Giant Leaps of Faith into The New Year

"The Lord is your keeper; The Lord is your shade at your right hand.  The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.  The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul.  the Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore." Psalm 121:5-8

Have you ever taken "a giant leap of faith" and then second guessed yourself, had doubts and fears, and shaky knees?  I think that all goes along with the "giant leaping of faith" part...the shaky knees, the doubts, and the fears, the wondering whether or not you made the right decision or if you really heard the Lord correctly when you thought you heard Him say,

"This is the way, walk in it,"..."Whenever you turn to the right hand, or whenever you turn to the left."  Isaiah 30:21

Looking back over my life I can honestly say that we took some pretty big leaps of faith, when all the world around us was wondering what on earth had possessed us to make such huge changes and embark on what appeared to them to be a foolish journey into the unknown.  In hindsight, we have sometimes questioned whether or not we had actually made the right decision, or if we perhaps had acted precipitously instead of waiting on the Lord to guide us aright.  We've scratched our heads and retraced our steps to be certain that we had not been mistaken.  And yet, every time we had to come back and say, "yes, we did what we believed was God's will, and we acted in faith upon that inner prompting of our hearts that said, "This is the way..walk in it..."

As we approach another new year we look ahead with some fear and trepidation at what path we are to choose.  We could opt to stay where it is safe and warm and never venture out into the "unknown"...we could say, "I like my safe little cocoon, even when it appears to be shriveling up around me and drying up and dissolving in thin air"... and we could choose to just keep holding on to that fragile little leaf and refuse to let go and open up our wings and fly away like the beautiful butterfly God intended us to be.  But at what cost?  If the butterfly larvae refused to let go of it's cocoon, would it ever be a butterfly?  No, it would die on the vine, and never see the world of beauty in each flower of the field that was meant to provide nourishment for its journey.  It would never feel the joy of freedom of stretching out its wings and flying away into the bright sunny days of summer and reaching its destiny for life.

I don't know about you, but I really want to trust God to take me wherever He deems best...to lead me in the way of His plan for my life.  I want to look back on my life someday and say, "Thank you, Lord,  for leading me in the way everlasting...for allowing me the joy of experiencing all You had planned for me.  Thank you for helping me to take those giant leaps of faith into Your wonderful place of peace."  Amen.

WHAT ABOUT YOU?  WHERE WILL YOUR GIANT LEAP OF FAITH TAKE YOU THIS YEAR?

TRUST GOD...HE WILL NOT LEAD YOU ASTRAY.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Blessings from "My Three Sons" and "Santa's Workshop and Bakeshop"

This year Santa's elves have been quite busy here at the Steiner house...while one son was in the kitchen baking Sand Tarts from the old family recipe, another son was in the garage building a special shelf for our living room, to finish off the earlier project of a shelf unit that he built to house the components for the new flat screen TV that was also a Christmas gift to the family. 

My son Benton, in "Ben's Country Woodshop", making a special gift for us this Christmas too!





The antique door knobs came from my Dad's workshop, and
also the bookends with the gun handles were built by my Dad
quite a few years ago as a Christmas gift to my husband, who
was a State Trooper at the time.  The china plate in the
middle is one of our wedding gifts, the owl represents my
"Barred Owls" in our backyard and was a gift from my sister
Doris last year.  The ducks were gifts from a friend, and
I forget where the quail came from, but it finishes out
the collection of birds and special things....



 The thing that makes this shelf so special is not only the fact that our son made it himself, but he used special tools that he got from my Dad (his Grandpa's) workshop after Grandpa passed on to be with the Lord earlier this year. To finish off the shelf he attached three antique china doorknobs that also came from Grandpa's workshop.    

Our son Matthew (r) and his wife Nicole and our Grandson, Noah

I am blessed beyond measure...the gift from our other son, who lives in Maine and could not be here for this Christmas with us, is the fact that God has granted him another year of precious life.  He has been battling a rare cancer for the past almost two years, and every day that God gives him is a gift.  He recently had a biopsy of a growth that was giving great cause for concern for fear that the cancer was spreading to other parts of the body...and the wonderful, marvelous news this week was that there was NO sign of cancer in that growth.  Although the cancer is not completely gone from his body, it is not showing any signs of growth, and so we give God praise for this wonderful gift.

Myriads of "Heavenly Hosts" of angels...Praising God and Singing Hallelujah!!!

Grandma Mursch’s Sand Tarts

(Elva Hill Mursch )

(My Paternal Grandmother)
December 27, 1896-December 16, 1984

My Grandma Mursch always made these Sand Tart cookies for Christmas. They are from a wonderful old German recipe. In 1980 Grandma passed this recipe on to me so I could make it for my family. The first Christmas I made them, I wasn’t sure how many the whole recipe would make, and I needed a good cookie for the church cookie swap. My mother-in-law, Vivian Steiner, helped me roll and cut and bake the doubled - whole recipe, and we soon found out that it made about 18 dozen cookies! That was quite a task! I only needed 13 dozen for the cookie swap, and I was chagrined to discover that I was the only one who had gone to the trouble of baking a rolled and cut cookie for this event!

From then on, I usually only baked the Half Recipe, and it made more than enough cookies for our family and to share with others! As the years went on, I eventually taught our son, Scott, how to make these cookies so that he could continue the tradition. For the past few years he has baked these cookies as his Christmas gift to the family!  HERE IS A PICTURE OF SCOTT, WHO CAME BACK HOME THIS YEAR, AND IS BACK TO MAKING THE SAND TARTS FOR THE FAMILY AGAIN FOR CHRISTMAS!  THANK YOU SCOTT!!!!!

The secret to a good Sand Tart is to be sure to roll the dough real thin before cutting the cookies. The thinner cookies are crispier and tastier. Just be sure not to burn them! Also, for the brushed on glaze of egg wash, you need two egg yolks and about a tablespoon of milk mixed together to cover the ½ recipe. I buy the pre-sliced almonds to put on top. Use about two tablespoons of white sugar to one teaspoon of cinnamon mixed together in a shaker (I use a salt shaker) to sprinkle on the tops.

This recipe is a keeper…and should be passed down from generation to generation!

Sand Tarts

(Yield 8-9 dozen) (This is the Half Recipe)

Mix Together:

• 1 ¼ lb. Butter
• 3 eggs
• 2 lbs. Brown Sugar

Then add 2 lb. Flour

Roll real thin and cut with cookie cutters. Brush tops with yolk of egg beaten with a little milk. Put a sliced almond on top and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Bake at 350 degrees for 6-8 minutes.

My Son Scott carrying on the family tradition of making Sand Tarts at Christmas (2011)

Enjoy!

THESE ARE JUST A FEW OF MY CHRISTMAS BLESSINGS THIS YEAR.  I THANK THE LORD FOR ANSWERED PRAYER IN SO MANY WAYS....BEHIND THE SCENES OF THESE PICTURES THERE ARE BIGGER AND BETTER STORIES TO BE TOLD...AND I GIVE GOD PRAISE.

HAVE YOU STOPPED TO THANK GOD FOR YOUR CHRISTMAS BLESSINGS THIS YEAR?

The BEST GIFT OF ALL!!!