"I will give you a wise and discerning heart."

Lately I've been thinking a lot about bible studies.  This might not be popular, but here it goes...  I think the  American Church relies too much on bible studies.  What brought this into my thinking was my own ability (or lack thereof), to read the bible on my own with a purpose and glean wisdom from it.  Hebrews 5: 12 says, "In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again.  You need milk, not solid food!  Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.  But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil."  Sure, bible studies have their place.  I was immensely helped by a Beth Moore study years ago in my early years of being a Christian.  But I was a new Christian, and that study was for a very specific issue.  Bible studies seem like "teacher's editions" where the work has already been done, the answers are there for you, we don't have to do any work on our own.  I could be wrong, but when I think of people like Billy Graham, Del Tackett, or Francis Chan, I don't picture them doing bible studies.  They're the ones writing the studies for the immature Christians who can't study the bible on their own.  I want to go deeper in my relationship with the Lord, and I think to do so I need to stop relying on the wisdom/work of others and start relying/praying for knowledge from the Holy Spirit.  "For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding."  Proverbs 2: 6. Instead of jumping on the latest, greatest bible study band-wagon, I wish the church would encourage and train members to ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom and discernment for themselves--to want "solid food."  The Lord will/wants to give it to us!   I would love to know others opinions on this if you want to leave a comment!

Whole Wheat Waffles

This is a good, healthy recipe for someone who doesn't have a lot of time to eat in the morning and it's also a good breakfast for babies and toddlers, which is what I make them for.  The boys can feed it to themselves so that's helpful to me.  : )  Every couple of weeks I make 2 batches full, freeze them and warm them up in the toaster when ready to eat. 

Whisk together 1 1/2 c of whole wheat flour, 2 tsp. baking powder, 1/2 tsp. salt, 2 Tbls. sugar.  In another bowl whisk together 1 egg, 1 1/2 c. lukewarm milk, 1/3 c. melted butter, 1 tsp. vanilla extract.  Then whisk the wet and dry ingredients together.  Add any fruit that you like if you want.  I added blueberries the last time I made them and they turned out great.  Note: batter will be running but that's okay.  Cook in the waffle iron for about 6 minutes.  I serve them to the boys just plain; no butter or syrup and they enjoy them that way, but I'm sure most people would want to add those items.  Give them a try!

Watch out, Olive Garden!!

This is my version of Olive Garden's soup Zupa Toscana.  I had some white beans and ditalini instead of potatoes so I used those instead.  This soup is very easy to make and extremely tasty!

First cook up one pound of italian sausage.  Then saute half an onion and two cloves of minced garlic in some olive oil in a big pot.  After the onions have sweated out I added 10 cups of water and 5 chicken bouillion cubes and brought it to a boil.  I then added 4 or 5 handfuls of ditalini which is a short cut pasta(elbow macaroni would probably work too) and cooked it for 10 minutes. Then I added 2 cans of white beans, the sausage, one bundle of kale torn to bite-sized pieces,  and one cup of heavy whipping cream.  Let it sit for about 10 minutes and salt and pepper to taste.  Enjoy!