Scary Spud Facts

I am reading a Diabetes Care food book and discovered a frightening bit of information about the wonderful Potato and what we humans do to it an to ourselves in the process. When we fry a potato the greater the surface area we expose to fat or oils the more we change the potato.

We are dealing with one 3 oz potato prepared in 5 ways.

Raw or baked       0 grams of fat      65 calories

Roasted              5 grams of fat       155 calories

Fries large cut    12 grams of fat    220 calories

Fries small cut     15 grams of fat    265 calories

Chips 30 grams of fat 450 calories

Enough said!

Four Steps of Prayer

There are a variety of prayer formulas that are helpful for people who want to learn to pray. One is the four steps of prayer that I learned a long time ago and it works well for almost any prayer concern.

1. Praise God - Recognize in your mind and heart who you are praying to.

2. Thank God - Have an attitude of gratitude even in your most dire need.

3. Ask God - Request what  you need and even what you desire.

4. Listen for God - A quiet time of meditation listening for God before you say amen and close the prayer it vital. Some people who say that God never answers their prayer never take the time to listen and they miss the answers they are looking for.

May your have a rich prayer life in Praise, Thanksgiving, Asking and Listening.

Happy OR Not

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All of our emotions are a gift of God. Sometimes you’re going to feel angry. Other times you will feel sad. There will be times when you feel lonely, or any of the wide array of natural human emotions which are nowhere near being happy. You’re a human being; you’re supposed to feel those things when life takes a wrong turn. In fact, the desire to be happy all the time, to avoid feeling those “unpleasant” or “unwanted” emotions, is what leads many people to use drugs to change how they feel. As a healthy human being, you know that it is okay to not feel happy sometimes. You do not need to change how you feel at that moment your feelings will change as your circumstances change. In fact when you feel unhappy, accept how you feel, make your peace with it, and know that this too shall pass. Your unhappy state of mind is neither your identity nor your permanent state of being. This is simply how you feel in this moment and brighter feelings will come eventually. Use your gift of the natural medicine of humor to ease your way through rough moments of life. You’ll be amazed when you go back to review your journal to see that it all starts with a simple smile of knowing that the sun will return to your life.

Dealing With Past Wrongs

Is it right to apologize for the past?

Gordon Brown is planning to apologize for the British government’s role in sending thousands of children to former colonies in the 20th centur.

What difference can an apology make now?

Orphans and poor children were sent to Australia, Canada and elsewhere for a “better life”, but many were abused and ended up in institutions or as laborers on farms. Was the British government trying to do what was best for the children or just getting them out of their way? Who was really at fault? Who knows today?

The move comes as Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered an apology for the mistreatment of the children in Australia.

Should governments apologize for past policies and events? Does an apology go far enough? Can a current government really make amends for actions taken in history?

I can make an apology for things I have done but I don’t feel that I need to or can apologize for the things my father did. History is full of wrong doings that are long past. We can acknowledge that they happened and even be sad that it happened but never make amends for what another person did.

How far can we go in dealing with the past?

Faith Is ...

A popular cartoon series a few years back featured a boy and a girl under the title “LOVE IS…” and then it would have underneath something witty like, “Giving her a single red rose for no reason.” There were many versions of what Love Is.

Like love, faith has many aspects to consider. The writer of Hebrews wrote that “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” We often struggle with our faith, to know what it is and trying to find ways of expressing it. To find faith is to struggle with life, its meaning, and our relationship with God.

The journey to faith is not easy, for a faith untested is an unknown faith. It has to take the rough road, rough enough to give a real workout to the mind and muscle. The journey to faith in God is tough to take but worth the time and effort.

A faith tested and found true changes us, and we are reborn from God. Tested, our faith becomes an active power in our living and in our witness. It becomes a living unshakable confidence.

For most of us walking on a 2″ X 4″ piece of lumber on the floor is an easy thing to do. We have all the confidence in the world where falling off is no problem. Place that same piece of lumber thirty feet in the air and now it’s a problem. The wood has not changed…. Our confidence is in need of faith by experience. Circus tight rope walkers begin learning a foot off the ground and over time the rope is raised a foot at a time. The faith experience of Christian can begin in much the same way.

As we experience the actions of God in our lives and learn to trust a little more each day. When any one has an experience of actually doing Christian Ministry and feels the excitement of serving Christ their faith becomes stronger and there is a contagion that spread to those around them.