Humility

Starting on Sunday, God began really been getting my attention on the topic of humility.  Here are some of the verses He has led me to:

Matthew 23:11-12
¹¹ The greatest among you will be your servant. ¹² For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

James 3: 13-18
¹³ Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. ¹⁵ Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. ¹⁶ For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

¹⁷ But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. ¹⁸ Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.

Proverbs 22:4

Humility is the fear of the Lord; its wages are riches and honor and life.

Proverbs 15:33

Wisdom’s instruction is to fear the Lord, and humility comes before honor.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

I got this book from the library book sale a few years ago and finally got around to reading it. It was definitely an easy read, and since I tend to love historical fiction, it piqued my interests. I now want to take some time to learn more about the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. I had just been raving the other day about how we saved the world and I tend to get irritated when we are always apologizing for being American.  This book helped remind me that we have also made mistakes along the way.  I want to believe that those in power were doing the best they could at the time.  I cannot imagine being in their shoes and trying to protect the people at home while sending thousands of them to die overseas. War is a terrible thing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans

Back to cooking

I have failed to take pictures of what I'm making lately, but I have had the opportunity to cook again.  Kroger had a great coupon offer through August ($10 when you spend $40+) and I took full advantage of buying additional meat and canned non-perishables to use them wisely.

I cooked for my Life Group last Thursday.  At the beginning of the year, we all agreed to cook healthy for one another. I was stumped about what to make, because pasta was the easy choice for a group of 12.  What else can you cook for such a large group?  It still being summer, I decided to make chicken and vegetable kabobs and brown rice (the healthy kind).  I don't have a grill, but baked the kabobs for 20 minutes at 425 and they were a hit.  I marinated the chicken in Lowry's mesquite marinade prior to cooking, which gave only a subtle flavor to the chicken once cooked. I added 3 small pieces of chicken, onions, cherry tomatoes, yellow and green squash, and green pepper pieces to each skewer.  I made 2 skewers per person, and there was plenty to go around since some of the group didn't show.  I would definitely try this again, although it was a somewhat time consuming process.  This was also my first success with rice!!

I also made a potato, onion and sausage goulash last week.  The recipe can be found here. It wasn't as flavorful as I might have liked, but that is probably due to something I did while cooking rather than the fault of the recipe itself.  This makes the list of maybes to try again.

Back to blogging

I'm baaack! I finished school at the end of July and I've been reading and cooking and I'm ready to be back to blogging these adventures.

 Most recently, I have finished reading The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander.  She is a psychologist and he is a conductor for the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra.  The book is published by Harvard Business School Press and is designed to help anyone, but especially leaders, to think in new ways.  The book is segmented into chapters, called practices:

Talking with my dad, he thought this fell into the realm of "the power of positive thinking."  While this might be somewhat true, I enjoy the opportunity to get out of my box and think more positively.  I think it can go a long way in interacting with others.

I was also inspired to listen to more classical music.  Mr. Zander has a powerful way of talking about the music that makes you want to dive in.  Check out his TED talk.