Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Love

1 Corinthians 13:1-7

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
Love never dies.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Family


Family time at the zoo

Sweet Potato Biscuits

Martha’s Sweet Potato Biscuits
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading and shaping
2 tablespoons light-brown sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
6 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus 1/2 tablespoon melted butter and more for pan
3/4 cup pureed sweet potatoes, chilled
1/3 cup buttermilk

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. With a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal, with some pea-sized lumps of butter remaining. In a small bowl, whisk together sweet potato puree and buttermilk; stir quickly into flour mixture until combined (do not overmix).

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface, and knead very gently until dough comes together but is still slightly lumpy, five or six times. (If dough is too sticky, work in up to 1/4 cup additional flour.) Shape into a disk, and pat to an even 1-inch thickness. With a floured 2-inch biscuit cutter, cut out biscuits as close together as possible. Gather together scraps, and repeat to cut out more biscuits (do not reuse scraps more than once).

Preheat oven to 425 degrees, with rack on lower shelf. Butter an 8-inch cake pan. Arrange biscuits snugly in pan (to help them stay upright). Brush with melted butter. Bake until golden, rotating once, 20 to 24 minutes.

Vacation

My joyful girl

My handsome boy at the beach

Psalm 51

Have mercy on me, O God, 
according to your unfailing love; 
according to your great compassion 
 blot out my transgressions. 
Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. 
Against you, you only, have I sinned 
and done what is evil in your sight; 
so you are right in your verdict 
and justified when you judge. 
Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. 
Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; 
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 
Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. 
Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.

Create in me a pure heart, O God, 
and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 
Do not cast me from your presence 
or take your Holy Spirit from me. 
Restore to me the joy of your salvation 
 and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you. 
Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, 
you who are God my Savior, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. 
Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise. 
You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. 
My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart 
you, God, will not despise.

May it please you to prosper Zion, to build up the walls of Jerusalem. 
Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous, in burnt offerings offered whole; then bulls will be offered on your altar.