Monday, October 31, 2011

The First Commandment—A look at the chapter one of Be Fruitful and Multiply


“The very first recorded words that man ever heard from the mouth of God were these: “Be fruitful, and multiply’”

I never thought about this before. The very first command God gives us is the command to bear children yet this seems to be the one command that most people, even Christians, seem to ignore. I’ve heard many reasons why it is okay for Christians to stop their seed or take the chance of aborting their seed (through hormonal birth control), but none of the reasons given support God’s first command to us—be fruitful and multiply.

One of the excuses that people often use is “We can’t afford children (or more children).” I can go on an on about how you need to trust God to equip you to take care of what He gives, but I won’t at this time. I want to bring up Jeremiah 29:6 to you. He tells the Israelites, “Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished.” This word was given to the Israelites while they were in captivity! They did not have a lot of money. They did not have huge homes. They didn’t take vacations or whatever the reason why people won’t have more children, but God told them to multiply anyway! And why did He tell them to multiply—so “that ye may be increased there, and not diminished”! Just like back in Exodus when the Israelites left Egypt, the Egyptians were scared because they were large in number! The only way they could have grown so large was to continue multiplying even though they were slaves.

Another excuse people often use is the issue of “overpopulation”. This was brought to the forefront today when it was announced on the news that the world population has reached 7 billion people. That sounds like a lot of people, but back in 2003, the world population would fit inside the state of Texas with each person having 2,000 square feet! I think this world is plenty big enough for 7 billion people! All the reasons people give for overpopulation being an issue—space, lack of food, lack of resources, etc.—is due to mismanagement of what God has given us. We don’t need to stop having children; we need to teach our children proper management of the earth.

Something else to think about is “A growing population is necessary for a successful economic climate.” If there are more people working, there are more people spending money, therefore pushing the economy. While I know that unemployment numbers are up, I also know that a large amount of that is because people do not want to take lower paying jobs and would rather collect “free” money from the government instead of working. Of course, that is a whole different topic so I won’t discuss that further. More people in a family means more work can be done for the better of the family.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Cinnamon Roll Bread

I found a recipe yesterday that made my mouth water--Cinnamon Roll Bread! Everyone in my family loves cinnamon rolls but because they take so long, I rarely make them. This is a great alternative. I had to multiply the recipe and then I decreased sugar and butter and discovered I can decrease both of those even more which will help make it a little healthier. I actually doubled the recipe below and made two 9x13 pans for my family. We had about 1/3 of one pan leftover. Here is my version of Cinnamon Roll Bread.

Cinnamon Roll Bread

1 cup very warm water
1 tbsp yeast
2 tbsp evaporated cane juice crystals
2 tbsp melted butter
1 tsp salt
3 cups flour (I mixed 1 1/2 cups whole grain spelt and 1 1/2 cups sifted spelt)
6  tbsp cold butter
2/3 cup sugar (white or brown or a combination--I would use 1/3 cup evaporated cane juice crystals and 1/3 cup brown sugar made from evaporated cane juice crystals and molasses)
1 1/2 tbsp cinnamon
2 tbsp flour

Pour water in large bowl and sprinkle yeast and tablespoon of sugar over the surface.  Allow to sit for a few minutes to get foamy.  Add in butter and salt.  Add flour and mix in mixer with dough hook.  Place dough in a greased or oiled bowl and cover with a tea towel.  Place in a warm place and let rise for 15 minutes. 

While that’s happening, combine cold butter, sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a small bowl and cut together using a fork, a pastry cutter, or your fingers.  You’re forming a buttery streusel-y type material here.  Set that aside. Whip up a batch of your favorite glaze.  I just used some powdered sugar with a little bit of milk.


By now, your timer’s probably gone off, so grab your bowl of dough and punch it down.  It won’t be super-puffy, and that’s totally fine.  Press the dough into a greased 9x13 baking pan.  (If it keeps “shrinking” on you, just let it rest for a few minutes, then try again.)   Sprinkle the “streusel” mixture all over the surface of the dough.  No need for a second rise here.  Bake in a 400 degree oven for 18-20 minutes.
 While still warm, drizzle or pour the glaze/frosting over the surface.  Cut into pieces and enjoy the flavor of fresh-baked cinnamon rolls… all in less than a half hour.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Susan G. Komen

I read an article about the Susan G. Komen Foundation at Butter Believer: Have Faith in Real Food and was shocked at most of what was written. While I have agreed for a while that money could be better spent in preventing cancer or finding a natural way to cure it, I didn't realize the foundation was as big as it is or that it didn't use funds as effectively as it should.

Please know that by posting this link that I am not saying that we shouldn't fight against breast cancer. I agree that breast cancer is a nasty disease and it seems to attack some unlikely people. I agree that awareness needs to be made; however, I think the awareness needs to be on what we are doing to our bodies to support cancer, feed cancer, etc. than just awareness that it exists. I agree that we need to support those around us who are dealing with this nasty disease, but I think it should be done with personal support such as prayer (you can do this from anywhere), preparing meals, helping with house chores, watching children, giving personal financial support instead of giving money to an organization that seems to put so little to actually helping those suffering from the disease.

I am sure I will receive some unfavorable comments because I am not "following the crowd", but I'm standing for my beliefs. I pray you will think about your response before posting and if a discussion/debate ensues that it is done in a peaceful way.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Be Fruitful & Multiply

Team Carmichael--October 2011

The book Be Fruitful and Multiply by Nancy Campbell was suggested to me years ago by someone who was trying to encourage me. I believe it was when I was pregnant with the twins and people were telling us we should give them up for adoption because we had too many already. Well, I didn’t have a copy of it so I didn’t read it. Then last year I saw a copy of it at a local resale store so I picked it up thinking I should get around to reading it soon. Two weeks ago, I read a comment about the book on a blog and it got me thinking about it again. I found it on my bookshelf and opened it up.

I have to say that it hit me from the first section—the foreword by Doug Phillips. I want to share just two quotations that really hit home for me.

“How sad to think that someday we will get to Heaven and learn of the untold millions of children that were inadvertently aborted by their Christian parents—all because of lack of faith and ignorance. “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge.”

This made me cry as I am one of those people who mourn for the babies that we may have inadvertently aborted earlier in our marriage. We were deceived into thinking that it was the “proper” thing to do to take birth control pills. It wasn’t until after the birth of our second that I learned how the birth control pill actually works. When I told Chad about it, we decided together that there was no way we could now continue using it. It was the beginning of our journey to become quiverful minded.

“We are the problem. And judgment must begin with us. As long as we continue to abort our babies, or cut off our seed, or abandon our children to the world, we can never expect blessing and joy within our households, let alone our culture.”

This sums up how we feel. People can pray for blessings all day long, but if they are denying the blessing of children, then they are missing out on so much more than they could ever imagine.

I am so looking forward to reading the rest of this book. I am praying I have time to post my comments, thoughts, and feelings about this book (and this topic in general) in the coming days. Because of my busy schedule, I don’t know when I’ll have time to sit down and read again (let alone time to type my thoughts), but please continue to watch for more posts. I encourage you to post your thoughts and ideas as well. I do kindly ask that it doesn’t become a place to post angry thoughts and unkind words. I will be looking at this from a biblical perspective and I ask you do the same.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Will Life Ever Slow Down Again?!

I can't believe it has been almost three weeks since I posted and even then it was just a link to my post on another site. I have been so busy that I had 174 unread emails this morning  because I can't even sit and read all my emails in a day and they have just continued to pile up. I have been doing at least one canner load of something every day in addition some home improvement projects (we built a barn and put in a door where there used to be a window), switching out the clothes for the new, colder season and therefore having to do some sewing for those girls who didn't have enough clothes.

I am really hoping to be able to get back into writing at least once a week. I just started a new book today and it is my hope to blog my thoughts on what I read. Hopefully my first post on it will be tomorrow.