Oprah

First I should say that for many years I haven't really enjoyed watching the Oprah show. I have nothing against her personally. How could I? I've never met her. I feel that she is a good person. She gives to charity and does many things to help others but I dislike that she has become someone that people look to as THE authority on almost everything. She is knowledgeable about many things but it seems that she gets the credit when it is due to another. It just bothers me. I saw this video on FB earlier today and it instantly grabbed my attention and I had to watch it. I can't get it off my mind. As I've been mulling it over several things started to weigh heavy on my heart. Everyone has the right to their opinion about God and religion in general. I believe Christ is the only way to heaven but I am not naive enough to think that even someone reading this blog feels differently...that's a discussion for another day. There were a couple of things that I thought were particularly disturbing and inaccurate from this video.

--The first thing was her comment about God being a jealous God. He absolutely is, it says so in Exodus 34:14 (and other places), but not jealous in the way that Oprah has interpreted. It clearly says that God is NOT jealous of us as individuals, as Oprah stated, but that He is jealous for us when we love something more than we love Him. He created each of us for His glory, honor and praise and for no other reason. His jealously is of a person, place or thing taking His place in our life.

--The other thing that bothered me was what she said about God being a feeling experience not a believing experience. I not only believe in God but I believe God. I believe the promises that He lays forth in His word. According to what is said in the video if we still have to believe in God then it's not truly God. Because of editing it doesn't show whether or not this is a statement she agrees with but I have to be honest, that doesn't even make sense to me! (And I watched it several times.) Everybody believes in something, even if just themselves, so if you believe in something then it isn't truly that? Or maybe the author only feels this way pertaining to belief in God. Either way it sounds like talking in circles to me and I'm left with a big, Huh?!?

I know that this is a video created to campaign agaist Oprah and her 'church' (is that really what it's called? remember I'm out of the loop for American TV) and I know that there is a good chance there are some things that are taken out of context. I'm not going to even begin to research each statement in this video to verify it's truth. But the jealousy thing came directly from her mouth during dialog that was not edited in any way. If she has been incorrectly taught during her church experiences then shame on those Pastors and I believe they will answer for that but I hate to hear things misrepresented, especially by someone who has so much influence over society.

I am a conservative evangelical Christian, and I am not ashamed. I feel that Christ teaches a message of love and respect to all people, of every belief and every background. My purpose in this is not to have my own hand in bashing Oprah. I simply felt that these two things were expressed in a false or confusing way and my heart couldn't rest easy until I wrote about it. I welcome comments whatever your belief but I ask that you remain respectful to me as well as others.

State Fair

It's that time again! Since October is Fair time of year and most of us foreigners come from an area that has a pretty decent State or County fair we like to hold our own. Last year was the first and it was so much fun we decided to make it a yearly event. Maybe it's just an excuse to make really fattening fried food but it was still a blast. You can see more pictures of the boys having fun here, but I thought I would run down the list of our State Fair menu (the first two items are our contributions).

-Sausage with peppers and onions

-Deep fried Snickers

-Caramel Apples

-Pretzels

-Corn on the cob

-Apple Pie

-Brownies

-Smokies

-Funnel Cake

-Grilled Chicken on a stick

-Root Beer Floats

-Hong Kong style beef noodles

(HK doesn't have a fair but we decided if it did, beef noodles would definitely be sold.)

-Pepto Bismol (ok, maybe that was just for me)

Add in some candy and a few games for the younger children and you've got a fun evening. So what I need to know is what was the new thing on the menu at the Fair this year? We've got to keep up when we plan for next year!

4 things

I wrote this last Wednesday after a public tag. I thought, wow, what a great post idea...I'll take that tag. So I wrote it and then before I could publish our internet went out. I kept hoping it would come back on its own since Stan was out of town and we had a really busy weekend coming up but no such luck. Thankfully there is no such thing as the weekend here so Stan went this afternoon and we are back in business.

So here are my 4 things.

1. tell me something great as of late


2. tell me something hard as of late


3. tell me something about your family


4. tell me something about your friends

1. Tell me something great as of late—Wireless Internet.

We finally got our router to work. Right now I’m sitting on my comfy bed, watching a movie (Elf, I told you I’m ready for Christmas) and blogging. This is oh so relaxing. When I finish I’m going to set the laptop aside and close my eyes for a few minutes. Ahhhh.

(This is slightly ironic since minutes later we lost all internet.

I am still super excited we have wireless though.)

2. Tell me something hard as of late—Life.

This has proven to be our most challenging season to date. With all the new changes around here we wanted to be sure we were thriving and not just surviving. We had the opportunity to talk with a comp. councilor this week and it was so wonderful. He gave us the best, most practical marriage and parenting advice/ideas I’ve ever heard. He really encouraged us. PTL for Godly wisdom!

3. Tell me something about your family—Good. Bad. Funny.

Good: Judah is smiling and laughing so much. He makes the whole family smile just looking at him. He’s 15.5 lbs of pure joy.

Bad: Bennett is having major sleep issues. The sleep thing is bad, not Bennett himself. Going down for naps and going to sleep at night is a battle, plus he’s up several times during the night. Since Judah is now sleeping 9 hours at night I’m tempted to have him give Bennett a sleeping tutorial.

Funny: Kirby told me today that when Judah gets bigger we are going to have a girl. Are we now? Apparently God has given him some insight that He hasn’t chosen to give me. Hmmm….

4. Tell me something about your friends—Near or far I can't live without them.

This part changed slightly since my original writing. I was so excited that a good friend that lives in a different city was coming to spend a week with us but plans had to change and she isn't able to come visit anymore. Sadness. :(

But, I still feel totally blessed by the friends that I have living here and back in the States. It is just amazing to have friends that are praying for me through this hard season of life and friends that encourage and turn me to the Word of God. I'm so blessed.

Now I'm passing along the tag. I want to hear your 4 things.

christmas

Yes, you read that right. I've already got Christmas on the brain. Mostly because it is the best holiday EVER, but also because this year I'm hoping to start a couple of new family traditions which will need a little preparation. For me the hardest part of Christmas is to make sure our focus stays on Christ and not get caught up in the rest. Don't get me wrong, I see no problem in giving gifts, having parties and all the other fun things but we want to be making an effort to teach the boys that Christmas is first and foremost about the Christ Child. Christmas is many things to many people but to me it is the celebration of Christ's birth. A good friend, who also served in a country that doesn't celebrate Christmas, gave me a couple of good ideas of things to do to help keep the focus of Christmas but also make it fun for children.

St. Nicholas Day-

This is the traditional spin on Santa Claus. We have never done Santa with our boys but I always wanted to be sure to teach where that tradition came from. The main reason I didn't want to do Santa was because I feel like it emphasizes gifts rather than THE gift. Of course I think there is a definite way to teach this and make it a part of our tradition without taking away from Christ's birth. St. Nicholas Day is traditionally on December 6th so we can do the whole treats in the stocking thing (the tradition calls for shoes but I want to use the boy's stockings) and have it be totally separate from Christmas.

Jesse Tree Advent Calendar-

There are several versions of this on the internet but the one that I like the best uses the Geneology of Christ as the basis for an Advent calendar. I am going to get a small tree and each day the boys will unwrap a new ornament for the tree. Each ornament will represent a different person in the geneology and we will read their story from the Bible and show how it points to the coming of Christ. I'm really excited about this but I'll probably have to make most of the ornaments by hand so I need to get busy.

Epiphany-

This is a small thing but I think it would be really neat to celebrate the Magi coming to see Christ on January 6th, the day of Epiphany. In the past this has been a day to commemorate their visit to Christ. My friend told me that in their family the Wise Men in their nativity set starts at the total opposite end of their house and throughout December and the first few days of January they slowly make their way to visit Christ in the manger.

I'm really excited about how we can use St. Nicholas Day to have fun and teach about several traditions that lead to what is now the modern Santa Claus in American and the Jesse Tree and Epiphany to teach the truths of the Bible. Most of all I'm really excited to get an early start on the most wonderful time of the year!

mommy meals

I had one of my first memorable mommy meal moments this week. You know what mommy meals are. Those evenings when you get to about 5 o'clock and either what you planned to make isn't going to happen due to time or you just had a crazy busy day and didn't plan at all or both. So what you end up doing is scouring the fridge and cabinets and coming up with something quick and easy. I'm almost positive that shepherd's pie and such things originated from a night like that. Sometimes you get a big hit that becomes a family tradition and sometimes you get raspberry vinaigrette chicken (sorry mom, you know it is true and has become the measure of a truly bad meal...at least that and the sweet potato filled oranges are your only two meal mishaps in the almost 30 years of my life). This week I had one of those times. I tried to be so organized and make up a weekly menu but when I went to WalMart they didn't have ground beef, so that meant the only other place to get it was to go to the large market, buy a cut of beef and have it ground myself. Well with no helper and a sick bunch I just didn't get in a second trip to the market so the spaghetti and meatballs that I had planned weren't going to happen. I thought about doing plain spaghetti but as I scanned the fridge I saw some things that needed to get eaten. Hmmm....here comes the mommy meal. I ended up combining some cut up chicken, rice, green chili with chicken sauce (I have no idea where it came from, most likely from someone cleaning out their cabinets when heading back to the States), a little milk to make it creamy and a packet of taco seasoning. It wasn't the best or most nutritious (note: I usually try to incorporate a green vegetable) meal I've ever made but not totally inedible either. Plus the boys like almost anything that has rice so they didn't really care. It filled our bellies and some nights that is the most important thing. Anybody out there make a mommy meal that has become a family favorite? I'm always looking for new ideas!