Weekend Daybook

Outside My Window...

Very, very cold in the South for this time of year, but I can imagine that it's warmer with the beautiful sunshine today.

Thankful...

That our daughter and her family were able to come for a visit the week after Christmas. It was to have been an extended family get-together, but our other daughter was sick. Thankful, though, that she is better now. 

Noticing the sound of...

The hum of the vaporizer. The air is so dry with the furnace running so much these days.

Looking forward to...

Meeting up with our daughter and her husband halfway in Knoxville later in the month for lunch.

Learning...

Not to dwell unduly on cares and concerns.

Pondering..

"The  Good News is packaged and marketed (using, uncritically, all the techniques of modern advertising) as a religious product offering 'peace of mind', 'how to get to heaven', 'health and prosperity', 'inner healing', 'the answer to all your problems', etc. What is promoted as 'faith in God' often turns out, on closer inspection, to be a means of obtaining emotional security or material blessing in this life and an insurance policy the next. This kind of preaching leaves the status quo untouched." 

~ Vinoth Ramachandra, in Gods that Fail.

In the Kitchen...

My favorite cookies were requested while the grandchildren were visiting. Sharing the recipe with you.

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup brown sugar

½ cup butter

2 eggs, beaten

1 ¼ cup mashed bananas (2-3)

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 cup wheat germ

1.5 cup quick oatmeal, uncooked

1/3 cup raisins (I sometimes use Craisins)

1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional) 

Preheat oven to 400°F. Cream sugar with softened butter and add eggs, bananas, vanilla. Sift flour with baking soda, cinnamon; then fold into mixture. Combine remaining ingredients. Add to mixture. Lightly grease cookie sheet. Drop by heaping teaspoons. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Makes about 30 cookies.

Around the house...

Almost finished with packing away Christmas.

Thinking...

I was reminded in my devotional reading this morning of why I don't vote for those who live in perversion, why they are not a positive influence in government. Reading through Romans 1 this morning and seeing in verses 18-32 that it is not only their sexual life that characterizes them. Through the writings of the Apostle Paul, God exposes the depths of their heart and their mind. There's quite a list of character qualities that they bring to the office to which they are elected. God says that He gives them over to their degrading passions. I don't know if that is a permanent state they find themselves in or not. Perhaps it's to bring them to the reality of where their rejection of God has lead them. I do know, though, that He is not willing that any perish.

Brought a smile...

My precious grandchildren whenever they visit, as most grandchildren are apt to do. :-)

Reading...
The NIV Application Commentary on Esther by Karen Jobes in preparation for a class I'll be teaching in the fall. The book of Esther doesn't tell us very much about the thoughts of Esther herself, so I'm finding Jobe's insights particularly helpful. Not only does she give the original cultural context of the book of Esther, she also builds the bridge to contemporary application. The book of Esther has been rather romanticized over the years, and Esther herself has sometimes been held up as a feminist role model. Jobes does none of that.

Image ~ Charles Dana Gibson

1867-1944, public domain