Monday, October 30, 2017

Easy Keto Caramel



Ingredients

  • 4 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 4 tbsp heavy cream
  • 1 tsp erythritol
  • 1 pinch salt

Instructions
  1. Melt the butter in a small pan and let it cook until golden brown. This will give the caramel deeper flavor.

  2. Pour in heavy cream and stir until combined. Lower the heat and simmer for a minute.

  3. Add in sweetener of choice, we used erythritol. Let that dissolve for a minute. Add a pinch of salt as well. If you’d like to make salted caramel, add more salt.
  4. Let it cook until you see it getting thicker and stickier.
  5. If you see your butter and cream are separating, you can pour the mixture into a Nutribullet and blend to help them combine.
  6. Pour the caramel into a container, preferably glass, and continue to stir while it cools and thickens more to ensure your sauce is not two layered.
  7. To use right away, pour over your dessert of choice! You may also refrigerate the caramel for later use, but it will harden and will need to be soften to be pourable/dippable.


Monday, October 9, 2017

Love Your Enemy And Trust God

Learn how to love your enemy and trust God . . . 

Here is the underlying issue with all the hate, slander, and killing in our world . . . It's revenge and taking matters into our own hands so we feel we are in control of our lives and the mentality of "no one will get the best of me" or "I'll show them". 

But what's underneath that mindset is the lack of letting go and letting God work and fight for you. He has already won the battle and will take care of your enemy in His own timeframe. And that's what people apart from God and without faith can not handle . . . waiting for their enemy to get what's coming to them. 

God tells us in  Romans 12:9 "Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord'"

When you step in and take matters in to your own hands, you get in the way of God working for you and the blessing He has waiting on the other side of the struggle. Yes they slandered your name, they caused you financial hardships, and took you down a path you never intended to go. 

Your path is now harder because of the enemy, but it will get a lot easier when you step back, pray, and let God open and close doors for the next part of the journey. The journey might last months or it might last years, but God will bring you through it stronger and better with many blessings waiting. Your job is to figure out how to forgive the person that did you wrong and pick up the pieces the best you can and grow even closer to God. God is taking care of the enemy in His way and will work in that person's life appropriately. 

So while you pray for yourself to come out of the struggle, pray for your enemy to be changed and grow closer to God also. Why did your enemy feel they needed to do that to you? What are their struggles and they obviously need to know God will fight for them and they do not need to slander you to make their life better. 

When we see killings on the news or people slandering others, it's a heart thing and it's a control thing. It's a God thing! 

When people accept Jesus and live for God, they are called to give up revenge. Which means give up control and give it to God. It won't be easy and it won't be painless and it usually will not be immediate, but it will be worth it!!! 

Why is it so important we overcome our desires to revenge and our boiling bitterness? It's where anger is born and where the verbal and physical hate crimes originate. Yes, you want justice and you want it now. But this is for instant pleasure and for short lived happiness. To get long lasting eternal joy, pride and the desire to control your happenings has to be released. You will continually be on a roller coaster of emotions that one day may cost you everything. Learn how to love your enemy and trust God! 

Y'all . . . Daniel and I have been there and done that . . . Slander and accusations many many years ago that were false and proven false but still impacted our life. It was against Daniel and I wanted to go head first and ruin some people (yep I was angry then) and Daniel taught me how to back up and let God have control. Daniel went for faith based advice on what to do about the lies and they taught him about spiritual warfare. The enemy is real and waiting to kill and steal your joy and life. 

 It was hard and I had to dig deep and learn a lot about God and His ways. Revenge could have done some damage to the people that did Daniel wrong and made our situation right and our lives would be completely different right now. 

But you know what? What I thought I wanted is exactly opposite of what we are living and we have joy in all circumstances now! I changed my heart towards the enemy and my mindset. I grew to be trusting of the blessing that comes out of the storms. I learned to open my mind and heart for the lessons God could teach me during the tough times. 

An incredible blessing came to our family today that wraps up what storm and spiritual warfare began 12 years ago!!! It was a heavenly hug that reminded us that God provides exactly what you need at the exact moment. 

Give your desires and your struggles to God and step back and let Him work!!!! It is sooooo worth it! 

 • Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:32

 • If you do not forgive others . . . neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Matthew 6:15

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Lessons of the Game




It is a true blessing to see my oldest taking action towards his passion of playing college baseball . . . I pray each day that God will allow that mound to be one of the platforms for his purpose of glorifying God. 

Passion, Action, Purpose. . . 

My son was not always the most talented, but he was very passionate about the game of baseball and learned from the lessons it taught him. He grew in his determination and persevered through the difficult times and failures. He used the failures as a stepping stone to the next victory. He grew in his ability as his growth mindset grew. He had a growth mindset that he was going to achieve it for himself and for God. And that no man could get in the way of what God had planned. He continued to work hard and walked through the open doors and moved away from closed doors. The knowledge of God's will came through prayer and trusting through faith that God was allowing one door to open as He closed another. My oldest did not allow his mindset to grow stagnate from his past, but he developed a growth mindset for the present and future. So much more than a game . . . it is lessons on how to develop a mindset of optimism, purpose, resilience, courage, and even self-esteem.


5 Steps to a Growth Mindset

In order to become the best version of yourself and live abundantly, you must believe that you can make changes and you have the capability to achieve greatness. Believe that you can reach the top of the mountain and shout victory! Do you believe you can achieve your goals and make your passion part of your life? If you don't, know that you can and you will. I believe in you and so does God. We can come out of our hopelessness and choose joy. 

Many of us become stagnate in our mindset and do not allow ourselves to grow into our potential. We hold ourselves back from the life we want because of our past roadblocks. There are ways to ignite our stagnate mindset into a growth mindset. 

1. Embrace your imperfections - First, you must realize that you are not and never will be perfect. You must embrace your imperfections and learn how to accommodate your weaknesses. If we were perfect than we would not be dependent on God. God made us exactly the way He wanted us. He can take care of the needs that we alone can not.

2. Look for the lesson - When life brings hardships and struggles, do not look at the situation as life being against you. Look at the hardships as an opportunity to learn a lesson. The lesson will prepare you for the journey ahead. Take joy in knowing that God is working on you, so you are ready for the blessings ahead. When you begin to look at difficult times as a self-improvement time, you will see situations as a blessing instead of looking at it as failure or time of hopelessness. 

3. Do it for yourself - Do not make decisions on your future and sacrifice your growth mindset on the approval of others. Do not let your pride get in the way. Your hope does not come from man but from God. Your approval of victory does not come from man but from God. You want to love and do for others around you, but at the same time you can not allow the fear of someone's opinion make you stagnate in your growth. 

4. Realize it's a journey - It will take time to cultivate a mindset of growth. You will go through many trials, but each time your mind will become stronger and stronger at resisting the lies that the devil likes to feed your mind. The devil comes to steal our joy through reminding us of our past failures and the approval of others. As we continue to strengthen our minds and begin to let go of the lies, we will begin to have peace and joy as we move into the life of abundance we are meant to have, but we have to realize that growth is a journey and takes time. We will have setbacks and we use those to continue towards the end result of choosing joy even when life is hard. Don't quit when life gives you a setback, persevere and come out on the other side of the hardship as a stronger person ready to live abundantly.  


5. It is not meaningless - Whatever is going on in your life, it is not going to be wasted. God has a perfect plan for each one of us. He can take difficulties and make them work for His glory. God can use our struggles to make us ready for greatness. He can use our situation to help others get through their situation. When we make it to the top of the mountain and shout victory, we then can come down and grab others that are struggling and show them how to conquer the same mountain. To live abundantly, we will have purpose in our pain. We will have lessons of growth for ourselves, but those lessons will allow us to give back to those that are struggling the way we did. Live abundantly by choosing to share the knowledge you gained on your journey.