Saturday, September 8, 2012

FAIL BLOG!

Yesterday I made these really delightful almond cupcakes (I didn't have time to take pictures - I had a lot to do while making cupcakes... oh multitasking), and the recipe called for a salted caramel frosting. Anytime I hear "salted" and "caramel" together, it make me think of the salted caramel hot chocolate you can get from Starbucks (which is DELICIOUS). So I was all about trying this new caramel frosting.
 

I will shorten the caramel frosting story: 3 tries, 2 different recipes, and a text message later I finally asked a friend to buy me caramel frosting! I just plain fail to make my own caramel frosting, and I think I will stick to my own recipe I found last fall... you don't have to boil sugar.

Malcolm (the wonderful man that he is) asked me if I had taken pictures for the blog. He has asked me this before after fails, and whether I have or not their is a piece of me that wants to go, "Why on earth would I show the entire internet world (my 3 followers) what a failure I am? I have plenty of success that are way more worth the time to blog about." And almost every time, this wonderful man I married reminds me of what a great correlation their is between our failures in light of God's grace - I can't help but agree.

 (I will just post pictures of the fails I have documented... please enjoy.)

Ah yes, apple fritters. I don't think I had the oil hot enough, so they just soaked up a ton of it (as you can see the powdered sugar soaking it up). Malcolm and I felt sick after eating them.

I think all of us have at least a little portion of us that doesn't want to fail. We all want to show that we put together people who don't need help or don't mess up. We don't want people to see that we trip, slip, fall, dribble (I dribble water all over my face quite often) our way through life because that's simply not cool. 

But if we step back and take a look at the big picture we will see that EVERYONE has failed! Romans 3:10-12 says, 
"As it is written: 'There is no one righteous, not even one;there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.'"


I think I blogged about this one already, but it's alright. I made 5 jars of chicken broth and put them in the freezer. I didn't leave enough space at the top (like the directions told me to), so when they expanded in the freezer the jars cracked. We lost 3 good jars to cook's error that day...


And if that wasn't blatant enough, it goes on to say in verse 23, "...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God..."

It doesn't matter how smooth we are (or seem to be), because we can never be smooth enough. 
It doesn't matter if we try to be really (even REALLY) good people - it's just never enough. I have a handful of examples, but one of my favorite examples is if all of human kind lined up on the east coast of the U.S. and we're all going to swim to Spain. Olympic swimmers could probably make it farther than any other, but could they make it all the way across the Atlantic Ocean? (Answer - NO) I would make it up to my knees in water before I would give up! Either way, it doesn't matter how much or how little good we do - we just can't be perfectly perfect that is required to get to God.


I was really into reading Chronicles of Narnia (still finishing the books), but I was inspired to make Turkish Delight after reading The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. It was suppose to be sticky, but solidified. After a week in the refrigerator, mine stayed runny. After some research, I found out that it is really hard to make, and homemade Turkish Delight is a rarity. I was bummed.

It's not enough that we have had Godly people raise us or even in our lives because in the grand scheme of things we are responsible for ourselves. The first part of Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death..." Just like if you work a job and earn wages for your time their, your money is yours. It may go towards and effect (or affect? I'm terrible with English) others around you, but the check is made out to you. It's the same with our wrongdoings (or sin). If you have sinned (which we all have), then you have earned death - which is a spiritual separation from God and an eternity headed to hell - to be honest and frank with you all.


Baking cookies usually require a dainty touch or even a hint of carefulness to hands - which I swear I just don't have! Here is a keen example of this. These were candy cane cookies I baked last Christmas. It is a lot harder to twist cookie dough to look all pretty like than it looks in the books! I don't know how my mom made so many beautiful cookies at Christmas.


Talk about a fail blog! We have failed miserably! But, it doesn't have to end there. Romans 5:6-8 says, "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

We didn't do anything to earn God's favor, or to even prove that Jesus should die for us. He just did it! 

You know Romans 3:23 I mentioned earlier? Want to see the verses that sandwich them?

Romans 3:22-24, "This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."

(*gaping mouth*)

Now let's finish Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."


These were some of my favorite cookies as a kid. (I will probably blog about them sometime, because they do turn out to be tasty.) But I feel like every time I make them I forget to grease my cookie sheets - which I have decided that if a recipe says you don't have to, I will ignore them. These cookies ALWAYS stick to the cookie sheet and then I'm forced to serve them in crumbles rather than cookies!


 We don't have to stay in the failure of our sin! God has a marvelous gift ready for us all, but we need to receive it. We must individually chose to open this gift.

Romans 10:9-13 explains how we open this gift,
"That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, 'Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.' For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile--the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, 'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'"

Opening this gift is not just agreeing with what I've been talking about intellectually. It's a personal choice to put your faith in Jesus Christ and to follow Him as an act of your will. Though emotions may follow your choice, opening God's gift is not a mere emotional experience. 

If you haven't made this choice to open this gift that God is presenting to you, you can make that choice today. Choosing to follow Christ doesn't mean every day will be rosy and perfect, but He does promise to give you a full life of meaning and purpose, filled with true peace, satisfaction,  and love that is beyond what anyone or anything can offer you.


I was into this big fresh fruit into cupcakes phase last spring (which I had some AMAZING outcomes), but after this fail I took a step back. These are blackberry mango cupcakes. I took a recipe for mango cupcakes and adapted them. I really am no good at trying to figure out my own recipes! As you see them here, they came out looking a lot like they do now, just more brownish (which made them look even worse)! They didn't even taste all that great. This is by far one of my biggest fails in cooking!!


If you want to make that choice right now, you can pray right now. Prayer isn't anything fancy - it's simply just talking to God. God knows your heart. He really isn't concerned so much with the right word combination as much as is with the attitude of your heart. Here is a suggested prayer:

Lord Jesus, I'm a failure when it comes to being good enough. I want to have a real relationship with you - one that I can know you personally. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. I ask you to come into my life as Lord and Savior. Thank you for forgiving me and giving me eternal life with you. Please make me the kind of person you want me to be.

If you prayed that, you can know right now that your eternity is set! You have a relationship with Christ that can't be taken away, and you have entered into a big family of people that will love you - me being one of them! I also encourage you, if you have made this decision, please tell someone today - tell me if you feel comfortable doing so!!

Here are some links to help you get started:

•If you still have questions about making a decision or if you made this decision but have a lot of questions go to www.everystudent.com or http://eternityimpact.blogspot.com/p/god-solution.html

•If you want some resources to help you get started in this new relationship you have begun today, please visit www.startingwithgod.com

1 comment:

  1. You are not alone! I ALWAYS fail when making those candy cane cookies! My mother-in-law can get them right every time! PS--Ask my family about the squash soup I made one time...terrible! -Haley-

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