Faithful, Green Grandmother

 

 

One of us remembers a garden in the fertile soil of the alley behind the back fence. Another of us remembers gardens were kept near the clothes-drying lines in the back yard, and also near the street inside the nextdoor neighbors' fence. The nextdoor neighbors, the Greens, let grandpa garden in their treeless yard, I'm assuming so he would have more daylight than under his pecan trees in the alley and back yard.

But it wasn't community gardening. It was just living. And one of my younger cousins was so fond of the childhood memory, that she has based her career on the memory.

Our grandparents were equal parts faithful and earthy, I think. My grandpa, from a distance across the den, could smell like the earth of the back yard, instead of like the petro plant where he worked. His car also smelled earthy.

My grandmother also had distinctive odors about her: usually the smell of garlic and a pleasant bacteria that seemed to be particular to her. You see, she didn't use antibacterial soaps, nor very much bleach, ever.

My grandmother was "green" long before green living became popular. She used simple Ivory soap for washing up, and dishwater and products like vinegar, soda, and Comet for cleaning. And her house smelled like nothing. Her linens and house were odorless, except for cooking. ... Grandmother didn't need cleaning chemicals and fabric softeners, and I never knew her or my grandpa to get sick, not even when she was taking care of a sick grandchild.

Believe it or not, being in the outdoors, close to the earth, and having a diet rich in garlic and fresh vegetables from rich soil and good sun, helped my grandparents, and others nearby, to thrive.

Not being exposed to a lot of cleaning chemicals that cause normal, healthy, disease-fighting bacteria to die, also was probably a help to my grandparents and other elders. The healthy bacteria that thrived in garden soils, not only likely killed unhealthy germs from animals, but probably also helped boost my grandparents' natural immunity.

In fact, some soil bacteria, in places throughout the earth, is so potent with good bacteria, that a few scientists believe they are getting closer to defeating some types of infections that are difficult to get rid of. That's probably why many of the Irish have believed the soils of their homelands are nearly sacred — because those soils had been curative in the ancient and even recent past.

But if the science of healthy soil is not enough proof of God's blessing on a heritage of rich earth, try to believe on the way Jesus opened the eyes of a man who was blind, apparently from an infection.

Jesus put mud — from a certain place, not an infested place — onto the man's eyes. (We don't know for how long.) And, of course, Jesus being God with us, the man was healed.

The Hope in Seeds

 

 

 

Heaven gives us so much. Seed-bearing plants are one of the very first blessings the Bible mentions. Seeds are something an aunt and I look forward to seeing, with hope in heart.

My aunt likes to gather pecans each year. Pecans are seeds of a species of hickory tree native to the southern United States and northern Mexico.

Fruits (including tree nuts), vegetables, and grain plants like rice, all make seeds — unless they've been genetically modified or cultivated not to have seeds.

Although seeds are earthy, not heavenly, seeds do tell us some things about our heavenly Father's nature. Seeds are evidence of many things the Bible helps us know about Heaven's hope for us.

Some lessons we find in gathering plant seeds:

• Heaven means for us to have more than we've been given. Through making small investments to sow plant seeds, instead of eating everything we receive, we put ourselves to task in an unstressful and a hopeful way. Sowing seeds blesses us to get some fresh air, and to hope for a kind of blessing that can't be gained from just being given something. God blesses the work of our heart and hands.
• God is naturally generous in ways none of us ever can be. That's why there's an old gospel song that says we can't beat God giving, no matter how hard we try. (So, Satan, stop wearing us out to make us give!) God is the one who gives more than enough, so that not a single one of us, trusting in Him, needs to be without. There is more than enough plant seed in earth, to help us live — especially when we're trusting in Him.
• God cares for each of us, individually. When Jesus taught those who would listen, He said each sparrow has more than enough. (Each sparrow has more than enough insects and seeds, for living.) Then, the Holy Spirit, speaking through Paul's ministry, said not to be anxious for anything. Jesus says Heaven knows our needs before we've said anything at all about a need. God even knows those blessings that bring us the most cheer in heart. And we all need cheer.
• When we cheerfully receive, God knows our little giving will be heartfelt and cheerful, no matter what may be wrong in our lives. That's why God has put something of hope in us about seeds! It's not a carnal thing!
• Heaven sees seeds of human flesh, differently than seeds of plants. The Bible even counts it a curse to waste human seed, which is meant, in Christ, to be given one man to one spouse. One type of seed is personal, while sowing plant seeds is for us to do universally (but tamely, or in order). Amen.
  
• Seeing how freely Heaven provides plant seeds, many of us want to freely give of our fruit — both our spiritual fruit, and the natural fruit we've grown ourselves. That's just a natural response in us, when we're allowed to live and sow as Heaven intends, working with our own hands and heart, as the Bible says. (By the way, one sure way to know a gardening business is Christian-owned, is the prices charged for a tiny amount of seed!)
• Plant seeds prove that, because God is good, so we can be good. God's abundance discourages ungodly behaviors, doesn't it? Worldly abundance may cause all kinds of greed and oppression, but God's abundance is different. ... I tell you, if there is a people who covet and often steal even simple plant seeds, I think there's a line of scripture to describe them. I think they're called "children of disobedience."
  
• After all, being fruitful instead of dependent, dogged, stolen from, or persecuted, helps prepare us, personally, for greater works or responsibilities (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12).
  

Isn't the God who we live for, good?

Eating with Joy

 

  

 

This isn't the type post I ever hoped for this blog. But there comes a day when you just feel like you have to lay everything at Jesus's feet. And that's the focus of this outpouring today.

Dear, Lord, help me speak truth, and to walk in your truth. Amen. ... That's the kind of post this is, today.

I remember when I first heard someone say, with conviction, that we were coping with "a trick of the enemy." A fatherly cousin said just that one day.

So, today, I stand ready to say that, often, when someone is frustrating your faith for living free of children of disobedience, your faith for escaping horrors, your faith for witnessing Jesus, your faith for moving forward — when a schemer points at your Heaven-sent provision and plan, and points the word "scheme" at you instead of at his or her own self — you may be coping with an enemy (even an enemy within the church).

That enemy may preach a false gospel that money is power, that being naked is being free, and that the born-again were meant to taste of death.

And you just need to rebuke that enemy. You can rebuke him or her through a direct response, or simply by the way you keep hoping and witnessing and reaching forward to live.

You can cry out that Jesus gave us instructions to remember His sacrifice in a clean, not a bloody, way: that He has given us unleavened bread and the juice of grapes in place of death and blood.

You can cry out that the light of Heaven has no communion with spiritual darkness. You can cry out that Heaven's instructions to Peter were to trust the Lord's judgment (not this world's judgment, but the Holy Spirit's judgment) about meats Heaven has made clean — meats made clean for food, meats sparing us the taste of death.

You can cry out that every good and perfect blessing is from Heaven.

You can cry out that the disciples had not eaten on that very long day when the multitude was fed, and that a boy's fish may have become needed sustenance for all of them — all of the disciples — while those among the multitude were each satisfied with a small portion of bread, because they had eaten at home that day (and then had been spiritually filled by witnessing Jesus's sayings and doings ... on that very long day). That seems to be the most possible truth about that day, according to the King James account of the gospel according to Mark. You can cry out that the multitude went home, where thy likely did eat again. And you can cry out that that's why many churches have a homestyle meal together sometimes, after a long day at worship, even if they've had communion at worship.

You can cry out that God never intended anyone's physical well-being to depend upon a portion of communion alone, but upon every word of our new covenant, including words encouraging us to "eat."

When an enemy within says our Christian joy depends upon lack and tribulation, you can cry out that our joy depends on having met Jesus! Our joy doesn't depend on evil! Our joy survives or persists despite evil. And, if you don't believe that, search the scriptures. Look at the immediate joy in the eunuch from Ethiopia. Look at Paul's joy in remembering the days he first knew his salvation. And then, remember your own walk of faith in Christ, if, indeed, you've walked in Him.

If you've walked in Jesus, you know.

And Heaven knows.

What Is Prayer?

 

It's a little annoying, that so many websites and podcasts answer an apparently popular question: How can anyone pray without ceasing?

It takes patience to listen and to read many of the posts, because, when we know the God of Heaven, it just never occurs to us that anyone would not know what it is to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

Some people envision a life of non-stop prayer, a life of becoming more like nuns and monks in order to communicate more with God. But that's not the scripture's meaning.

Another scripture says it another way: The steadfast prayer of the righteous avails much: steadfast prayer gets results.

When I got saved, when I received my salvation and knew so for sure, the sermon that day mentioned a woman who prayed for her husband for decades, until he, too, understood God is real.

She prayed for decades. Clearly, this woman knew something about her husband's heart, that caused her not to give up on praying.

And it's not that anyone is supposed to wear themselves out in prayer, it's not that prayers should be long and dramatic, it's not that prayers should be hands pointed together to make a steeple pointing to Heaven, and it's not that we have an obligation never to give up on praying for each and every person we've ever prayed for (Jeremiah 14:11, 2 Kings 9:22, Galatians 5:19-21, 1 Corinthians 6:10-11, Ephesians 2:1, 1 John 5:12-16).

When Paul told the church not to pray for a brother whose sins lead to death, he meant this was a brother so determined to sin, that his sins would take not only his earthly life but would also lead to his damnation beyond death — and not only his damnation, but the damnation of other souls, as well.

When Paul gave that verdict, he also said all [godly] doings are "lawful" for the church to do; but not all godly doings are effective in bringing someone to righteousness.

Clearly, something about that brother's godlessness, compelled Paul to ask the church to stop praying for the man. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, Paul preached. But, clearly, prayer won't bring all souls to faith in the Lord.

And that reminds me of one of the articles I read last night. It was an uncomfortable article for me to read. It was an essay by a United Nations worker who had survived the Rwandan genocide.

She not only gave praise to having prayed to Saint Mary, but she preached a kind of infinite forgiveness — not recognizing that the men who she forgave, were men who had actually given her mercy, and not recognizing that every man is not capable of stopping himself from sinning, not every man is capable of feeling remorse for having sinned or, on the other hand, thankfulness to Jesus for forgiveness of sins.

Clearly, that faithful woman was fortunate to have fallen into the hands of people who were able to know Jesus one day. Yet, sadly, not everyone is going to be saved.

Some among us are just that determined to be bound for hell. And there comes a point when, truly, we stop praying for them.

That was my feeling when the kidnappings in Nigeria didn't stop. That was my feeling when the bombs in Ukraine kept killing. That was my feeling when Ukraine's president steadfastly called for weapons and money. And that's my feeling, having suffered years of tongue lashings that only lead to hell.

But what can I pray, on a sunshiny Easter day?

• I can pray children will thank Heaven for the warm sunshine upon their skin.

• I can pray that children christened (or pledged to Heaven) as babies, will know complete baptism — having become adults who are able to make that heartfelt, public decision.

• I can pray families who have lost loved-ones, and workplaces that have lost co-workers, to COVID-19, to cancer, to murder, will be comforted and will have peace.

• I can pray for my and our children's release from hell's influence and grip.

• I can pray women will know bodily respect: freedom from any and all molestation.

• And I can pray enemies will cease expecting prayer and praise to be on dark, godless terms.

Those are my steadfast prayers, today.

And I can pray whenever there's a touch of God to remind me. I can pray while working in the yard. I can pray while laying down for sleep (Deuteronomy 6:7). I can pray while in the shower. And I can pray with thanksgiving while eating.

I can pray the enemy is a defeated foe. I can pray about tongues that rise up in condemnation of victims like me. And I can keep praying, with forgiveness, for a loved-one's, friend's, and neighbor's traveling grace and peace.

 

I also can pray for continued work in ministry. I can pray someone gets the message, today, that Jesus didn't label us His "sheep" out of a desire to see everyone on their knees looking up to Him, as in the woman touching the hem of His gown. But He calls us His sheep, because we've faithfully followed after Him, even walking up the kinds of mountains He retreated to at His deepest times of prayer.

Dear Child of God:

 

Some small part of me is still an editor. I've learned to edit since a letter to a friend at maybe five years old.

In a way, placing photographs, and editing or correcting language, came more easily than reading and spelling. In a way, editing has been an exercise in creating music, like a composer who knows, observes, and sometimes breaks the composition rules in order to well communicate something.

In high school, I grew as an editor, because I enrolled in creative writing. Then, I chose journalism as a college major, and learned even more.

But there is a kind of learning that only comes with practice, and that's the learning that matters most. At 53 years old, I have had lots of practice as an editor. I know what's good, and I know what isn't.

I know most people have a writing style that is not quite like someone else's. I have a writing style that's like some of my peers', but that's different from yours.

I have years experience, now — and lots of faith — that blesses me to go to rest at night, knowing I've seen a journal project through to a good conclusion, and knowing each word has served some purpose.

So, I am asking you, please, to stop hacking my blogs, where more than one person vests our faith.

The Bible says two or more in faith agreement, is a blessing. And I just wish you would have better sense, and respect for the blessing that goes into the making. The blessing is those I work with, on one accord.

These blogs are mine.

Jesus is mine.

Please stop ruining what faith has done. And let us go to rest on many good days' work.

Making New Traditions

 

 

Did you know many traditional tortillas were made with pork lard? I mean, pork fat: the parts of pork that are thick and white!

Thankfully, most commercial tortillas, today, are made with vegetable, seed, or olive oils — even those at Taco Bell. So, no-thank-you to recipes that still use lard.

And it's not that lard has so much saturated fat. (There's more saturated fat in butter and in palm oil than in lard.) But lard isn't a best choice. That's because lard that doesn't need refrigeration, tends not to have health benefits but does tend to have trans-fats that, along with the saturated fat, help raise cholesterol. Even refrigerator lard can create trans-fats when cooked at temperatures higher than 370° F.

And, let's face it: Other than the fat in healthy, immune-building milk, animal fat is just gross.

In today's health-aware world, why depend on an animal fat that doesn't bless our hearts?

Although almost any cooking oil can work as a tortilla ingredient, heat from cooking may destroy or diminish some of the heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids and other antioxidants in some cooking oils. The higher the temperature, the fewer the health benefits in oils such as refrigerator lard and extra-virgin olive oil. So, the best oils for putting tortillas on hot iron, are those that keep more of their benefits during high-heat cooking.

Both canola and avocado oils are beneficial compared to other oils used to prepare our everyday foods. And both can take the heat.

Canola (rapeseed) oil has the least saturated fat of all cooking oils — and boasts 93 percent healthy fats, including omega-9, omega-6, and omega-3 fatty acids. As part of canola oil, these healthy fats may survive a few minutes cooking at temperatures up to 400° F.

Canola beats all other cooking oils in another way, as well. Canola (rapeseed) oil has about a 3 to 1 balance of omega-6 fatty acids compared to omega-3 fatty acids, which some health scientists say is far better than oils with high ratios of omega-6 to omega-3.

Some scientists believe omega-3 fatty acids help prevent any inflammation omega-6 acids may cause; and with that 3:1 balance, canola oil is the best of any cooking oil. Canola also can be affordable.

Avocado oil is the only other contender for better health with high-temp grilling.

Avocado oil has 88 percent healthy fat — mostly omega-9. And avocado oil is only about 12.5 percent omega-6, kind of meaning it's deceptively healthy. That's because the corn oil, soybean oil, cottonseed oil, and other oils used to produce most processed foods (including the fast foods) we're eating daily, are heavy on omega-6, and advocates say we're getting too much of it.

Some dietary science recommends we prepare our own foods, using oils that have less of it — less omega-6, because omega-6, sometimes, can contribute to inflammation, compared to a virtual guarantee that omega-3 foods help reduce inflammation.

We can say avocado oil is "deceptively" healthy, because, despite there being considerably more omega-6 than omega-3 in avocado oil, the 12.5 percent omega-6 in avocado, is far less than the 57 percent omega-6 in corn, 54 percent in soy, and 54 percent in cottonseeds.

Having a cooking oil in our daily diet that has less omega-6, can help relieve high blood pressure and other problems that contribute to inflammation. And, again, avocado oil, like canola oil, can take the heat. In fact, avocado oil and its benefits can hold up, for a few minutes, to a grill as hot as 520° F.

Tortillas grill at about 450° F, and preparing them fresh can make a great new tradition or hobby.

Click the photo above, for a fresh way to use tortilla bread.

 

Did you know cheddar cheese has a tiny amount of natural trans-fat?

In some stick margarines and vegetable shortenings, artificially produced trans-fats occur when hydrogenation forces a liquid fat to become solid, a problem recognized as so serious a hazard to American heart health, that adding artificial trans-fats to cooking oils and processed foods, has been outlawed. Still, small amounts of trans-fats occur when cooking oil is reused in some restaurants; when oils are heated to make stick margarine; and when healthy bacteria cause cheeses to curdle. But, no worries! A little cheddar, sometimes, can be okay.

 

Ugggh! Can We Please Stop Soaking Our Oats?

 

 

 

Everyone makes mistakes. The internet is full of mistakes. And, when it comes to news about our dietary health, what often happens is, one trend or another becomes popular, and everyone wants to say something about it — causing mistakes!

Some folk have published such mistakes in books.

In 2007, one health writer asked kids, "Fruits and Vegetables: What Doesn't Count?" Two foods that didn't count, in that book, are pretty basic to wellness. In the book published by DK Limited, potatoes and sweet potatoes "shouldn't count as one of your five daily servings" of fruits and vegetables!

I wouldn't have believed someone published that. That's pretty outrageous. But that actually appears in print, in a book still being sold today.

If I had to guess, the book's writer didn't mean to say potatoes and sweet potatoes don't have the nutrition we need for good health. If I had to guess, something went wrong when the book was edited. If I had to guess, I think the writer may have written, instead, that fast-food fried potatoes (some types of French fries and tater tots) don't have the fiber and other nutrients we need, just as potato chips and ketchup don't have the nutrition we need.

I'm pretty sure that's what the writer must have said before the book was edited, because "ketchup" is in the book's list of foods that don't count as fruits or vegetables. Ketchup, most fast-food fries, and tater tots, don't count as part of our daily fruits and vegetables. But potatoes, just generally, do.

 

Everyone Makes Mistakes

Potatoes, yams, and sweet potatoes (without the heavy candy coating) are actually packed with nutrition. We just need to know how to prepare them. If we cut them thin and deep fry them, we destroy the nutrition we need. If we cut them thin and put them in a very hot oven so that they dry out, we destroy the nutrition we need. And if we boil them a long time, or if we turn them into soup, we may break down these vegetables' fibers so that the fiber doesn't help our health.

But, ugggh. Everyone makes mistakes.

When that book was written, for children, calendars had turned to a new millennium. And people were talking about all kinds of diets. Editors of the above book may have misunderstood the book's author, because of countless ways people were writing about carbohydrates (or carbs).

Writing about low-carb diets had become popular, because a company called Atkins Nutritionals had begun to sell information and products that capitalized on that trend, according to a CNN Money report in January 2006. But that low-carb trend was beginning to fail, as Atkins lost steam due to bankruptcy — and as some companies (those processing high-carb foods) began to downplay carb craziness through assuring customers they were adding fiber to many products.

More than 15 years later, food science has helped us know so much more than back then. We know whole foods are healthier than any processed food, and that we need to be eating at least a few whole grains with each meal.

 

Let's Have Oats! But Can We Avoid Soaking Them?

Oatmeal is a whole grain that should be very popular. It's a whole food that's inexpensive and potentially healing. But some folks dislike it; many folk misunderstand it; and plenty of internet and book misinformation is leading countless consumers to prepare it in ways that maybe aren't so good.

One thing that's misunderstood about oatmeal, is whether or not it's safe for diabetes. While it's true science is still investigating whether type 1 diabetes can be helped by oats, and while it's true children four-months-old and younger shouldn't have oats (always talk with your child's doctor), one fact of the matter for type 2 diabetic adults, is that rolled oats are safe.

Rolled oats are not only safe in type 2 diabetes cases; rolled oats can be a huge help in these cases. (Read all about oats in my post, Bread is for Living!) One of the beneficial (dietary) carbs in oats, beta-glucan, is different from other beneficial carbs. Despite the seemingly small amount of it in oatmeal, beta-glucan is a soluble fiber that manages to lower blood sugar in cases of type 2 diabetes, and it outperforms the effects of sugary carbs not only in oatmeal — it outperforms the sugary carbs in whole meals, lowering both blood sugar and blood pressure.

As to how to prepare these healthy oats, there is more than a little misinformation out there about that, too! Much of the misinformation may be because of a trend that says to soak your oats overnight. ... Everyone makes mistakes.

One oat-soaking article, online, uses the words "oat groats" interchangeably with "rolled oats," proving the writer read something and tried to explain it, without really understanding. The writer probably read that oat groats have to be soaked overnight, so we can digest the oats well. But the writer made a mistake in thinking rolled oats are the same as groats, and developed an article that is really about soaking rolled oats — not groats — overnight. Believe it or not, that's a popular mistake.

Groats are the hard, whole seeds of oats. We need to soak oat groats, because the whole seeds are not friendly to digestion, can block absorption of some of the nutrients we need, and can cause gas and bloating. But very few people, worldwide, are eating oat groats!

The oats we find on grocery shelves are either steel-cut, old-fashion rolled, or instant. And any of these can be eaten right out of the box (on top of yogurt, for example), without harming digestion. In fact, those three types of processed oats are already lightly cooked — as in very lightly toasted. But boiling them a little can help us get more benefit from eating oats; and, because they are cut into thick slices, steel-cut oats should be boiled or microwaved longer than rolled oats.

 

A Bowl of Healing, in Less Than Two Minutes

How long to boil oats is really up to individual taste, but I suspect many people's dislike of oats is because they are used to eating oats that are very mushy (that are instant, or that are boiled for too long).

I prefer a bowl of oats that has lots of flakes that are still a little stiff and whole, instead of mushy. When I mirowave oats, I want to see a lot of slices of oat that are still whole instead of mushed into cream. I avoid instant oats, not just because instant oats become mushy, but also because the instant oats are chopped into crumbs that don't give us as much benefit as when oats are in slices that are more whole.

By the way, instant oats may not be a good option for diabetics. And, if making an oatmeal smoothie for a diabetic, be sure not to put oats in a blender; instead, prepare the smoothie in a blender, then stir in your oats (right out of the box) with a spoon. That helps preserve the healthy fiber that benefits type 2 diabetes.

Another word of caution about cooking with diabetes: Putting a lid on oats, while they are cooking, causes you to lose more of the beneficial fiber in oats. Recognizing oats cook differently than rice, don't cover oats with a lid, regardless of whether on the stovetop or in the microwave. Putting oats under pressure of a lid can turn them as much to mush as soaking them does.

One way I've found to make a bowl of oats that's the texture I like, is to only pour just enough water to cover the dry oats before microwaving. The more water or milk in the oats, the longer the time for the oats to absorb the water or milk, the more mushy the oats!

And the really good thing about my eating oats that aren't so mushy, is that it's better nutrition for me. At least one study's findings, published in the Journal of Functional Foods in 2017, implies that oats that are close to raw, give us 26 percent of the beneficial fiber that lowers cholesterol and blood sugar, and that increases insulin sensitivity; but very cooked oats only give us nine percent of that beneficial fiber.

The same principle probably applies to oats that soak overnight unnecessarily. By soaking the oats too long (or by eating pre-sweetened and other instant oats), we diminish the helpfulness of a needed fiber: a fiber that otherwise makes oats safe and beneficial.

Soaking can turn a food that's good for type 2 diabetes and for diabetes prevention, into a food that may not be very helpful at all.

So, instead of soaking, why not spend less than two minutes waiting to microwave?

Can I get an amen?

 

 

Some folk like oatmeal that's watery or milky, and that's just fine — as long as the oats have not soaked a long time in the water or milk, and as long as the oats aren't cooked for too long. Click the picture above for a simple, stovetop recipe. This recipe uses apple juice and fresh apples as sweeteners and for added nutrition. And the ground cinnamon (not cinnamon sugar!) isn't only tasty; the cinnamon, a few times a week, adds more antioxidants for good blood pressure — and a boost in helping lower cancer risks.

For only a few minutes more in preparation and cook time, recipes like this offer far more therapeutic benefit, and fewer bad carbs, than in eating small, pre-sweetened packs of oatmeal. Like Cheerios, small, pre-sweetened packs of oatmeal are instant oats that aren't as safe and beneficial for persons with type 2 diabetes; yet such persons may eat as much as three cups of cooked rolled oats (one- and one-half dry cups) as part of a balanced meal (for instance, with eggs and a banana) — and have stable blood sugar for hours, studies indicate.

But let's always ask for grace.