IT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO! It sounds simple and easy, but we all know that doing the right thing isn't always easy. Sometimes the easier thing would be NOT doing the right thing. That's why it's so important for us to understand the "why" behind doing good.

I'll give you an example: My husband (as I've also mentioned) works for a Children's Home (Tipton Home). During the past two weeks he's been on vacation, but has had several "issues" to deal with involving the children there - stemming from minor problems to major problems. One of these problems involved a stolen item - an MP3 player of one of the teenagers. After a while the MP3 player was found or turned in by the "offender" and the people involved were all okay, because the item was found. But, my husband pointed out that there was still a problem because a "crime" had been committed. Just because the item was recovered, it didn't make the incident right. But, obviously, most of the children there haven't been taught the "whys" of doing things right. That's why that Home is there...to help teach them what is right and wrong and to teach them WHY it is wrong.

So, why is it important to have goodness, or virtue, or moral excellence? Because we are to be imitators of Jesus, and because Christians are children of God. Gossiping, lying, cheating on income tax, stealing from the workplace (supplies, time, money, etc.), breaking the law by speeding, not wearing seat belts (in many states, if not all), littering, illegally copying music or downloading it from the computer - - you name it - - those types of things are things children of God and imitators of Jesus should not desire to be involved in. In fact, we should strive to avoid those things.

As Christians, we should be the most well thought of people in our communities or our circle of personal relationships. People should be able to tell if we are a Christian by way act, by the way we speak, by the way we respond to personal trials and conflicts. Yes, you and I will fall short. But, in our falling short, that is another way we can respond with a Christian attitude. Example: "You know, I messed up. I let you down and didn't set a good example for you. Would you please forgive me?" What a great way to show Jesus living in us by confessing to others if we do wrong! Of course, we must also confess these sins to God and ask for His forgiveness. That is showing "goodness", but because of what God has done for us - it's HIS goodness being shown through us!

So, here are some questions for you and I to ask ourselves:
1. What will it take for me to have goodness/moral excellence?
2. What character flaws have I been excusing?
3. If "goodness" is an ingredient, how much do I have?
4. Am I increasing the measure of the spiritual ingredient of goodness as 2 Peter 1:8 says to do?

"But the fruit of the Spirit is...goodness." Galatians 5:22

The Right Ingredients

Several years ago, my son wanted to make some cookies for the fair. He wanted to choose the recipe all by himself. Instead of looking through cookbooks, he decided to search on the internet for the perfect recipe. Eventually, he found one he liked and printed it out to show me. As I scanned the recipe ingredients, making sure we had all of them, I noticed that we didn't have one of the key ingredients. But, it wasn't something simple, such as flour, sugar, or eggs that we could quickly run to the store and purchase. No, not at all! His missing ingredient...an ingredient he had failed to even notice...was crushed crickets!! Yuck! Can you imagine that? The recipe he had choosen was called "Chocolate Chirpie Chip Cookies"! He just liked the name and didn't realize that the "chirpie" part was referring to crushed crickets. "Oops! Sorry Zachary, but we are fresh out of crushed crickets". (Thankfully!) And mom wasn't willing to go get that ingredient, either! Of course, Zachary was just as shocked as I was and quickly went off to search for another recipe.

Having the right ingredients for a recipe is essential. Without a key ingredient, a recipe can flop. Recently I posted about "recipes" and how God gives us many "Recipes for Life" throughout the Bible. It's chock-full of good recipes for our spiritual lives! One of those God-inspired recipes is from 2 Peter 1:3-10 .

"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. "

In verse 3, Peter tells us that God will supply us with the ingredients we need for life and godliness, "His (God’s) divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness." The small print on God's "recipe" is the part that says, "through our knowledge of Him". We have to come to know God. And, we come to know Him through the time we spend with Him in prayer, in the reading of His Word, and through our times of worship and praise to Him. Our knowledges of Him begins with our faith in Him, as verse 5 points out.

The ingredients God will supply to each of us, as Christians, are listed in the passage above. We begin with our faith, then add ingredients to that faith. (Imagine for a moment that you have a bowl of faith: Some have a small bowl, some have a medium-sized bowl; others may have a big bowl.) Our bowls of faith are all different sizes, depending on our spiritual maturity.

Now let's add the next ingredients in God's recipe to our bowl of faith:
1. GOODNESS - Verse 5: "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness"

2. KNOWLEDGE - Verse 5: "and to goodness, knowledge"

3. SELF-CONTROL - Verse 6: "and to knowledge, self-control"

4. PERSEVERANCE - Verse 6: "and to self-control, perseverance"

5. GODLINESS - Verse 6: "and to perseverance, godliness"

6. BROTHERLY KINDNESS - Verse 7: "and to godliness, brotherly kindness"

7. LOVE - Verse 7: "and to brotherly kindness, love."

If you were to rate yourself on each of these ingredients, how much of each would you have? A small amount or a large amount?

God's recipe includes instruction about how much of each of these ingredients we should have. (Remember, His recipes are without error and they are perfect!) Verses 8-9 tell us how much we should have. It doesn't matter what amount of each ingredient we have, as long as we continue increasing each of them. In other words, we should continue to grow each of these "ingredients" as we walk our Christian walk. And these verses also tell us why this is important: To be effective and productive Christians. What if we fail to add one of these important ingredients or decide to leave one of them out? God's recipe tells us about that, as well. If we fail to add one of them, we have forgotten about Jesus and how He gave His life to cleanse us from our sins.

This recipe is sure to be a success when we pay special attention to all of the ingredients! God again tells us so with this promise in verses 10-11 following the above passage: "Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

I am grateful for this "Recipe for Life" God gave us and for His recipes that never fail. Visit Heavenly Homemakers for more Gratituesday.

Also, please visit Life's a Bowl of Cherries, a family recipe blog for some great recipes from my family to yours!

The Best Recipe Book Ever!

My mom, sister, and I have just started a new recipe blog. It's called "Life's a Bowl of Cherries". We look forward to sharing recipes with many people all over the world. Most of us enjoy trying out new recipes, don't we? It's always great to try a new recipe and it actually turns out and we like it. The Bible has a lot of recipes for Christian living and none of them fail, turn out bad, or ever have an error or typo in them. It is the perfect guide for us to follow.

Read 2 Peter 1:3-11.
In my Bible and maybe in yours, the heading says, "Making One’s Calling and Election Sure", taken from verse 10. "Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall". Peter is saying, “Christians, follow this recipe for a successful Christian life”. And although Peter wrote the book, we know that all scripture is inspired by God (2 Timothy 3:16), so this is really God's recipe.

Verse 3 says, "His (God’s) divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by his own glory and goodness."

Isn’t it important when preparing a recipe to have all of the necessary ingredients? This verse says God’s divine power has given us EVERYTHING WE NEED for life and godliness- he has the ingredients! Through God’s awesome power, He has given us everything we need for life and godliness! But, there's a very important phrase here - THROUGH OUR KNOWLEDGE OF HIM.

The key is this: We have to have the knowledge of Him.
And how do we become more knowledgeable of God?
Through studying his word - through reading His recipe book - the Bible.

Have a great day, everyone!

"Recipe for Life"

Let's say you wanted to make chocolate chip cookies. What's the first thing you would do? You would get out the recipe, wouldn’t you (unless you've made it so often you have it memorized!)? And, of course, it's always good to make sure you have all of the ingredients before beginning (something I don't always do!).

A recipe is a process. It has a plan and continues with steps until completion. In almost all baking recipes, you must be careful to follow the directions and use the right ingredients so that the recipe will turn out the way it is supposed to. You must also understand the recipe, know the ingredients called for, and understand the terms that are being used.

Have you ever thought of your life as a Christian as being like a recipe? Before you became a Christian, your life had no real meaning. There was no purpose and no direction. There was no "Recipe for Life". But then, you began to "stir" within. Maybe someone shared God's Word with you, or maybe you began to read it on your own. The Bible - the ultimate recipe book!

The Bible explaines to you the steps of salvation - the "recipe" for the Christian life. By reading the "recipe", you found that your life lacked a very important missing ingredient - Jesus! Your life's recipe cannot be complete if Jesus is missing. He is the ingredient you and I can not do without!

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 14:6

Kindness and Cookies

After a relaxing evening Friday, Saturday was very busy and hectic for our family. I had a baby shower that morning,came home to help my daughter and her teammate work on an FFA agri-science fair project, and worked on a Bible class lesson I had worked on all week but hadn't managed to get all together. My husband was building a fence in a new pasture for some goats and had the boys helping him some. He even went an hour away to a Hobby Lobby to get supplies for my daughter's project, just to help us out. I can't ever get him to go to Hobby Lobby!

Anyway, my daughter needed some cookies made for an event Sunday afternoon. I was planning to make them later that night, but also had food to cook for our church's potluck meal the next day. Our oldest son, Zachary, volunteered to make the cookies. So, for this Gratituesday, which is Hosted by HeavenlyHomemakers.com I am grateful for Zachary's kindness.

Zachary could tell that Lauren and I were way too busy that day to stop and make the cookies. He saw the need and volunteered his time. Actually, he had already helped his dad build the fence, but his dad asked him to. The cookies were something he volunteered to do on his own.
Zachary is a pretty good cook and knows his way around the kitchen. For some reason, though, he can't always unload the dishwasher and get everything put back up in the right place, but he's learning! On Saturday, Zachary wanted to make chocolate cookies. His dad has a certain favorite and we were looking for that recipe, but came across one that was a chocolate cookie with a marshmallow and chocolate icing on top - YUM! He decided that would be the perfect cookie to make. They didn't have a fancy name, just said 'chocolate cookies'. We named them 'Chocolate Globs'.

You know, now that I think about it, Zachary's kindness may have had an ulterior motive behind it! What do you think? :) I don't care if it did or not. Zachary was kind and helped our family when we needed it. "And be kind to one another..." Ephesians 4:32a






Chocolate Globs
1/2 c. shortening
1 c. sugar
1 egg
1/2 c. milk
1 t. vanilla
1 3/4 c. flour
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 c. cocoa
Large marshmallows, cut in half

Cream shortening and sugar. Add egg and vanilla and mix well. Sift together dry ingredients. Add to creamed mixture, alternately with milk. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet. Bake 8 minutes at 350 degrees. Top with half marshmallow and bake 2 more minutes. Ice cookies with chocolate icing. He made about 4 dozen cookies.

Chocolate Globs Icing:
2 c. sifted powdered sugar
3 T. melted butter
5 T. cocoa
1/2 t. vanilla
dash of salt
4 T. cream (he used 2% milk)
Beat ingredients until smooth.

My brother-in-law writes a blog called "Waughs Wall". He preaches in Nashville and challenged his congregation a few weeks ago to bake cookies and take them to a neighbor that they didn't know well. I'm giving that same challenge to you. Could you show kindness this week by baking a batch of cookies for someone you don't know? Or maybe you can, like Zachary, just show kindness to someone you do know....with a 'Chocolate Glob' cookie! Thank you, Zachary!

Recipe for a Happy Christian

RECIPE FOR A HAPPY CHRISTIAN
By Lori Waugh
September 2006

Take one unhappy Christian.
First, get rid of the following ingredients:
1 c. complaining
1 c. comparing
1 c. complacency
1 c. conceit
1 c. conniving

Then, add the following ingredients:
1 c. contentment
1 c. commitment
1 c. caring
1 c. control of self
1 c. compassion
1 c. concern
1 c. charity
1 c. chastity
1 c. cooperation
1 c. citizenship
1 c. character

This recipe is good for one happy Christian. Serves everyone.