Friday, January 21, 2011

Wholesome



Sometimes, you just need something that is a little wholesome.
Not store bought wholesome, homemade wholesome.

Every once in a while I can tell when my body needs a bit of refreshing, and I have been feeling that way especially after the holidays.
Don't get me wrong the gluten free cupcakes in Tennessee were great(not Sweet Cake great, but good), the home made gluten free cookies, dinners, dinners, and more dinners. All the food was delicious.
But the last couple of weeks, I have felt a bit sluggish. I just wanted food that was good, pure, good for me.

Insert Shauna at this gluten free website.

She has some of the best gluten free recipes, hands down. And her most recent post was just what I needed.
Nothing artificial, a slight amount of brown sugar, some walnuts, this whole grain muffin recipe satisfied my soul today, my gluten free wanting to really have something delectably gluten free but not overwhelmingly doused with sugar satisfying.
Even if you aren't a celiac, I would challenge you to try this recipe just once. It's healthy, it's wholesome, and it goes really well with just a touch of honey on top.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Sing a new song

Since October, our church has done a lot of growing, including merging with another small church in Bountiful, formerly called Grace Baptist. Now called Bountiful Heights, Chas and I have been helping out with getting the worship ministry set up by going down every other week and leading a team for worship that Sunday.

It really has been a great experience and God's obvious opportunity knocking for spiritual growth, as I find myself nearly every time I lead asking myself how I can be a better leader, pick songs that reflect His glory, yet assist in leading the rest of the congregation to a place where they too can worship. Whether it is by their own mouths in song, or just by hearing the words and reflecting in them within their hearts, the goal is not and never had been for me to engage a response from the congregation to spring up my own ego that I am actually doing something right. I know that I could do everything possible to create a perfect picture of what worship should look like, but in the end, I know it has nothing to do with me. It has everything to do with God and his timing for creating a response from his people depending on where their hearts are at during any given time of corporate worship.

However, I often find that during the times where I feel I have had the most worshipful experience, the words of the song have hit my heart so deeply that I couldn't help but express a heartfelt worship toward my creator and the one who has built my heart to have a deeper desire to know Him more. I often find myself choosing songs not for their musical creativity, but for the message that the words bring from the author who has put those words together.
I recently read an article in a Worship Leader magazine about what it means to worship. Worship is not about a song and how well you play it, what it sounds like after you have done everything you humanly can to "perfect" it and make it sound exactly how you think it should sound so that the congregation will respond to it because it is a good song. Worship IS, and the very end, our response to God and his greatness, goodness, grace, mercy, and love for us. It may not always be easy for people who are struggling to offer a song of worship to God, and it might be those days where they just sit back and don't sing anything at all. But regardless of how our personal hearts may be feeling, we have been made to recognize the amazing-ness of our awesome creator. In the end, it's about God, and worship is merely our response to Him in those times of recognition. That's what I got out of the article anyway.

Even the rocks will cry out to God in worship to him.....
For He has made known through His creation....so that no man is without excuse.


What's your reason for worship?
If you had a song that you could sing every week that best represents how you see/feel/respond to God, what would it be?

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Something a little new

I decided it was time for a change on the ol' blog.

I picked the background to reflect the season in Utah right now. Friggin cold.

Hope you like it :)

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

I tried it, and it was tasty!


So first of all, happy new year!


I have been looking back on 2010, and as many of my friends have also attested, last year was probably the best year of my life yet. Obviously you probably know the main reason why....getting married of course! But I also finished up my masters and ran my second 1/2 marathon just a tad bit faster than I did my first 1/2, so I was pleased. I got to see a lot of my friends from out of state thanks to their dedication and support of the now Mr. and Mrs. Burks, and got to spend the holidays in Tennessee with Chas and his wonderful, loving, and giving family.

We then ended the year by playing a show together with Chas' band Cheatwood. Their lead singer took the rest of the year off, so I got to sub in for the first time. It was fun to get to be able to sing with the boys and be with Chas as we rang in the new year as a married couple :) Lots of firsts happened last year, it was nice.

I am also happy that so far the goal to try at least 3 new gluten free recipes a month has been successful. I have yet to pick out the meals that I am going to try for January, but, it is only the 5th, after all.

I did, however, try my luck again at a wheat based recipe, provided by yours truly over at www.triedandtasty.com , and was shocked to find that the results of the gluten free version were mouthwatering and taste-bud pleasing. I have tried to convert a couple of regular recipes into gluten free recipes in the past, only to be disappointed. But this one, it was delicious! And, I just happen to love poppyseed loaf! I didn't make the actual loaf though, more like a round cake-type dessert. Either way, it was awesome.

Note to self, use about 1/2 a cup less of GF flour when making a wheat based recipe.