Forgiveness

I'll try to keep this brief and to the point.

My friend asked me about forgiveness the other day and this is what I feel God wanted me to share. I'm posting it here so that others can read it.

There are a lot of misconceptions out there about forgiveness. Many people have a hard time with it because they think that forgiveness means you have to be ok with what a person has done. This is not the case at all.

To forgive means that you release all the negative feelings that go along with your memory of what the person has done to you. This doesn't mean that the person wasn't acting like a jerk, or that you approve of what they did. It just means that you're not going to allow the enemy to use this "thing", whatever it was, to continue to affect your future.

For instance, lets say that someone has a father who has sexually abused her. She goes through her life dealing with all the pain and shame of his decisions. Eventually she has to get to a point where she can forgive him. Did he do the wrong thing? Absolutely!! Does she still have to work through the process of healing? Definitely. All she has done is decide that she's not going to let his actions continue to steal her peace.

Another example: perhaps a someone has a friend who suddenly betrayed their trust. To forgive does not mean that you blindly trust them again. It just means that you aren't going to continue to be angry with them over the situation. The relationship will most likely never be at the same level of trust. But at some point the person betrayed should be able to focus on the fun they had together and no longer allow the betrayal to cause a rift.

As far as scripture goes, although there are plenty of verses about forgiveness, sometimes it's hard to figure out how to apply them. He tells us to forgive as we have been forgiven, to not hold grudges, etc. But how do we put it into action?

For this, I would recommend trying to view it from God's angle. God says he has removed our sin from us as far as the east is from the west. He remembers it no more. Yet, later in Revelation it talks about the judgement seat and says that all our acts will be accounted for.

In essence, God is saying that He is not focused on all the times we've betrayed Him. Rather, he knows that Jesus has paid the price of our sins. He wipes the slate clean and we start fresh, having learned from our mistakes.

Finally, we have to remember that people will always fail us. People are not perfect, and we cannot expect them to be. At some point, every human relationship we have will let us down. Some people will decide that it's just to risky, and shut down. They won't allow anyone to get close to them again because they have learned that they can't trust anyone. This not only turns off pain, but also turns off pleasure. We cannot enjoy the beauty of friendships if we refuse to allow them.

Rather than continue to be disappointed by others shortcomings, we should expect them. We should rely on God to fulfill us, and view our relationships with other humans as more for their benefit than our own. As soon as we stop focusing on what we can get and start focusing on what we can bring others, we will be a lot less likely to be hurt. Allow God to fill your love tank, and then it can overflow to others. If you're expecting others to fill up your tank, however, you'll never be satisfied.

I hope that made sense, and I welcome any feedback or input.

Politics as usual

I got this in my email yesterday

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February 17, 2011

Dear Elizabeth,

A bipartisan group of the state's political and business leaders have pursued high-speed rail in Florida for decades, because it means more than $2.4 billion in economic aid, thousands of construction jobs and a modern transportation link between several of the state’s largest cities. That’s why I support it. I’m joined by state lawmakers and many members of Florida's congressional delegation, who also question the governor’s decision to kill high-speed rail. One is U.S. Rep. John Mica, the Winter Park Republican who chairs the House Transportation Committee. Also, federal transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a Republican, has expressed disappointment. If Florida doesn’t take the money, another state will. So, some of us will look for ways to save the rail project. Meantime, please don’t hesitate to pass along your thoughts.

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Well... as the email said. Here are my thoughts to pass along.

The thing that caught my attention was this sentence. "If Florida doesn’t take the money, another state will."

I was on board with the idea until I saw that. This sounds like something my kids would say. "My belly hurts from eating too much cake, but if I don't take the last piece then Mom will give it to my sister." This is horrible logic. We, as adults should not make decisions based on the possibility of someone else getting more. This fairness attitude has permeated our society. Life is not fair. What if another state has a project that will better serve the people. Being grasping and greedy is not good for anyone.

Another thing I pondered was this idea of money. Where did the email say the money was coming from? Oh yeah... the federal government. Wait... now I'm confused. I thought the federal government was out of money. This is why they've been borrowing from other countries, right? So if they don't have any more money, then how can they possibly fund a new transportation system in Florida, or for that matter, anywhere else in the USA?

This needs to stop. I'm all for the idea of building a high speed railway system. I'm all for using government money for things... I just want the government to use it's own money for things. Perhaps when our federal budget balances, then we can talk about things like high speed trains.

So there it is in a nutshell. I'm all for improving transportation and creating jobs. I'm not on board with the idea of getting deeper and deeper in debt by using imaginary money that is supposedly coming from Washington. The sooner we get it in our heads that our country needs to get out of debt, the sooner we will be able to go forward as a society.

Keep it Simple...

I left out the "Stupid" because I'm not a masochist.

Tonight for dinner I'm making canned soup. Ok, canned soup and BLTs... Ok, canned soup and some sort of protein enriched alternate side since my kids are really picky. Only one other member of the family actually likes tomatoes and two of them like bacon. Of course, I like all of it.

(BRB)

Ok, make that one... I just burned the bacon while I was blogging.

Anyway, I digress.

Anyway, as I'm popping the top on the cans, this is what goes through my mind: "Why didn't I think of this myself?"

The back story: I was listening to Dave Ramsey's radio show and this ad comes on talking about e-mealz. I decided to look into it, and eventually signed up. It's only $5.00 a month and I get a weekly dinner menu, plus a ready to print shopping list. In two weeks I've already saved hours of otherwise wasted "planning" time, and skipped the eating out excuse twice. The plan is definitely helping me.

But tonight... I mean really.... who's the genius that decided to put canned soup on this menu. It's brilliant.

At what point in my adult life did I decide to stop using canned soup as an alternative to making dinner from scratch. I can't even blame my mom for this one. I distinctly remember eating canned soup at her table. Not all the time, but often enough that I should have thought of it before now.

I guess somewhere in my quest for perfectionism I decided I was too "advanced" to open a can of soup. Now that I've paid $5.00 to be humbled... hopefully I will learn not to knock an easy meal once in a while.

A date with my daughter

Tonight I took my oldest girl to the Melting Pot for the first time.

Before we left she kept say, "Are we going to do anything else, or just go to the Melting Pot?"

After we got there and got started, she realized why I didn't plan anything else.

What I love about my Deborah (besides her obvious good looks):

She is honest. When the waitress came to take our drink order she politely informed her

that she's not allowed to have caffeine until she's 13 years old.

She loves mushrooms. I hated them at that age, and she eats them with gusto. She also loves lots of other veggies. I only had a short period of time when she was younger when she was a picky eater, and I now realize that a lot of her finickiness came from food sensitivities.

She has a wonderful laugh. We spent a lot of the time goofing around and being silly (as silly as you can be with a hot plate and boiling broth sitting in the middle of the table.

She is compliant. I realize this can end up being a negative factor when she starts being pressured by her peers, but right now I am just thankful that at least one of my kids is really easy to get along with.

She knows when to stop eating. My other children would have eaten the last graham cracker covered marshmallow and the few sliced strawberries just because they were left on the plate. My other children would have eaten the rest of the chocolate out of the bowl with the spoon because it was there. She stopped eating when she was satisfied.

I had a lot of fun with her tonight and I'll cherish the time I've spent with her, just the two of us.

Soup Recipes (Blendtec)

Add to blender jar (in order)

8 oz water

1 chicken bullion cube

about 1 1/2 to 2 cups steamed vegetable of choice (cauliflower, broccoli, winter squash, etc)

assorted spices (salt, pepper, garlic, onion, basil, oregano, cilantro, whatever you think would taste yummy with the vegetable you used)

Push the soup button (another reason I love the Blendtec)

When the soup is finished, pour some in a bowl... there should be enough to make about two servings. Then pour in just a tiny bit of Whipping Cream or Half n Half and swirl it around to make it look fancy-schmancy (the spell checker doesn't like that word).

Enjoy.

Oh, and you're welcome to dip crackers in the soup or add croutons, or whatever you want.

Experimenting with my Blendtec

It took me several months of owning my Blendtec before I decided to try soups... now I can't stop

My first soup was a cauliflower soup... I put in too much white pepper.

(Picture opening the cap and tilting the bottle to shake just a smidgen in and suddenly the whole gob of pepper comes crashing toward the shaker top... thankfully the shaker top was in place, or I would have had a whole bottle of pepper in the soup)

The second was a broccoli cheese soup I found online. This one was a success, but the texture was a bit different.

Now I'm trying a Butternut Squash soup. It's definitely a winner!!

Recipes to come...

Miracles

I have been feeling an urging to get more connected with those who live in my neighborhood and in my community. A couple weeks ago we had a special speaker at our church and I experienced a healing miracle.

I'm reading a journal of miracles to the kids. I eventually want to start getting them to walk in faith and start stepping out of our comfort zone so that God can use us to reach our community.

I'm a little scared because writing this in my blog is kind of like throwing down the gauntlet. We shall see what happens.