To Be Faithful to Exalt

Once again I approach my concluding final for a quarter of college. As I’m advancing into my last hours of studying, I have been pondering how I can truly allow God to work into my heart genuine unselfishness concerning the gift of wisdom I am striving to perfect. I have an earnest desire to cultivate the talent of a willing mind to work hard towards an education for God’s service. In the past God has performed may miracles concerning my scholastic abilities; He’s taken me from claiming stupidity over high school failures to acing the most difficult classes at my college. As I anticipate finishing my second to last quarter of my Associate of Arts degree, I am realizing my need of total, sincere dedication of my efforts to the glory of God. I admit there are times I’m tempted to say I’ve done well in my education, but, I keep realizing more and more that it is God has done nothing short of making me who I am.  College pre-calculus is drawing to a close –thankfully– but this is a subject I do not feel a natural affinity towards, knowing my past history of test anxiety. By God’s grace I’ll do my best. Whatever I get will be to His glory and His honor, and my score will not have been achieved by my ability to handle pressured emotions that make me forget what I know but by the mercy of a God Who knows how much stress I can stand and won’t push me any further. My prayer this evening that heralds the finale of my math anxieties for the year is that God will fill me with an unselfish desire to do nothing less than what He desires.

To parallel these evening musings, I want to share two inspired messages that reinforce my desire to give all honor to God:

• “Man cannot show greater weakness than by allowing men to ascribe to him the honor for gifts that are Heaven-bestowed. The true Christian will make God first and last and best in everything. No ambitious motives will chill his love for God; steadily, perseveringly, will he cause honor to redound to his heavenly Father. It is when we are faithful in exalting the name of God that our impulses are under divine supervision, and we are enabled to develop spiritual and intellectual power.” – Prophets and Kings page 68.3

• “Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.”  – Jeremiah 9:23, 24.

            Tomorrow is the day. It's my desire to exalt the name of the Lord that I may glorify Him in the wisdom He provides! I hereby state that I am proud to claim the God of David and Solomon as the God that has infinite wisdom for all that desire intellectual power. What a privilege it is to come to Him for help in the matter of my education. I hope to be faithful in full exaltation to the name of the Lord Who has done a wondrous work in me.

Welcome To My Oven

I'm someone that never tires of pulling out the mixing bowl, opening the fridge door, searching for ingredients, and spending all afternoon pulling delectable dishes (although more often sweet tidbits) out of the oven. After studying, I honestly love cooking as favorite hobby. Not only is cooking rewarding to the taste buds, it's very fulfilling to watch others enjoy the things you put love and energy into making.
The purpose of this somewhat unique blog post is to share a visual representation of some of the things in my family's kitchen, made by yours truly, during the month of January. Granted, I don't carry my camera around with me all the time, so this is just a highlight of some of the things I turned out. (I had quite a bit of "extra" time in January, hence baking and then taking pictures of what I made)

Plain and Onion-Sea Salt-Poppy Seed Bagels (extra brown for optimum toasty flavor) (that wasn't opium tasty flavor ;-) )

How about Cinnamon-Sugar?

Sunday morning Scones :-)

I'm not a fan of chocolate or carob (yay for me and for you since all of you get more that way), however, there are times I hanker for both. So, when I know I need to be healthy (that actually is how I feel all the time, but I sometimes am stubborn and rebellious) I make these amazing carob muffins. (I'll stop interrupting each sentence with side commentaries [consider them to be my thought bubbles- and for those of you that know me, you know that I insert ideas mid-sentence all the time])

I know these two photos are very much the same, but I had to share two because this way you'll ask for the recipe because you see twice as much goodness on this blog page.




I realize that these are pictures of exclusively baked sweet and savory things and metal objects (okay, there was one wood item on here). I am never as wowed by savory food as I am by sweet things. Once I feel like dragging my DSLR upstairs while I'm cooking soup or making a casserole, I'll dedicate another blog post to my friends food and fotography. :-D (I had to get some alliteration in there for my literature and grammar friends)
I may not know how to play soccer as well as the average American female growing up in the last twenty+ years, but I bet I can cook more than most of those soccer players. My mom always nit-picks on girls in the high schools that can play sports but can't cook when they get married, or on the college graduate wives that can't cook for their husbands on HGTV (home and garden improvement channel). I can cook so there. I could care less about you soccer ball, give me baseball, please. That's besides the point, though. Cooking is a lot of fun, and I get a lot of enjoyment out of. Having a relaxing activity (except for multiple boiling pots of water and noodles etc.) is a really nifty thing to have in life. Thanks for checking in on this posting. I've had fun taking pictures of some of my food. Hopefully I'll get some more good ones here sometime.
And I know, this wasn't how to cook 101 (deceiving title, but it looks really neat!), but it is a little taste of what can happen when you start cooking. The title of my blog post is the main theme -- Welcome to My Oven. This is what I do; maybe you can think about sharing what you do. Cooking is grand. We all live off of it, we all enjoy it, and we all like seeing tasty things (no, we all like eating tasty things!). Not to dwell on the stomach or taste buds unnecessarily here, rather, it's the things you can do with cooking that should be emphasized. I think it's a great tool to help other with. How often do you make something for a family member- don't they love it (if it is good :) )? Even if it isn't great, the effort and care that goes into the action means a lot. So, pull out your mixing bowls, measuring cups, ingredients -- see what you can do to bring a smile to your loved ones' faces!