Healings and Jesus

Jesus' power to heal today is as real as it was when he was physically on earth. Yet we do not often see miraculous healings now. His power and love have not changed - but neither has his purpose. 

He healed men on earth in order to bring them to himself, to cause them to trust and believe in him, and to bring glory to his father. Today he still has those goals - ultimately, to give us God himself. 

In places in the world where He is not yet known, he often heals miraculously, and people are moved to come to him and to believe. But here where he is already known, his goals are often accomplished through our sickness. 

He wants for us something better than healing: to have God himself!


Mark 2:10-11
But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” —he said to the paralytic— “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.”

He must become greater

I just read this in a blog post. It needs to be my life verse too.

-------------

He must become greater; I must become less.

The point of life is not our current circumstances.

The point is not what He is doing in me or in our family.

The point is, and always has been, that He is seen and worshiped for who He is.

The point is that Jesus shines.

How He chooses to accomplish that through me is His prerogative.

He must become greater.

I rest content in that.

http://theblessingofverity.com/2013/12/mostly-sunny-with-a-few-showers/

No grumping

I have no cause for grumping around, or for self-pity!

1) everything that comes to me is from my Father's loving hand. Not from a stern, uncompassionate task-master who cares not about my frame. But from my Father, who has promised that nothing he gives can ever be interpreted to mean that he is not loving me in it. 

Rom.8:35-39, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

2) whatever my Father gives, he has promised to be with me in it.

Matt.28:20, "behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

And he has promised to be my strength in my weakness.

2Cor.12:9-10, "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

3) Heaven, rest, and peace are coming.

Rev.14:13, And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”

Rev.21:3-5, And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” 

Rejoice!

Great sermons yesterday!
(Check them out at www.grbc.net - 12-1-13 AM and PM)

As children of God through Christ, we can rejoice always! - because everything, everything in our lives comes from the loving and wise hand of the God of the universe, who before time planned out our salvation and redemption.

He has promised to make everything in our lives (if we are his children through Christ) work together like ingredients in a cake, to produce in the end a beautiful product that will be for our very best good.

He has promised to be with us always, and that nothing ever anywhere can separate us from his love in Christ.  He has NOT promised to take away all those things - persecution, trouble, neediness, danger, sickness, things present or things to come - but to make us more than conquerors in them. To have his love upon us in all those things. To cause them to produce our good rather than our harm.

Rejoice! Live boldly!
(and remind me of this when I forget it all in the busyness of the day...)

Rescue the weak and needy

Psalms 82:3-4
“Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;
 maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.
 Rescue the weak and the needy;
 deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”

This is one thing Jesus came for - to rescue the weak and needy, and bring them home as God's children:


Hebrews 2:9-10
“But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering."


Romans 9:25-26
 “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved. ’”
 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God. ’”

Surely if God calls someone to do something (like adoption) - will He not provide both the means to do it, and the ability to care for that child?  When we reach heaven, we will never regret having given ourselves for others in His name.

The place of abundance

Ps.66:10,12,20 - "For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried. ...we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance. ... Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me!"

This is our hope in trials: that our God will bring us out to a place of abundance!  And that no matter what  our circumstances seem to be, His ears are listening to our cries, and His steadfast love is upon us!

the furnace

Jn.6:13, "So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten."

This is our God. He multiplies little into abundant suffiscience when He is in it.

If you choose the hard path - like Larissa marrying brain-injured Ian, or someone adopting a disabled child - you are choosing for God to increase the heat in the furnace of your life, the means by which our gold is purified of its dross on the way to Heaven.

I know the end is good. I know that having dreams stripped away in order to gain the greater joy of God Himself, is not a loss, not a poor trade. Indeed he is a fool who cannot loose his grasp on all his possessions in order to gain that Pearl of great value instead. Only a fool gains the world at the cost of losing his soul.

My flesh still recoils.  It must be faith alone that willingly chooses the furnace, if God will be glorified in it.

Nothing too difficult for the LORD!

Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?

For nothing will be impossible with God.

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

(Jeremiah 32:27. Luke 1:37. Matthew 7:7-11. Luke 11:13. Romans 8:26-32)

Always giving thanks

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
(1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

"Open your mouth, and I will fill it!"

Psalm 81

God says to Israel - and to us -
"Come to me. Serve me only. I will satisfy your deepest needs with myself. Ask for what you need. Depend on me for it. And I will provide!"

But we choose to go our own way, to hold to our sin, to think that serving God is a slavery and that  serving ourselves will be freedom.

How backwards our sin-corrupted natures perceive reality! For in truth it is God who frees us from our slavery, who gives us in its place his own sweet service, where we find him meeting every need, abundantly!

If God is for me...

Genesis 37 - Joseph is sold into Egypt, presumed dead by Jacob.  Jacob would perceive that "all these things are against me" (Gen.42:36). In reality, God was preparing for him a feast in the wilderness, a treasure only possible through a long incubation period of time.  God was for him, so nothing could truly be against him.

Can we not trust the God who orchestrated Jacob's and Joseph's lives, to orchestrate ours also? If I am His, then He is for me, and He turns everything that would be against me into something that is for me (Rom.8:31). Trust God in the dark, when you cannot see His hand, when you do not understand. He will not let you go. He is using your trial to make something beautiful.

Not to fix, but to be faithful

God has not called me to fix things (my life, or my child), but to be faithful.
We must preach, but only He can save.
We plant and water, but He must make it grow.

Only He can fix the brokenness in my life.  The means He uses might well be my faithfulness in it, but the results are His domain, not mine.

I will always be discouraged if I am feeling responsibility for that which only God can do.

"What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth." (1Corinthians 3:5-7)

Help for the discouraged

Psalm 77 (excerpt)

    In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord;
        in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying;
        my soul refuses to be comforted...
    You hold my eyelids open;
        I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
    I consider the days of old,
        the years long ago...
        Then my spirit made a diligent search:
    “Will the Lord spurn forever,
        and never again be favorable?
    Has his steadfast love forever ceased?
        Are his promises at an end for all time?
    Has God forgotten to be gracious?
        Has he in anger shut up his compassion?”...
    I will remember the deeds of the LORD;
        yes, I will remember your wonders of old.
    I will ponder all your work,
        and meditate on your mighty deeds.
    Your way, O God, is holy.
        What god is great like our God?
    You are the God who works wonders;
        you have made known your might among the peoples.
    You with your arm redeemed your people,
        the children of Jacob and Joseph...
    The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind;
        your lightnings lighted up the world;
        the earth trembled and shook.
    Your way was through the sea,
        your path through the great waters;
        yet your footprints were unseen.
    You led your people like a flock
        by the hand of Moses and Aaron.


Here is someone in trials. They are troubled.  They seek God but do not see him answer.  They have prayed and prayed, but nothing seems to change.  They question whether perhaps for them, in their situation, God no longer is gracious, loving, or compassionate. God's promises do not apply to them here.

Their answer is
- to remember the LORD's character.  To ask the question is to answer it: if my God is God, he cannot cease to be who He is: loving, gracious, compassionate, faithful to His promises.

- to remember the LORD's deeds and wonders in the past.  His deeds remind the psalmist of God's holiness and might. Of His control over nature and weather.  Of His redeeming of an unworthy people and His dealings with them through the years in grace and mercy.  And of the fact that God's ways often cannot be detected; His "footprints were unseen".  Yet He is acting, even if we cannot see it or do not understand.

This is our answer in despair and depression: turn your mind to think about God's character.  If he has changed, then he is no longer God.  Therefore we can affirm that God is who He says He is, even if we do not feel it, even if our circumstances make us wonder. Our faith is not to rest on our feelings, but on the Word of God and who it reveals God to be.  God cannot change!  He will always be faithful and gracious to His people.

And we can focus our mind on what God has done in the past.  He is "the God who works wonders"! We can look at His faithfulness to people in the Bible, to His people in modern times, and to us personally.  We cannot discern the future, and sometimes in the present we do not see how God is working graciously.  But we can remember what He has done already, and be comforted that He has shown His faithfulness through many trials in the past.  He will prove faithful now and in the future as well!

Sorrow will turn to joy

For the Christian, God always designs your sorrow to end in joy - if not here, then in eternity!
Lk.1:5-25. (Zachariah and Elizabeth)

He carries me

Jesus carries me. It is not that I have done the right things to keep my head above water, but that he has had his arms under me. Not just "God helps me" but "without Me you can do nothing."

We are busy.
The older 3 children do schoolwork (yes, we are still homeschooling).
David works from home (no, he did not end up getting a new job earlier this year).
We have a lot to build a house on now, but no house plan. (You mean a ranch house with 4 bedrooms and an office, handicap-accessible, is not a stock floor plan?)
Peter has 4-5 therapists of different sorts coming to our house every week till he turns 3.
A small army of church friends comes and serves us at various times in various ways - an enormous blessing!
I drink kefir smoothies every day and attempt to oversee schoolwork, carry out therapy, plan meals, be a wife, and get some amount of sleep (more often than not, praying for energy while running on too little sleep, and seeing God provide it).

God is good.

God is my helper

"Behold, God is my helper; the Lord is the upholder of my life... I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good. For he has delivered me from every trouble..." (Psalms 54:4,6-7)

Escaping responsibility

I have often had those thoughts that no one is supposed to have, or wants to admit. I am guessing lots of parents, especially of special needs children, have felt the same.  Thoughts like "at least if he died, I would have relief" or the temptation of just abandoning him to someone else. Feeling your child to be a burden, one you did not ask for. Resenting his demands on your life, time, and energy. Wishing him gone by some means.  And all the while knowing, this is not a good thing to be thinking, yet the thoughts occur to you.

The Lord has kindly freed me from that mentality, hopefully in a lasting way, by showing me the natural outworking of it. "If you were to abandon your child, what then?" Then I could never face Him in peace again. I would have been saying, "I am not willing to submit to You in this. I am not willing to accept what comes from Your hand. Your strength and grace are not enough for this trial. I choose to abdicate my responsibilities rather than to remain Your servant."

I had to choose Jesus, and my trial, or neither of them. They went together.

For any trial in which God does not give us a legitimate way of escape, this must be true. To abandon my God-given duty - to get out of difficulty by some unbiblical means - is to abandon my faith. It is to tell Jesus that although everything I need for life and godliness is found in Him, He does not have sufficient resources to help me in this case.  It is to tell the world that my faith is a fraud, and that my Savior is not really strong enough to bear me through the trials He puts me in.

Being faithful under fire is not optional. If you will have Jesus, you must take everything He gives you. To escape by means He has not appointed will take away your peace and your greatest treasure -  unhindered fellowship with your God.

Be faithful unto death!

Rev.12:11, "And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death."

The purpose of a Christian living yet in this world, is to point people to Jesus - Jesus, their indescribably wonderful Savior and King!  To show others that Jesus is the thing they value above everything else. That He is worth giving up everything else to gain. That He is worth serving with all my being, as a living sacrifice!

How could we possibly do this in a life in which we have no need to give up anything for Jesus' sake? This is why "all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (2Tim.3:12). If there were no persecution, if there were nothing to sacrifice for His sake, how would we show Jesus to be our treasure above all else?

Our goal here is not, to make everyone think well of us, as though by doing so they would be attracted to Jesus. Our goal is to make much of Christ, to have people think well of HIM, to show them His beauty and glory and love and justice. To be totally His, sold out for Him, known as those who "serve their God continually" like Daniel.

This is why the lot of the Church in this world is not one of dominance, but of being persecuted. It is God's planned way for His worth to be proclaimed, as His people value Him above all else, at great cost to themselves. His word to us is not, "preserve your life at all cost" but rather "Do not fear what you are about to suffer. ... Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life." (Rev.2:10).

 

Playing at Christianity

It is not that you can be a good moral person, and tack on Christianity in order to get to Heaven. Jesus did not come for the purpose of giving good people a ride to Heaven. He died to make sinners His servants. It is impossible to follow Jesus AND to live your moments for your own pleasures. You can only have one master. He died so that we would live for Him, not for ourselves. Those who love anything ("my" time, "my" indulgences) more than Jesus are not worthy of Him.  You have to leave everything behind, to lose your life for Jesus, in order to gain Him.

So every moment should be, "what would please Jesus for me to do right now?" 

Every dollar should be, "how would Jesus like me to use this?"

We make so many excuses, rationalize so many things. "I just need to relax at the end of the day." "One more portion of food won't hurt anything." "I need to check the news / email / facebook one more time." We treat bad habits as things we are victims of, rather than face them for what they are: my own unwillingness to live that part of my life for Jesus rather than for myself.  We act as though we can live Christian lives, but on our own terms.

Radical Christianity is supposed to be the norm. It is what full followers of Jesus are. And He accepts no partial disciples, none who need to "first go and do .... and then follow."  He calls us to count the cost, to forsake all, to carry the cross, to deny ourselves, to submit every moment of our lives to His use.

To do otherwise is to play at Christianity at the cost of your soul.

Let us not be like the rich young ruler, sad that it costs so much to follow Jesus and unwilling to pay that cost.

Matt.10:37-39 "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

Lk.14:26-35 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish. ’ ... So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Phil.3:7-9 "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him..."

Matt.16:24-27 "Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done."

Mk.10:17-31 "And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother. ’” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing:go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

Facebook posts - January 2013

For those of you who don't read my facebook entries, here are some of the things posted recently:

-----------------------

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him!
(Psalms 103:11)

----------------------

Through the blood of Christ, we can "serve the living God"! (Hebrews 9:14). What an amazing privilege!
----------------------

Krista Horning's testimony (partial transcript):

Krista began her testimony with these words: “People ask me how I live with disability. How do I live with disability? …For me, disability is the deep hurt and shame that says I am not accepted. Disability says ugly things to me. It tells me I am alone. I am different. I am worthless. I am weak. It tells me my life is hopeless. Disability lies to me and sometimes it is easy to listen and believe. Sometimes I don’t want to live with disability. Sometimes I don’t want to be who God made me to be. [But] God tells me the truth. So I keep listening to Him. He opens the eyes of my heart and I believe. I trust Him and His words. God says beautiful things to me. Listen.”

God tells me He is in control of everything in the world, including my disability, all of our disabilities (Exodus 4:11).
God tells me I am not alone (Isaiah 43:1-3).
God tells me He will always help me (Psalm 121:1-8).
God tells me He has called me for His purpose (Romans 8:28).
God tells me that nothing in this world is greater than knowing Him (Philippians 3:8-10).
God tells me He is more interested in my heart than my outward appearance (1 Samuel 16:7).
God tells me He gave His only Son for my sins (Isaiah 53:4-5).
God tells me He has a special plan for my life (Jeremiah 29:11).
God tells me He is changing me to be more like Him (2 Corinthians 3:18).
God tells me nothing can separate me from His love (Romans 8:38-39).
God tells me His grace is enough (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).
God tells me I have hope (Romans 5:3-5, 8).
God tells me He is good (Psalm 34:1-5, 8).
God tells me this life with disability is short, but I will spend forever with Him (2 Corinthians 4:7-10, 16-18).

Krista’s testimony then closes with these powerful words:

For now I live with disability.
Disability still says ugly things to me.
Disability is a part of this broken sin-filled world.
But God has so many beautiful things to say.
And so I’m filled with hope.
God’s words grow louder and louder in my life.
The glory of his grace and mercy grow stronger and stronger.
I need to listen to his words.
I want to listen to his words.
God’s words change everything.
God’s beautiful words have changed my life.
And that is how I live with disability.

http://theworksofgod.com/2012/11/20/gods-beautiful-words-have-changed-my-life-krista-horning/

http://counselingoneanother.com/2012/11/23/truth-that-shatter-the-lies-of-disability/

----------------------
Special Needs Children From God:
http://www.generationcedar.com/main/2010/07/children-with-disabilities-perfect-for-us.html

---------------------

My experience is that the absence of firm prior resolve results in regular rationalization. Like when to go to bed, etc. (quote from John Piper)

----------------------

He didn't say, "tolerate it with grim determination", but rather:
"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds... Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him." (James 1:2,12)

----------------------

http://connect2thevine.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/the-questions-should-rather-be-j-r-miller/

------------------------

God chooses what is foolish, and weak, and low, and depised in the world, to display His glory and to shame the wise and strong, that no one should boast except in Him. (1Cor.1:27-31). God values even the severely disabled: He made them; they are in His image; and in them He can display His glory more than in those who think themselves wise and strong. He loves dependence.

---------------------

“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him." (John 9:2-3). May the works of God then be displayed!

----------------------

Ian and Larissa. Read their story if you have not done so. http://prayforian.blogspot.com/p/our-writing.html?m=0


-------------
An abortion proponent agrees that life begins at conception, but holds that an unwanted baby is "a life worth sacrificing." Surely by this reasoning, any other inconvenient life is also worth sacrificing - the disabled, the elderly, the terminally ill - for the convenience of those who would otherwise be bothered by them. This is why every human life must be valued, especially by Christians. Otherwise no one has value once they become an inconvenience. "You knitted me together in my mother's womb" (Psalms 139:13) - this is no less true once they are old and infirm. Every human life must be valued, or else none can be.

http://theaquilareport.com/feminist-says-baby-is-a-life-worth-sacrificing/

-----------------------

  

Changes

Our family is in a time of transitions, changes.
New van (to us), acquired last week, to accommodate Peter's new special stroller (on loan to us)
New roof on our house (today - an army of guys banging away!)
Possibility of a job change for David within the same company
Hopeful prospect of building a different house sometime this year, God willing

Likelihood of putting the children in school rather than homeschooling, so I can focus on Peter's therapy for the next year. A great little Christian school (Bradford Academy) meets in our church facility, and we would be happy to have our kids there.  There is a sadness in giving up homeschooling (at least for a time). Yet I feel like I have already said goodbye to homeschooling and am just eager to finish out the year and be done now.  I think that's because the burden of getting Peter progressing in development, if possible, outweighs the desire to homeschool. It overshadows a lot of things, and it woud be easier to not have to have the responsibility of homeschooling right now.

Stromboli

One of our favorite meals currently:  Stromboli.  Kind of like pizza folded up.  We do the dough in the bread machine, but I'm sure you could just mix it by hand and let it rise in the bowl.  This recipe is from "The Bread Machine Cookbook II" by Donna German.

Stromboli

1 cup + 3 tbsp. water
2 tbsp. butter
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper
1 1/2 tsp. sugar
3 cups bread flour (I do up to 1/2 whole wheat)
2 1/2 tsp. yeast

When the dough is ready, roll it out into a big rectangle (I divide it in two and put half in each cookie sheet / jelly roll pan, then make each half into a rectangle). 

Put your ingredients down the middle third of the rectangle so they run the length of it.  Our favorite is ham and sausage with cheese.  Some people put pizza sauce on their filling as well before closing it up - we just pour sauce on top after it is cooked, for those who want sauce.

Fold one side of the dough over the filling, then the other side, to meet in the middle (or overlap some).  Pinch together, and pinch ends closed.

Turn it over (seam-side down) in the pan, and brush the top with olive oil.

Let rise 30 minutes. (Preheat your oven during this time).

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until done.