Sarah Bowling

something tasty

sarahbowling — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:54:01 +0000

I mentioned the other day that I was making a lemon cake & had some fairly positive feedback on how it turned out, so I’ve decided to momentarily diverge and pass along the recipe. Please note that I make no claims on it being healthy – it’s not. And I got it off of the bag of lemons that I bought at Walmart, so don’t have any “Martha Stewart” expectations ,)

Lemon Pudding Cake:

3 lemons

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup AP flour

1/4 tspn salt

3 large eggs separated

1 cup milk at room temp

4 Tblspn butter melted & cooled

Preheat oven to 300f, butter 8×8 inch baking pan. Finely grate 2 tspn zest and squeeze 1/3 cup juice from the lemons, set aside. Combine dry ingredients, whisk together yolks, milk, butter, lemon zest & juice; add to flour mixture. Whisk to combine. Beat egg whites to soft peaks and fold into batter. The batter will be thin. Pour into prepared baking dish & bake for about 35-40min until golden. I’d recommend chilling before serving. Enjoy!!

a benefit from being injured

sarahbowling — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 02:08:17 +0000

Well, I have to make a confession – I tried to snowboard on a sprained ankle. I thought I had recovered enough to enjoy some riding w my family, but alas, I was sorely mistaken, in the literal sense. So unfortunately, my choices were to be in pain all day, slow down my family who would have to wait for me all the time & risk further injury or sit on the sidelines while my family enjoyed a great day of skiing. Grrrrrrrr. At this point in my life, I don’t see the X Games in my future, but I do have to be up to speed for some upcoming Saving Moses travel. So I opted for the sideline view of a beautiful mountain.

Here’s the great part of this stupid injury – each of my kids took a turn to hang out with me so I’d not be alone. Just so you know, I have no problem being alone, but to have solo quality time with each of my kids is nothing less than sublime bliss. Maybe when we are forced to slow down, it helps us to appreciate what is so vital in all of our lives – relationships. This is a unique perspective on what Paul said in Philippians 3 – I want to know Christ and the fellowship of His suffering, along with the power of His resurrection. We often follow strength, but some of the best fellowship can occur around hardship, suffering & difficulty. Selah

something from my recent small group

sarahbowling — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 01:46:08 +0000

This last Sat, I had my small group study & we’re watching a video series. This last Sat was our 2nd video & one of my friends was walking by & commented about how pink the color of the picture was on the TV. I thought his comment was funny & said that it was this pink last week – “Was it supposed to be a different color?”, I asked. He explained that the pink was definitely a color aberration. So we both looked around at the DVD player & noticed that the blue plug was unplugged from the back of the player. When he plugged it in, suddenly the color on the TV screen lost the overpowering pink tones and cleared up into a more normal scheme. I laughed because I would have just kept on watching the pink DVD & thought nothing of a color problem.

So here’s my point: I think that if we don’t allow the Holy Spirit to express Himself in our lives, we’ll walk around in deception, thinking that a “pink” life is normal. The reason I say this is because one of the first descriptions that Jesus gives of the Holy Spirit, is the Spirit of truth (John 14:16-17). One of the greatest needs in my life is for the Holy Spirit to immunize me from self-deception because I can most certainly throw out some very convincing self-deception schemes. I want to love Truth more than deception

Something that helps me connect w God

sarahbowling — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:10:50 +0000

Today, we get to have a family day with some skiing & fun family activities. One of the things I love about my family is the diversity of ways that love is expressed among ourselves, despite the normal teasing that can go w siblings. Nevertheless, it’s lots of fun to see how my 8 year old son expresses love & how this is different from how my 11 year old daughter expresses love.
This has all got me to thinking about God’s love. It’s an absolutely outrageous adventure when I begin to think about God’s love. The more I think about God’s love & the diverse ways that His love is expressed the more captivated & riveting this love becomes to me.
* God’s love is expressed to us through our various relationships
*God’s love is expressed to us in various situations
*God’s love is expressed to us in our desires to help others & to be a blessing
What are some more ways that you’ve experienced God’s love?

This is a good mistake to avoid!

sarahbowling — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 03:25:53 +0000

I’ve been thinking lately about Adam & Eve with the whole Garden fiasco. That was really a bad day for humanity & despite our Father’s magnificent redemption of humanity, there have been several occasions when I wish Eve would have made some different choices.
I think that one of her big mistakes was to have a conversation w the serpent / devil. And yet I think that sometimes we make her same mistake without realizing it. Here are some ways that we talk with or entertain the devil, his lies & deceptions:
*insecurity – we listen far too often to his accusations & utter nonsense about who we are rather than basing our identity on what God says about us
*ego / pride – “all of that & a bag of chips!”. Really??? It is only through Christ that we are truly invaluable, priceless & supremely desirable
*worry / fear – I don’t think that the devil sets the “worry or fear trap” about things on which we are strong. However, wherever there is a weakspot, that’s where he will plant worry, uncertainty, concern & even fretful thoughts or anxieties, be that about the future, health, relationships, etc
Can you think of other “conversation traps” that the devil lays for you???

Making things easy

sarahbowling — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 02:08:26 +0000

I was recently backing out of a parking space & didn’t see a mom walking w her kids. Thankfully, I didn’t hit anyone but I felt really bad! I quickly rolled down my window & apologized, explaining that I didn’t see them & that I was super sorry. The mom was very understanding & gracious, whew!!
So here’s my point:
*I want to make it easy for people to forgive me – admitting fault quickly & honestly helps w this
*I want to make it easy for people to be polite to me – being respectful is a great platform for this
*I want to make it easy for people to help me – being less independent is my challenge on this one
*I want to make it easy for people to thank me – being quick to help is a good starting point
I want to make the lives of others better & not more difficult. Let’s all aim for this goal

Pay Attention!

sarahbowling — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:39:38 +0000

We pay attention to lots of different things: the bell on our phone that tells us we have a text message, the street light as we wait for it to turn red, our mate when they need help, our boss when they’re giving us our Performance Review, etc. There are lots of things to which we give our attention & not all of those things have a good return on investment, if you think about “paying” your attention as a means of investment.
So in my opinion, there are some are some attention non-negotiables, like our family, job, school, etc. For our optional attention, I’d suggest that we should be mindful to what we pay attention & make sure that the return on our attention is worth what we’ve paid. To me, paying attention to God isn’t an optional choice – I’ve found that I consistently need God involved throughout my life & I’ve never regretted paying attention to God. His return on investment far exceeds the attention that I pay to Him ,)

sometimes I get jittery

sarahbowling — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:21:20 +0000

I had some experiences today that had the potential to make me nervous, jittery & anxious – all for good reasons that don’t need the details here. But I think that we all struggle with being anxious, nervous & jittery for various reasons. Hopefully, this might provide some helpful ideas:

It always helps me when I’m anxious or jittery to take a minute & fix my thoughts on Jesus – gives me some good perspective
When I’m nervous, I want to be mindful that I’m not snappy with people because, then I feel bad in addition to feeling nervous
If I have some long-term nervousness going on, sometimes I’ll stop & make a list of the good things that God has done (inventory God’s faithfulness); this helps me to adjust my trust off of the anxiety & onto Jesus
asking a friend to pray can also be very helpful
God also reminded me one time that He has more answers than I have questions & that He has more solutions than I have problems – that was super helpful!!

Ps 55:22 says to cast our cares on the Lord because He cares for us.

Does someone frustrate you?

sarahbowling — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 15:32:32 +0000

Recently, I had some interaction w a person that really gets under my skin. I don’t like this person for various reasons that are of course justified in my mind. So last night, God & I had a chat about this person. I was explaining to God how it was ok for me to be cold to this person because I had tried to be nice & respectful on many occasions and they had been super rude back to me. God reminded me about how Jesus said to be kind to our enemies – not just to try & get them to be nice back. Jesus said to love our enemies, full stop. So ultimately, how a person responds to me, isn’t my responsibility. It is, however, my responsibility on how I behave & treat others.

With that being said, unless God does something miraculous, I’ll probably never be “friends” with this person, but at the minimum, I can be nice. May God help you & me to be gracious, kind & nice

Something very good about Valentines Day

sarahbowling — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 04:39:38 +0000

Thankfully, my kids are at the age where romance is generally considered disgusting & repulsive. Additionally, I have some single friends who don’t relish the Valentine’s Day festivities – they call Valentines Day SAD: single awareness day.
But here’s a little twist to consider: love has a wide variety of expressions that have nothing to do w romance. There is parental love, spiritual love, a child’s love for their parents, friendship love & lots more. But ultimately, the greatest reason to celebrate Valentines Day is that you are perfectly loved by your heavenly Father & He demonstrates His love for us in many different ways throughout each day of our lives. Indeed, God’s love for you is FIRE: flawless, infinite, relentless & extravagant. May you experience God’s rich love for you on this day when we celebrate love