Yes. Zucchini!

Hey Everybody,

My son's friend, M., came over and grabbed the chair next to mine. It was our annual Fourth of July church picnic, moved indoors because of rain (make that because of a deluge!), but M. had a question just for me.

"Zucchini, Miss Rebecca?"

The expression on his face said it all. This year, for the first time ever, I entered the church's annual dessert contest. My entry? A pan of zucchini brownies. Not kidding! I have had this recipe forever, and I finally decided to try it. M. couldn't believe that he had eaten a zucchini brownie, and that he had actually enjoyed it!

If you have lots of zucchini in your garden, have some fun and try this recipe. This proves that a little chocolate and sugar can cover a multitude of...vegetables! (Or something like that, right?)

What you need:

1/2 c. butter (or margarine)
1 3/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
1/2 c. sour milk (add 1 1/2 t. vinegar)
1 t. salt
1 t. baking soda
2 1/2 c. flour
4 T. cocoa
2 c. grated zucchini

What you do:

Cream butter, sugar, and oil. Beat in eggs. Add vanilla, milk, and salt. Sift flour, baking soda, and cocoa; add to mixture. Add zucchini and mix well. Put in lightly greased 9 x 13 pan. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top before baking OR use your favorite frosting after baking. Bake 45 minutes at 325. (I'm sorry I don't have a picture for y'all!)

btw, I did not win the contest (sniff!), but I think everyone would agree that this is a great way to eat your vegetables! :)

Consider This #5

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Colossians (3:1-2)

Here's something to think about this Fourth of July weekend:

"It cannot be emphasized too clearly and too often that this nation was founded,
not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religion, but on the gospel of
Jesus Christ. For this very reason, peoples of other faiths have been afforded
asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here." ~Patrick Henry, May 1765
Speech to the House of Burgesses

Why Purity?

This week I've been talking about developing a perspective of purity. I've enjoyed your comments and feedback. I'm sure that this is a topic that I will come back to often on my blog, but as I wrap up this week, I want to spend some time talking about what purity really is and why it is important. As a mom and as a speaker, it has been crucial for me to be able to simply articulate the reasons why purity is something that is to be valued.

Why should we live a lifestyle of purity? The simple answer is that we strive for purity because it gives God glory. That is the bottom line. God’s Glory is at the core of everything He does, and it should be at the core of everything we do. Revelation 4:11 says, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” God created all things, and He created them for His pleasure. His pleasure, the Bible tells us, is in receiving glory, which is defined as adoring praise and worshipful thanksgiving.

So if we consider the fact that God does everything He does so that His name will be exalted, honored, and glorified, then we must understand that He had holy intentions in setting forth the institution of the family. And to make a long story short, the specific purpose of marriage was that it would mirror the great love of Christ for the church. In Ephesians, Paul teaches husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church.

The passionate intimacy that husbands and wives share is a picture, an
example, of the relationship between Christ and His bride, the church. God is
glorified by this.

God also intended for marriage to produce children who would, in turn, honor and glorify God in their lives. The second chapter of Malachi explains that God put two together in order that they might have godly offspring. Marriage also serves as a way of demonstrating that we can be satisfied with what God gives us. We work at our marriages and we strive to stay in them even when it’s tough, exalting God by trusting His will for our lives and His choice of our life’s partner. One writer said, “This exalts God by demonstrating His value and His ability to supply all our needs, while giving us deep, intense, and lasting joy in all circumstances.”

But everyone knows that we are living in a society in which brokenness abounds. We are literally smothered by our culture’s perversion. Because we have given man glory rather than giving God glory, the culture is saturated with evil. It’s my prayer that the information we have journeyed through together this week will help direct you to some real answers for bringing purity back to the forefront of our parenting. So let's review:

• Teach them early.
• Study the your child's culture--both personal and global.
• Pray: for your child, for his/her spouse, and for opportunities to point your child to Christ.

Why purity? Because it is for the Glory of God.

Purity's Front Lines

The battle for your child’s purity begins with prayer. If you want to capture her heart for Jesus, you must first understand that hearts are His business.

• Pray that God would give you opportunities to talk openly with your child about the wonderful gift of sex in age-appropriate ways.
• Pray that, through those simple conversations, the Holy Spirit would turn your child’s heart toward purity and holiness.
• Ask God to give your child the courage to go against the culture and follow hard after Christ.

And do not hesitate to pray with your child! Let him see and hear you going to the Father on his behalf.

When my children each turned five, we began the practice of praying for their spouse. Unless the Lord has blessed them with the gift of singleness, odds are that they are going to be married one day.

• That person is real.
• That person needs prayer.
• That person will battle tough times and difficult days.
• That person needs Jesus.

I truly believe that knowing there is a real person out there that God will put them together with (when the time is right) has been helpful to my teens. It has been essential in their seeing the big picture and understanding more distinctly God's plan for purity.

Learning as I go,

Understanding the Culture You Confront

Hey Everybody,

Thanks for your comments yesterday. We certainly have a lot of work to do as parents, don't we? We have the task of going against the culture in which we live, and then teaching our children to do the same. In order to do this, it is to our benefit to do our homework! We have to know what our children are facing. My friend Susan Henson puts it this way:

“Children are being bombarded from every angle. Truth is no longer truth. Their
culture is morally relevant. Even for us moms, sometimes we don’t know what is
right and wrong. That’s why we must be intentionally studying the culture.”

There are two kinds of culture that parents must study: personal and global.

Your child’s personal culture varies according to her social environment. Her family and friends, her school, even where she lives will determine to some extent her picture of the world. At the same time, we are a global culture. Technology has enabled our children to be assaulted with sexual sights and sounds as early as they can handle a mouse or a remote control. “They will not be prepared to handle these temptations if a parent chooses silence,” says Susan. “It is crucial that parents today be even more aware of the gripping influences and effects of their child’s culture.” I don't know about you, but I want to be right there with my child, on the front lines! I want to help them with strategies for taking down the enemy. I want them to know what they're up against. And I want them to know this truth: Greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world. I want that written on their hearts. What can we do?

Know her personal culture by:
Getting to know her friends. Who does she play with? Is she friends with a child who has two moms or two dads? What kinds of conversations does she have with her friends?

Exploring her school curriculum. Ask questions of your child’s teacher. Find out what he is learning in the way of social studies, community interests, history, and health. Read his textbooks and see for yourself the extent of the humanist spin on the material. As a homeschooling mom, this still applies. Sometimes we homeschoolers are guilty of making purchases via the advice of friends or a quick sampling at a homeschool fair. Know what you are getting! Be thorough.

Acknowledging your family. You know your family better than anyone. If your extended family members are not Christians, are they going to sabotage what you are trying to teach your child about purity and waiting for intimacy until marriage?

Know his global culture by:
Praying for discernment. Ask God to reveal to you the hard-hitting media messages you may be tuning out, but your child is zeroing in on.

Becoming a student yourself. Learn current cultural statistics at sites like www.barna.org. Watch the news or read the newspaper. The Baptist Press online news source provides Christian coverage of national and world news.

Supervising his online activity. Check out the sites your child visits often. Keep up with the images he sees and the impressions it makes on him.

Let's commit to doing our homework, y'all. It will certainly make a difference when our families are faced with a test. :)

Purity: Where Do I Start?

Hey Everybody,

When it comes to handing down a perspective of purity to your children, it is much easier to start at the beginning--the beginning of their young lives! So teach them early. Talking about sexuality with your child is not a one-time conversation. It is a series of conversations leading up to that “big talk,” and a series of conversations coming after it. Purity has always been God’s plan, and as a parent, your home is the place to lay the groundwork. Start with the Old Testament stories that easily demonstrate purity, honor, and integrity.

Adam and Eve—God created one man for one woman. This is the only equation that works. They were the very first family, and they continue to provide the model for us to go by.
Noah’s Ark—Of all the people on earth, only Noah had a pure heart before God. Also, this story again illustrates that God has monogamous couples in mind when it comes to building families.
The Exodus—God’s chosen people were to be set apart, or pure. They went through many rituals to become clean on the outside. Use these stories to talk with your child about how purity of the heart is a clean that must happen on the inside.
The Ten Commandments—When I was teaching these to my then preschool age children, they wanted to know what adultery meant. I chose to explain it this way: God made a special kind of married love for moms and dads to share with each other. It is a wonderful gift! Adultery happens when a person shares that special married love with someone he/she is not married to. That goes against God’s plan for families, and that is a sin. (This definition includes fornication.)

When it comes to defining sex for a young child, how about this: Sex is a special love that a mommy and daddy share with one another in their bedroom behind the privacy of a closed door. This will provide a standard for even a very young child. It shatters that culture's notion that fornication is okay ("mommy and daddy" imply married in a Christian home); it establishes the fact that pornography and exhibitionism are wrong ("behind a closed door"). It retains the mystery and modesty for their young age by defining it as "a special love."

In yesterday's comments, Mommy to Constance mentioned the book, The Princess and the Kiss. This is one of my favorites! Jennie Bishop did a marvelous job in crafting a story book/fairy tale that embraces the beauty and power of purity. It is a must-have in your family's "Princess Protection Program." It is a great resource for planting in your daughter's heart the significance of her first kiss and how it is meant to be saved for her wedding day. Its corresponding book for boys is entitled, The Squire and the Scroll. My friend Susan Henson (keynote speaker at the Pure in Heart Conferences) was so enthralled with these stories that she wrote beautiful devotional guides to go along with them: Life Lessons from the Princess and the Kiss and Life Lessons from the Squire and the Scroll. Beautifully written, these guides are perfect for 8 to 11 year olds. You'll want to check them out!

Thumbs Up for The Princess Protection Program

Hey Everybody,

I hope you got a chance to see Disney's new TV-movie, "The Princess Protection Program" over the weekend. I loved it! For a secular, Disney movie, in many ways it really conveys to girls what being a princess is all about. My favorite line was when Demi Lovato's character said, "I will turn the other cheek, because that is what princesses do." When was the last time you heard that piece of truth spouted off in our vengeful, "payback" world? Viewers were also treated to a montage of true princess behavior: serving others. My, my, my. Unbelieveable! The bad girls were really bad (positively wicked!), and the good girls were really real, and the princess was, in fact, quite royal. And the one who seemed to be a prince, alas, was not, because he was not beautiful on the inside.

Other positive elements included the sweet relationship between the father-daughter characters, Major Mason and Carter. Per Disney's usual m.o., the mother was absent without explanation. My favorite line from the dad in this movie was when he told the princess, "I'm here to protect you, but you need to trust me." (Oh heavens, how many times have I heard that from my Heavenly Father! I need to trust Him!) "The Princess Protection Program" did not end with a guy and girl getting together and a magical kiss--no, this movie ended by celebrating a girl's right to be valued for who she is. You've got to love that!

This week, I'm going to be talking about how you can establish your own "Princess (and Prince!)Protection Program," with several posts on purity. Defining purity for our children is not going to be easy in today’s culture. Our kids' purity is tried and tested at every turn. Kisses are easily squandered, and “true love” is portrayed as common fare. It is important to give our children a perspective of purity by starting conversations early on, understanding the cultural battle we are up against, and practicing the power of prayer. I would love for you to join in the discussion!

For today, please share with me your thoughts on the movie, if you saw it. If you didn't get a chance to see it, is there a movie that you do like sharing with your daughter or son that promotes a purity perspective? Do tell!