As Christmas approaches, I am thankful today for…
1. Shelley! We got to have lunch yesterday, and I just love her! So thankful that we have been able to stay in touch over the years.
Shelley and I at Schlotzky's Deli for lunch!
2. Delicious holiday food
3. My family
4. Christmas Music and Spotify
5. Jesus coming to earth as a tiny baby, and the way the Jesus Storybook Bible shares the story:
For my birthday, Amanda decided to take me on a cupcake crawl through Broad Ripple. We went to 3 cupcakeries and indulged ourselves in pure deliciousness. For 2 hours we chose to forget that anything else was happening in our lives, and just enjoyed our time together talking, laughing (a lot, as usual), and eating cupcakes. It was a fantastic.
Thanks Manders, for a delightful and lovely birthday afternoon adventure! I love you friend and am SO glad you are in Indy!!!!
I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking….
Starting off the crawl at Parcha Sweets, score card in hand!
Cupcake #1: S'mores.....and we definitely wanted S'more after that!!
First bite! (don't worry, we only did this once)
S'more Scores
Cupcake #2 at SweeTies Gourmet Treats: Sweet Potato
SweeTies scores....not our favorite, but still tasty
Stop #3 - It's no cupcake crawl without The Flying Cupcake!
Pumpkin Spice!
We had two this time because Kim joined in the fun!
All done....the finished scorecard, empty plates, and very happy tummys. 
At the end of the adventure!
Post 101 finds me in the midst of a startling revelation. I realized on Sunday that I have not been out of the country since May 2010, making this the longest I have been in America since my sophomore year of high school. Yes friends, it has been 10 years since I have spent 15 consecutive months in the US.
No wonder the traveling itch has been bugging me the past few weeks. And sad news bears that there are no plans anytime soon to travel across any oceans or borders. Every time I hear someone talking about their upcoming or recent travels anywhere in the world, I feel a longing to hide in their suitcase and go along. There are so many places I miss that really I could go anywhere pretty much and be at “home”. So, instead of traveling forward, I’m going to take a moment to travel back to those places dear to my heart. Bear with me, as I remember…..
Ukraine. I miss Vinnitsa, Litin, the Banana Machina, Pastor Pavel, cute Ukrainian children, VBS camps, listening to beautiful voices singing melodic praise to the Lord in the Vinnitsa Baptist church, ice cream, cows wandering in the streets, the complete ignoring of all traffic rules by drivers in the cities, squatty potties, little Babushkas with no teeth but strong hearts and real love for people, our translators, our host families, cabbage rolls and borscht, 6 year old artists, more kids coming to camp each day as the week progressed, cold showers, outdoor markets, parks that still have communist-era statues and memorials up, meeting at the church each morning to go to our different villages for camp, stories of God showing up in ways we couldn’t imagine, riding on scooters, stuffing 15 people into a 6 seat van, Ukrainian hospitality, Viktor and Jana and their family….I could go on and on.
One VBS camp...summer of 2006!!
Me and Sveta, one of the little girls who became my buddy for that week.
Another VBS camp, also summer 2006
The squatty potty at camp in Osalinka. Oh the memories of the squatties. 
South Africa. I miss climbing up the mountain in the village with Niger and Mahtombi, getting to know Elvis, Vovo, Xolosile and his family, the vast sky that never ends, dancing, singing, 5-15 year olds fascinated by my hair, 3 hour church services that include a conga line and 2 or 3 sermons, the accents of the Xhosa people, learning how to click my tongue properly, living with Ronnie and Janet Vehorn, walking and praying together in the early morning frost, playing soccer in the heat of the afternoon, learning to drive a stick shift on the opposite side of the road, hot fetcakes with peanut butter and honey, chickens laying eggs in the house, waking up freezing and going outside to warm up, sleeping 3 to a bed, expecting 150 children to show up for VBS and arriving to find the room packed with over 700, going to “the uttermost”, holding a lion cub, spiritual warfare, seeing people living in houses made of dirt yet with more joy than the richest people in America, going to Queenstown for fun, Christmas in July, tent revivals, swimming in the Indian ocean, sunrises and sunsets that leave you breathless, pineapple fanta….oh, there is so much it almost hurts.
Showing off our beautiful homemade skirts!
These little boys completely captured my heart.
Katie, Maria me and Maggie after swimming in the Indian Ocean! So exhilarating!!
The boys who played soccer every single day we were with them! So cute!!
And Germany. I miss Berlin and what a unique and international city it is, döner stands, the rich history of the nation and the city, Freie Universität, Richard, Andra, Ulrike x 2, Susanne, Sophie, Veronika and Jenny, Silvester Freizeit, Campus Meets Berlin, Haus Nazareth, Monte and Anne Keltner, the Ploners, International Baptist Church Berlin, currywurst, walking along the canal, parks everywhere, Milchkaffee, Kaffee und Kuchen, riding the Bahn, the Brandenburger Tor, Ampelmann, the S-bahn Cafe’, U7, Prenzlauerberg and Steglitz, Balzac coffee shop, Unter den Linden, the TV tower, the Berlin Wall, football (soccer) games, World cup fun, the Sony Center at Potsdamer Platz, messing up when speaking German, getting it “right” the first time in German when trying to communicate, the seemingly never-ending process of getting a visa, moving to Neukölln for the second year on STINT, riding my bike around the city, the badeschiff (huge pool set in the river), retreats and conferences on the east sea and at the Cru castle, driving on the autobahn, traveling to other places in Europe, family visiting, Fassbender und Rausch, The Gedächsniskirche, the zoo, summer projects, spring break trips, Cafe’ am neuer See, rowboating around the lake with my little buddy David Sfura, Potsdam, Charlottenburg Schloß, learning to share the gospel in German, my team, Habibi, Baraka, Hermannplatz, free museums on Thursday nights, Berliner Dom, Half chicken and fries, Ritter Sport chocolate, Penny Markt, movies on the Beamer, Anne Keltners cooking, re-decorating my and Sarah’s room at Haus Nazareth, my favorite park in Steglitz, movies at Potsdamer Platz, shopping and gelato with Ulrike S, Cafe’ Bilderbuch with Ulrike N, gelato, people watching (especially tourist watching), races, Christmas, and life! Oh Deutschland, ich vermisse dich sehr.
Having fun with Tomi and Laura Beth trying on traditional Dirndl dresses!
New Year's Eve my first year!
Our first official weekly meeting, called FireAbend my second year!
Sarah, me, Andy and Dave moving into Haus Nazareth for our first year!
These are only a few memories, and a glimpse of hundreds of pictures, each reminding me of these places and people I love. The Lord has called me to Indiana for this time, that much I know. But oh Lord, please don’t let it be forever, for my heart belongs to the world.
I haven’t done one of these in a while, and I have lots of numbers to share!
1: day until my friend Meredith from Australia arrives in Indy for her visit!!
5: months left of Matt’s jail sentence as of Tuesday the 5th
$3.28 : the price of a gallon of gas on Monday
$3.49 : the price of a gallon of gas yesterday….can you say “price gouging” anyone??
6: days until Shanda and I leave for Colorado!! Wooo!!
116,228: miles on Winston, my car, as of today
13: years old Winston is this year
1,105: miles from Indy to Ft. Collins, CO
18:14 : hours and minutes to drive from Indy to Ft. Collins (or 5 movies…..just kidding, of course…who watches movies while driving across the country??? Although from what I hear both Nebraska and Kansas are pretty much flat and straight )
2: days in which Shanda and I will be traveling that distance
18: years as of June 14th since asking Jesus to dwell in me
1,200-1,400: calories I should be eating a day according to my height. How depressing. Do you realize how little food that is??? That is 300-ish calories per meal, plus a couple 100-calorie snacks. I think this might be the first time ever I have been sad that I am short.
15: days unti Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 comes out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So. Excited. Definitely taking a box of tissues with me to the drive-in – fully prepared to cry through most of it.
It’s all about the attitude.
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God with your body.” 1 Cor 6:19-20
This is our theme verse for this whole topic. And in this week’s post, we are going to be focusing on our attitude towards our bodies, and towards food. What you believe about food and who is in charge of your body are directly linked, and knowing both will help as you seek to make wise choices in both areas.
Part 1: Food
What first pops into your head when you think about food? Or, another way to ask the same question, what does food mean to you?
Security?
Planning?
Comfort?
Work?
Joy?
Stress?
Necessity?
Money?
Sustainment?
Deserved?
As I have been pondering on this question for the past few months, I have come to a startling revelation. For me, food means joy and comfort, for the most part. But even more than that, deep down I believe that I deserve food, and even good food, not just any old food. For a little while I tried to deny it – of course I don’t really believe that I deserve food, I told myself. No, I said, I believe all those verses that talk about how everything we have comes from God (Acts 17:28, Col 1:15, John 17:7), and that without Him there is nothing (John 1:3) and the ones that talk about gluttony being against God (side note: more to come on that in the next post!) and that our bodies are temples (1 Cor 6:19).
Right?
Yes. But then right alongside those beliefs came slowly creeping in the self-made belief that I deserve to eat whatever I want, whenever I want, regardless of the consequences. As I thought about what, and when, I ate, and realized that often it wasn’t because I was hungry. It was because I was sad, or lonely, or tired, or bored, or it was chocolate and I couldn’t refuse it, or because it was just sitting there, or it was mealtime, or I just felt like it.
There are many factors that lead me to this kind of thinking, including our culture. We live in a culture that declares our independence from responsibility. You want it, you can have it. In fact, you deserve it! Treat yourself, and don’t pay any attention to the consequences. You can just take a pill to cover whatever your decisions bring – excessive weight gain, diabetes, high cholesterol, back pain, knee pain, etc (note: I realize that some of those things can be genetically prone, but at the same time the truth is that we bring a lot of it on ourselves by our poor choices, especially when it comes to how and what we eat). This is why the Scriptures repeatedly tell us to set our minds on the things above, not on the things of the earth (Col. 3:2), and to NOT be conformed to this world (Rom. 12:2), and to discipline ourselves for godliness (2 Tim. 2:1-7), and to be set apart from the world.
Part 2: Our bodies
Ok. Let’s move on to our attitude regarding our bodies. Our attitude towards food and how we eat is one insight into who we believe is in charge of our body. For me I have realized that it all boils down to this: when it comes to food, I love myself more than I love Jesus and His Word. Ouch. This is the one that I tried the hardest to deny, and then on Sunday I read a couple excerpts from an excellent book called A Gospel Primer by Milton Vincent that hit me hard and caused me to see the ways that I put self-love above Christ-love. Vincent says that:
“One of the leading causes of my natural tendency to self-love is fear. I fear that if I do not love myself there would be no one left to love me quite so well as I do. An even more significant cause of self-love is a lack of persuasion that there is someone out there who is worthy to be loved more than I.” (p. 29-30)
When I am sad, or lonely, or tired, or bored, and I turn to food, I am in essence saying that food will satisfy me more than Christ could, and that I doubt Christ’s ability to fully love me. I am loving myself more than I love Christ by focusing on my own emotions and trying to satisfy them on my own instead of turning to Christ and allowing Him to be my soul’s satisfaction. The problem with self-love is that we can never love ourselves enough. The food doesn’t work, so then we turn to other things. In talking about lusts, Vincent says “They promise me fullness, and their promises are so deliciously sweet that I often find myself giving in to them as if they were friends that have my best interests at heart.”
The food is not to blame. When viewed rightly food is a great blessing, as is everything that comes from the Lord. But in order for it to be a blessing, I must view it rightly: first, as coming from the Lord, second, as something that I do not deserve, and third, as a means of satisfying my physical hunger, not something given to satisfy my emotions or indulge my whims.
And then, the heart of it really comes down to learning to love Christ more than I love myself. See, the two really are linked. Because as I learn to put Christ first, and turn to Him to satisfy my heart and hunger, then my attitude towards food will automatically fall into line. And then, amazingly, all of a sudden it isn’t about the weight anymore. It’s about Jesus, and loving Him more than food or myself, just as He created it to be.
As you’ve read through this (and congrats if you’ve made it this far!!), I would love to hear any thoughts/comments or reflections from you on how you answered the first question, and anything the Lord has put on your heart so far.
Till next time…..
For the past couple of years I have been “trying” to lose some weight. Not a ton, just a few pounds to get me in the ‘healthy’ range for my height. I’ve tried everything: diets, exercise, positive self-talk, consistent weigh-ins, writing down numbers, keeping charts, etc. My motivation over the years has been mostly aesthetic in nature. I was trying to lose the weight because I didn’t like the way I looked, or because I didn’t feel healthy, or because I thought I should. And, unsurprisingly, my efforts have ultimately failed. It is not that the actions in and of themselves were bad – on the contrary – they can be good and helpful. However, I am slowly coming to the realization that those motivations do not hold up very long under the temptations of delicious foods. I love to eat, and I come from a long line of people who also love to eat. In light of that and the aforementioned failed motivations, my gut reaction is almost always to either cave in or rationalize my eating habits (and even lack of exercise), because my motivations were not serious enough to deter me from eating good food.
But things are beginning to change. Most importantly my attitudes, perspectives, and beliefs about food and how those affect my relationship with Jesus. I am starting to see an impact in my life that I am trusting will last more than a couple months. You see, it isn’t about the weight anymore. It is also not about looking pretty, or being thin, or anything else. Whether I am trying to lose 5, 10, 20, 50 or 100 pounds, if my perspective and motivations aren’t right, then nothing I do to change myself will last forever.
There is a long-standing joke among the Franklins that some people eat to live while others live to eat, with us falling into the latter category. We laugh because it is true, but recently I have realized that it doesn’t lessen our responsibility before the Lord to care for the bodies He gave us. And here we arrive at the heart of it: before the Lord. As much as we often try to fight this truth, we are not on our own when it comes to how we eat and care for our bodies. We might think that this is a little thing, that the Lord doesn’t really care what we do with our bodies or how we eat (something I found myself believing too), but now I disagree. He does care, very much.
My initial plan was to write one post about this topic and leave it at that. However, even as I have been writing this over the last couple weeks, I am realizing how much there is to this topic – much more than can be covered in one post. So, I am going to write a series of posts on this topic dealing with the topics of gluttony, idolatry, self-discipline, what we eat, exercise, thoughts/attitudes, and how all that fits into food and Jesus. I am not saying I am an expert or have this figured out, but I invite you to join me as I dig into the Word and learn more about these issues. The more I learn the more I see my life changing, especially as I understand that it isn’t about me. It’s always about Jesus.
On Monday I made Pecan Goat Cheese Stuffed Dates for our memorial day cookout. Oh my, are they delicious! Quick, easy, elegant and a great appetizer or addition to any meal. Also pretty affordable, which only adds to their greatness.
Here’s what I did:
Ingredients:
2 oz (ish) goat cheese
20 ish pecan halves, chopped into small pieces
12-16 large dates
Directions:
Place goat cheese in a microwave safe bowl and warm for 10-15 seconds, or just until cheese begins to melt. Stir in chopped pecans and mix well. Cut each date in half length wise, and spoon a small teaspoon full of the goat cheese mixture into each date. Refrigerate for a couple hours or until well chilled, then serve.
Total time: 10 minutes
Result:
Elegant and delicious appetizer, great for any occasion!
And a close up....I also sprinkled some of the leftover pecans on top before putting them on the serving platter.
