raising awareness

My case isn't this advanced yet.  I don't really have eloquent words to add to this, so just watch the video.

**added note:  there is nothing worse than having this illness and having no one believe you (not even your doctors).  because of its rarity, there are still a number of doctors who have never heard of this and they treat you like a complete idiot when you try and explain this.  when i finally did get diagnosed, the doctor congratulated me on self-diagnosing (which was the exact same thing that the other doctors had scorned).  keep fighting.  find a doctor who will listen.

Currently Reading: Girl Meets God

 photo from:  http://oneyearbibleimages.com/girl_meets_god.jpg


Girl Meets God: A Memior
Lauren F. Winner

Do I agree with her on every point?

No.

Do I agree with anyone on every point.

Also no.

I am learning that people who think differently than I do are a treasure.  That they strengthen and fortify me.  That while it seems prickly and awkward at times, I am a better person and a better thinker when I am challenged in my comfortable ways.

This is Dr. Winner's memoir of her religious life.  She converted to Orthodox Judaism in her teen years and then converted again to Christianity in her twenties.  It is interesting to read how Christ wooed her.  How, despite her reluctance at at times, He made Himself known and revealed to her that He is the only way.  As she is a practicing Episcopalian and writes from that perspective, she showed me some of the beauty that I may have overlooked in liturgy.

While reading this book I told Mr. Mays that were I actually friends with Dr. Winner (which I am not) I could see myself pulling her aside one day at church and uncomfortably saying, "Um, so, I just wanted to let you know that Christians don't really talk like that...."  She is the kind of honest that I wish I could be with myself.  She says the things that "good Christians" won't even admit to thinking.  But there is something so incredibly appealing about her honesty.  Instead of judging her for the faults that she openly admits to having, I found it rather endearing to hear someone admit their sins rather than try and make excuses for them.

My copy of "Girl Meets God" has pencil markings throughout as I underlined and annotated my way through the text.  I stopped multiple times to read something aloud to Mr. Mays.

This is the third book I have read by Dr. Winner.  At the suggestion of a friend, I read Real Sex: The Naked Truth About Chasity which has since become my one of my favorite books on sexuality from a Christian perspective and one that I have passed along to many friends.  I also read (and loved) Mudhouse Sabbath: An Invitation To A Life of Spiritual Disciplines which is actually on my Christmas list for this year.  :)

Here's the except I read aloud to my mom (from pages 261-262):

"I have always felt faintly embarrassed about the role Jan Karon's Mitford novels have played in my conversion.  I'm sure God, who could have thrown a little Dostoyevsky Barth in my path, was playing some sort of divine joke, figuring He would both get me to the baptismal font and erode some of my cherished intellectual snobbery in one fell swoop.  Still I often reflect on the books God has used in other people's conversions - Richard Gilman turned to Catholicism after reading Graham Greene and Georges Bernanos, for example, and Augustine famously became a Christian after reading the Book of Romans - and I feel annoyed that in His wisdom, He chose to reel me in with middle-brow Christian fiction.  It could be worse, I suppose.  I could have come to faith while reading Left Behind."

Read it.  You'll like it.  :)

On a side note, a dear friend of mine is studying at Duke Divinity School and Dr. Winner is her academic adviser!  How rad is that?! 

What Binds Us Together...

"What binds us together is not

common education,

common race,

common income levels,

common politics,

common nationality,

common accents,

common jobs,

or anything else of that sort.

Christians come together

Because they have all been loved

By Jesus Himself."

- D.A. Carson

come into my kitchen: oatmeal craisin cookies

 

These are some of my absolute favorite cookies - oh my word!  I found a recipe, but wasn't completely satisfied so I changed a few things.  Since they contain oatmeal, craisins and pecans you can kind of fool yourself into thinking that they are healthy.  It's dangerous.  Trust me on this one.  ;)

 

Oatmeal Craisin Cookies

Cookies:

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar (packed)

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups oatmeal

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups craisins

1 cup chopped pecans (approximately)

Glaze:

2 cups powdered sugar

2 teaspoons almond flavoring

Milk (maybe 1 - 2 tablespoons??)

Cream together the butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla.

Sift the flour, oatmeal, powder, soda, and salt together.  

Add to the butter mixture about 1 cup at a time.

Add craisins and pecans.

Roll into balls.  (At this point, the cookies could be frozen and saved for another day)

Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes (mine took a little longer)

Remove from cookie sheet and allow them to cool completely.

While cooling, mix the glaze together.  It should be thick, but you can change the consistency by adding more milk or powdered sugar to make it less think/more think respectively.  Put glaze into a small ziplock bag.

When the cookies are completely cooled, drizzle the glaze using the ziplock bag (cut off one corner of the bottom and drizzle the frosting from there).  

Allow the glaze to set before storing cookies.

**Recipe adapted from All Recipes

prayer for our marriage

We've recently starting saying this written prayer along with our nightly spoken prayer.  I hope that as the words become embedded in our minds that the Truth would be embedded in our hearts and that our actions would reflect those changes.

O God, who hast so consecrated the state of Matrimony that in it is represented the spiritual marriage and unity betwixt Christ and his Church; Look mercifully upon [us] thy servants, that [we] may love, honour, and cherish each other, and so live together in faithfulness and patience, in wisdom and true godliness, that [our] home may be a haven of blessing and of peace; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit ever, one God, world without end.  Amen.

**Taken from The Book of Common Prayer: The Form and Solemnization of Matrimony