December 2014 blessed magazine

How To Reduce Holiday Cleaning Stress – Cleaning For Company

BLESSED December, 2014/January, 2015

M A G A Z I N E

10 Tips to Save Time in the Kitchen

Living On A Tight Budget Ways To Improve Your Financial Situation in 2015 40 Foot Plunge and I’m Still Alive US $12.99

FOR$19.99

Confessions Sex-Starved Single Ways to Create a Peaceful Bedroom Oasis

How God Healed Our Marriage

How to Stop Living from Paycheck to Paycheck

DECEMBER / JANUARY Contents How God Healed Our Marriage

36 This story is a true-life account of how I never thought my marriage relationship could get as far down as it did

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Ways to Create a Peaceful Bedroom Oasis

How to Stop Living from Paycheck to Paycheck

These easy strategies from feng shui (the ancient Chinese art of placement) will help you feel much more relaxed in your home.

Today, this article will shed some light on how you can ‗Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck‘ once and for all

How to Reduce Holiday Cleaning Stress – Cleaning For Company

48 Photo Credit: Shutterstock

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The holidays can be a crazy time, but one thing that can make everything much smoother and reduce holiday cleaning stress is to plan ahead. Try these easy ideas to make everything easier!

BLESSED MAGAZINE Ordinary People Living Extraordinary Lives Through the Love and Power of Jesus Christ

Confessions of a Sex-Starved Single

40 Foot Plunge and I’m Still Alive

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Ways to Improve Your Financial Situation in 2015 Diane says I think about sex too much and must learn to master my bodily urges.

10 Tips to Save Time in the Kitchen

63 It all happened in an instant, in a blink of an eye, but it felt like an eternity. As she blinked her eyes again as the truck showed no sign of slowing down.

82 Injecting a little efficiency into your kitchen routine will save you time and make you feel more in control

Great Recipes That Please All – Page 88

Here are ten things you can do to improve your financial situation. Each one can easily be done in fifteen minutes

Living On A Tight Budget You'll see some tips that may help you save more money and have more fun at the same time.

74 Click image to download your free copy

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Disclaimer This magazine contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding & education in persecution, religious freedom, freedom of worship, human rights and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/us code/17/107

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Letter From the Editor

Praise the Lord My Brothers and Sisters in Christ!

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I am so excited to bring you another issue of Blessed Magazine filled with articles to spark your interest as well as provide insight for your walk with the Lord!

As with every issue, I encourage you to read each article with an open mind, open heart and if at any time you have questions or need to contact the author, please reach out to us here We are always open to aspiring writers, bloggers and commentators to send us their work for consideration of being featured in our magazine If you would like to submit an article, please contact us at contact@blessedmagazine.org I also want to thank our many subscribers and readers of Blessed Magazine as well as our advertisers.

Again, please enjoy this issue of Blessed Magazine and if you are not a subscriber, subscribe today by visiting www.blessedmagazine.org

Yours in Christ,

Laraine Turner Editor in Chief

BLESSED MAGAZINE

Ways to Create a Peaceful Bedroom Oasis

Rope Knot Doorstop - Twine Ball $40.00 (Uncommon Goods)

These easy strategies from feng shui (the ancient Chinese art of placement) will help you feel much more relaxed in your home.

Use just-so details to make the room. A rope-knot doorstop, vase of freshly cut flowers, soft fringed throw and tray for coffee add the right finishing touches to make your bedroom feel wonderfully coddling.

Styling tip: Two big Eurosize pillows with proper shams makes a bed look more finished — and can be useful for propping you up in bed to read. Those plus your regular pillows are all you really need. Much more than that, and you risk veering into over-decorated pillow land.

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Coffee Serving Tray $9.99 (Target)

BLESSED MAGAZINE

Restonic Euro Square Pillow (2) $30.59 (Overstock) Flower Arranging 101 1. Create a foundation with foliage.

This is the framework for the arrangement. Build a pleasing, asymmetrical shape that leans on the lip of the vase and has a high point in back. Make sure it‘s not too thick, so there‘s room for the flowers.

2. Add large ―face‖ flowers, cutting stems at different lengths so some blooms nestle low and others extend. The crisscrossed foliage stems in the vase work like webbing to hold flowers where you want them. Take your time, experimenting until it looks good.

Bamboo And Cotton Throw $110 (Burke Decor)

3. Weave in wispy elements, like climbing flowering vines or ferns, in three strategic spots: up high on one side, down low (spilling out of the vase), and in the middle, as if they‘ve pushed their way through a cluster of larger blooms.

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BLESSED MAGAZINE You probably already know that your bedroom should be your safe haven… your oasis… your special place. It makes sense… I mean, after all, it is the place you end your day with and begin your day with. ​Shouldn‘t your bedroom decorating make you smile and feel comforted? ​

Well, if you choose to not be in your bedroom until it‘s dark outside, here are some bedroom design ideas that will create a calming, relaxing space Paint your bedroom in your favorite color. Waking up to a color you love is the perfect way to start your day. Don‘t get so wrapped up in what a bedroom should be or shouldn‘t be. If you love orange, then paint your bedroom orange. ​ Or paint your bedroom in the complement of your favorite color and then add accents in your favorite color. The complement is the color on the opposite side of the color wheel.

So, if you love purple, maybe paint your walls lavender and add yellow pillows and a vase of yellow tulips. ​Just use colors you truly enjoy for a personal bedroom design.

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BLESSED MAGAZINE

Kent Leather Studio Sofa & Chaise $2,599 (Room and Board) Italian Hotel Satin Stitch Bedding Ivory Collection $30.59 (RH)

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Stretched Canvas Print Art Abstract Syrup Set of 5 $99.99 (Light in the Box)

BLESSED MAGAZINE Luxurious Linens: The bed itself automatically becomes the major focal point of the space so it should be both interesting and practical. I love beds that are plush and layered in order to create a sense of ultimate luxury. I suggest white linens with fine detailed borders to capture the elegance of simplicity. Cozy throws and soft blankets are wonderful additions to your bed and essential for protecting against any midnight drafts.

Ample Seating: Having any form of additional seating in your master creates a more dynamic sense of space where you can enjoy alone time away from the main social areas in your home. I love a chaise at the foot of the bed, or if you're short on space, opt for a pair of benches.

Focused Lighting: Lighting is paramount so invest in oversized table lamps to flank either side of your bed, creating drama and interest while remaining practical. If you share your bed, separate adjustable reading lights will allow for additional, focused lighting without bothering your partner.

Key Accessories: A decorative wooden tray, layered with delectable objects and candles on the edge of the bed is a must for me because it epitomizes indulgence and relaxation (and pays homage to a spa).

Instantly create additional storage space under the bed with our set of four Bed Risers. They add a net height of 5-3/4" between the floor and the bed frame so you can stow more drawers, boxes, bins or crates. Each Bed Riser has a recessed "well" on top to hold the foot or caster of the bed frame securely.

Bed Risers $12.99 (The Container Store)

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The Lauryn queen duvet set is where sophistication meets comfort. The entire top of the duvet is ruched, giving it a billowy appearance and the plush comfort of being wrapped in a cloud. The duvet cover is a changeable cover that goes on top of a duvet (not included), making it easy to switch out with your ever changing style. Perfect as a bedspread, blanket or top sheet, the duvet cover extends the life of a comforter, and looks beautiful too. Made from cotton, this casually inviting set includes 1 duvet cover, 2 standard shams and 1 pillow. $109.99

BLESSED MAGAZINE

Are you tired of living paycheck to paycheck?

Do you have trouble sleeping because funds are just too tight?

Do you worry daily about what you would do if there were an emergency – because you have no money in savings?

If so, you‘re not alone.

Today, this article will shed some light on how you can Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck Once and For All

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BLESSED MAGAZINE

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Track all of your spending.

And this means down to the dollar (yes, really). For at least one month (preferably longer), write down every single thing you spend money on. From groceries to electricity and from coffee to socks.

It‘s important to be truthful during this stage – remember, you are ready to beat this paycheck to paycheck cycle once and for all.

Track all of your income.

Over the same length of time, write down every single dollar you earn. More specifically, every single dollar that comes into your bank account after all taxes, benefits, and the like. This is your take-home pay.

Of course, your paycheck will be on the list, but there is likely other money you receive. Perhaps a Child Tax Credit or other government money.

Study the numbers. They don’t lie.

This is likely the most important step. As long as you have been truthful about the above tracking, you will be able to clearly see how much (and where) you are overspending.

You may be surprised by these numbers, or perhaps they were fairly close to what you suspected.

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BLESSED MAGAZINE Your ―guesstimates‖ have been thrown out the window, now. Even though you may have budgeted $150 a week on groceries, you may now clearly see that you actually spend $208 on average per week. Over the month, that is already $232 your budget did not account for.

Pay yourself first.

Before you make any choices about how to cut expenses, how to make more money, or what on earth you are going to do – let‘s cut your income a little more by paying yourself first, shall we?

Although this may, in the moment, seem impossible – it‘s not. I promise. You have to do it to get out of this vicious cycle.

This is the hard stuff I was telling you about. Starting right now, take 10% of your take-home income and pay yourself first each month. Put that money into savings.

If your monthly income was $4250, this means that every month you will be paying yourself $425, without exception.

It‘s best to make this amount come right off of a paycheck so you don‘t even see it. This is your ticket to staying out of the paycheck to paycheck cycle – take it seriously.

Make hard choices and cut expenses.

Now comes the tricky part. You have to be really tough with yourself here. You must live within

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BLESSED MAGAZINE your means. And remember your means are your actual take-home income minus paying yourself first money. In our example above, our monthly money would be $3825.

First of all, subtract any monthly debts you have. Now you‘re ready to figure out how much money you can really spend each month. You may discover quite quickly that this money doesn‘t go very far. Be tough here. You may only need to make these cuts temporarily.

Do you really need cable? Can you avoid most fast food? Can you make coffee at home? These are all great places to start. But get into those deep questions you are avoiding: Can I go without my car? Should I downsize my house?

Gulp. I know – not at all easy to face questions like this, but it will certainly let you see where your priorities lie.

Earn more money.

Now, of course you need to have a bit of wiggle room. You cannot possibly never have a cup of coffee out of the house, or never go out with a friend for lunch. That is definitely not sustainable, and you don‘t want these certainties to blow your whole budget when they happen. You may just need to make more money.

Depending on your job, this may be simple. Perhaps you can pick up an extra shift. For others, you may need to get creative. Look at your interests and talents and any needs in your

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BLESSED MAGAZINE community. Get as creative as you can. Could you: Babysit? Pet sit? Walk dogs? Tutor? Care for kids after school? Sell homemade things? Sew or tailor?

Any extra money you bring in should be considered exactly that: extra. It means it cannot be depended on. If it‘s a new regular source of income, add it to your ―income‖ and re-budget accordingly – you have given yourself a bit more wiggle room.

This extra money category can be thought of as something different. It could be for anything from going out for lunch to going on a trip to Europe. You don‘t need to feel guilty about it because you already have a budget you are sticking to and you are building your savings each paycheck. This is guilt free money!

Stick to your budget.

Enough said. If you make a budget, the only way you will succeed is if you actually stick to that budget!

There are many ways to avoid the paycheck to paycheck cycle, but this is a way that has worked well for my family. Following these steps will give you money in savings, and extra money for guilt-free spending.

Picture a life where you don‘t have to worry about money. Now achieve that life.

You can do it.

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BLESSED MAGAZINE

When we married we mutually agreed that there would be no children

My husband had himself "fixed" in his first marriage

We said our goodbyes and parted By: Kathleen S Rasmussen

HOW GOD HEALED OUR MARRIAGE! This story is a true-life account of how I never thought my marriage relationship could get as far down as it did. I will attempt to share this as much as I can in hopes of helping someone else out there who may be struggling in their marriage relationship whether it be a Christian one or not.

May I say from the beginning that by faith (my total 100% committed trust in God) that my marriage is totally healed and my husband and I are now walking in total oneness, as we have never known before.

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BLESSED MAGAZINE We met in my little church that I had gotten saved in which was my home church at the time. He was visiting my church with another friend of mine from church that he happened to work with also.

He was searching at that time for a church himself and most of all searching for that personal relationship with Jesus Christ. He was a new Christian and wanted nothing more than to know about God and His ways.

About three months went by before I heard from him again. He had asked my girlfriend from church for my phone number and she gave it to him thinking that I wouldn't mind. Needless to say, I didn't! In some of my down times in this marriage I'm sure I could have thought differently, but I knew in my heart that God had brought us together. We met for coffee in a shopping mall after that first phone call and that was the beginning of our relationship together. We dated for about one year and went through some really troubled moments during that time too, only to finally see that it was indeed God's will for us to be married.

You see, my future husband-to-be at that time was really struggling with God's will for re-marriage for Christians. He was so young in the Lord and hungry to know the truth about divorce and remarriage in God's eyes. One day after we had been dating quite seriously and talking marriage, he told me that as far as he could see according to God's Word, was that he could not remarry unless he was reconciled back to his first wife. He dropped that "bomb" so to speak on me on my 30th birthday. I, needless to say, was so devastated. I told him to not call me or try to see me again unless he had marriage in mind. I was not going to play anymore games, so that's the ultimatum I gave him. He told me that if we ever did get together again, it would only be by God's grace that it would happen. We said our goodbyes and parted.

Well, about four months later I had been starting to think about how I had ended our relationship. I felt that I had not done it very nicely, mostly in

anger through my hurt and pain. By that time I had enough of the Holy Spirit in me to know that was not a very godly or Christian way to end a relationship. So, with no other intentions in my heart (I swear to God!) I called him to see how he was doing and to let him know I was sorry for the way I had spoken to him the last time we saw each other. I apologized to him about how I had ended our relationship, and that I could still be his friend if he wanted it to be that way. I honestly in my heart wanted nothing more than just that. I really meant that and from our conversation about it, we decided to meet again for coffee to just talk and visit.

We continued to see each other as just friends and I believe that through our new friendship our relationship began to grow again toward each other. I also believe that it couldn't have grown if there had been any wrong motives in my heart for wanting to be more than just his friend. I can honestly say too that I did not have any intentions in my heart for marriage with him. I had grown spiritually content and happy right where I was in my life - single. I knew God had someone for me, but it had to be in His timing and not mine.

Therefore, Norm (my husband) felt no pressure from me whatsoever regarding marriage.

As I said, our relationship did grow, and our marriage vows were spoken on June 19, 1982. We had a beautiful outdoor wedding, which is a testimony in itself. I believe God had put it on my heart to have this outdoor wedding and the week of the wedding it was raining heavily. The night of rehearsal it was raining and my pastor felt we should do rehearsal plans inside the house too just in case of rain on our wedding day. So, we did that but I still believed in my heart and never doubted that we would have beautiful weather because I didn't believe God would put it in my heart to have an outdoor wedding only to have it rain spoiling those plans. I believe God honored my faith and trust in Him to not let there be any rain on our wedding day because there wasn't! We had a beautiful sunny day and we couldn't have asked for anything more perfect.

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BLESSED MAGAZINE So June 19, 1982 began our marriage relationship. I had never been married before and I was so much in love with Norm. We had a very good and happy marriage for the first ten years of our new life together. I can't really remember when things started to go bad, but I believe it slowly started to happen in the third five years of our marriage. We have been married now for 22 years.

May I say that I am a very quiet type person and my husband is just the opposite. That didn't matter to me for a long time because I was always so used to having a more out-going type of person in my life whether it was a man or a woman. I was always the quiet one - never spoke up much or easily joined in on conversations with anyone. Deep down inside, before I became a Christian, I remember hating myself for being so quiet. I didn't want to be that way and I would have terrible mind battles inside about that.

As time when on and I continued to grow in my spiritual life in my personal relationship with the Lord, I began to learn to speak up and to be able to communicate more effectively with people. That included my husband and I also began to learn how to stand up for myself when I felt I needed to say something regarding whatever we were talking about. Those times were usually painful and uncomfortable issues we would be discussing. Sorry to say too, some of the issues we would disagree on would be of spiritual nature.

One of those issues, which was not spiritual, was about my having a baby. When we married we mutually agreed that there would be no children. I had never desired to have my own family and always swore I never would have any children or ever get married. I said those things because I came from a family life where all of my sisters and brother had married and divorced (some of them more than once or twice) with children involved. I swore because of that, I would never marry or bring any children into this world when there are so many out there who needed good loving parents with a loving atmosphere to raise them in. I did not want to add to that confusion in bringing more children into this world system.

May I also say to those of you who may be wondering, that "yes," I did repent of making those statements and speaking those curses over my life. At the time when I spoke them I did not know about the damage that can be done when one speaks such negative words over oneself. I now know that there is so much power in spoken words that come out of my mouth (see James 3), and I only want now to speak only words of life over myself and not negative words, which only brings death to my spiritual growth. When I did become aware of that, I asked God to forgive me for making such statements and broke those curses that were spoken over me by my own tongue.

My husband already had two children from a first marriage and that's all he ever wanted and knew God had filled that desire for him. About a year into our marriage I began to wonder if I would ever be sorry that I never had any children. Those thoughts began to grow within me and as much as I tried to block them out, they would keep coming back. Needless to say, my husband was very uncomfortable whenever the subject was brought up. I, on the other hand, would always end up in tears every time we talked about it. Well, after about six or seven years into our marriage we both came to a place where we each knew we had to put on the alter, so to speak, our desire for children or no children. We did that and did all that we knew we could do to enable me to get pregnant.

My husband had himself "fixed" in his first marriage, and before the doctors would do any reversal on him, they wanted to run some tests on me to make sure that I would be able to conceive.

Well, the tests showed that I could not get pregnant because both of my fallopian tubes were blocked with past scar tissue, which was probably due to previous surgeries or past infections that I may have had. I felt in my heart that it couldn't have been from past surgeries because I only had one surgery n my life back in 1980 from a serious car accident, which is another testimony of God's healing power in my life. I could remember though about the many serious infections that I

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BLESSED MAGAZINE had had before I even became a Christian, which was in 1979.

Wouldn't you know though, the enemy would bring that to my attention and all these years until now, I really believed that. No, I still don't have any children but the Lord has done a work in my heart concerning that, and I am at total peace with my not having a baby. We did do all that we could to make it possible for me to conceive. I had major surgery to clear my tubes and my husband agreed to have a reversal operation done. They even said that if after a year goes by and I still have not gotten pregnant, that they could recheck my husband to see if his tubes had gotten blocked from the scar tissue of his surgery from the reversal. Sure enough, that was the case and they said when they were checking him, they could go ahead and redo the reversal. My husband agreed to that, and he said this second time of this reversal operation was worse than the first time when he had the whole procedure done in the first place.

The doctors failed to make sure he was totally numb before they began this second surgery on him again. He was wincing in pain and when they finally saw his reaction to the pain, they immediately stopped and gave him some more medication and waited until he was ready again.

That was about ten years ago, and like I said, the Lord has done so much in my heart concerning my having or not having children. I want to say here too that I am so grateful and appreciative of all that my husband was willing to go through just for me so that I could have a child with him. I am now at total peace without having children and I still believe and know that if it is God's will for us to have a child together, He is more than able and willing to make that happen. We have done all that we could do, and now the rest is in His hands!

I really believe too that the Lord has shown me through His holy scriptures that the children of the barren woman will be more than the children of the married woman (Isaiah 54:1). For a long time I couldn't understand that scripture because I

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reasoned in my heart that I was married and I should be able to have children. But after so many years of that not happening, I finally realized I needed to come to peace with God and myself that if I never had any children, I would still love and serve my Lord and my husband. I did come to peace with that and may I say that just recently this scripture in Isaiah really came to life for me.

You see, that is because I am His servant and I want to be a servant in a godly way to my husband too. I realize now that God wants to use my life to reach many of His children for His kingdom. That whole chapter (Isaiah 54) came to life for me in that regard, which leads me to share how God has really begun to heal our marriage relationship.

My husband, ever since we have been married, has had a strong desire to do testimonies to help lead others to Christ. Before we were married and when he was still not a Christian, he had a secular book project going that he had to totally lie down.

He began to trust God to show him what he should do with his writing talent and he believes this is what God has shown him: that he is to begin to find people who are willing to share their born again experience before and after they got saved. He would when he first started out with this, have the people share on audiocassette tapes and then he would transfer it onto paper - thus a written testimony. He began doing this around 1983 and we are still doing testimonies, but in a greater fashion than when it first began.

May I share too some of the struggles I had during this time and the conflict it would bring up in our marriage? Like I said, I was always the quiet one and I was always in the background of anything we did together regarding testimonies or anything else. I never felt that this was a vision God had shown me - it was my husband's vision. Oh yes, I was always there supporting him in whatever way I knew how. I would never come against him about anything and I always stood in agreement with him on how he handled doing this. He was always the one in the spotlight talking to the person testifying and putting the final touches on

BLESSED MAGAZINE the written testimonies. I would do the background stuff such as proofreading and making the document ready for the printer. And I had a peace about my role in this, never really wanting more than what I was doing.

I knew God wanted something more for me but I didn't know what it was.

That was part of the problem between us. My husband felt he was mostly alone in this and that I was just there to help out, but my heart was not really in it at all. He was right.... I knew God wanted something more for me but I didn't know what it was. I began to get really spiritually hungry and would get really in tune and involved with other ministries. I would get so involved with these "other" ministries that I didn't even have time to think let alone want to be involved with my husband's call on his life. I have a heart to want to have personal direct contact with people as I am ministering to them, and that doing it this way with written testimonies, I just couldn't see how I could be used the way I felt I wanted and needed to be used. So my quietness about all this began to really come out in the open when I started to get interested in other ways of ministry.

I want to say too that I can honestly say that I did not deliberately "not get involved" with my husband's ministry. I had such a spiritual hunger in me like a vacuum that I began to search everywhere I could for spiritual food and worship, but I failed to look right in my own home and marriage relationship to fill that void.

I think that caused so much discomfort and pain

in my husband more than I can ever realize. He wanted so much for us to be a team moving in the same direction (as it should be) and it seemed I was getting farther and farther away from that. We got so far down and became basically non-church goers. That happened because we had been so involved in ministry in a small growing local church that my husband could not handle all the time we spent doing ministry with this church, keeping up his work schedule, and keeping up with what God had called him to do which was testimonies. It seemed to him like testimonies were being shoved to the background and he had no peace whatsoever about this situation. It finally came to a head during one of our leadership meetings with this church we were attending and in leadership with, and I learned at that meeting that we would be leaving that church.

Needless to say, that was a total surprise to me and it felt like I had been stabbed repeatedly in my heart. I was very happy being there and doing the entire ministry we were involved in with that church. I had never had the opportunity before in any other church to be used as I was being used there. And I felt I was growing more spiritually there than I had been able to grow in years. So, I was very unhappy when the news came down that we were leaving, and our marriage really began to suffer from that decision. I had such a hard time that I decided I needed some real serious counseling if I was to stay married to this man. I had gotten so low in my feelings and affection for him that I couldn't or didn't even want to tell him that I loved him. I didn't know if I loved him (or so I thought) and that bothered me so much! Bless his heart, he would treat me like a queen and constantly tell me he loved me. I struggled so much with hearing those words coming from his lips, and I couldn't respond to him and say back to him "I love you too" the way he wanted me to because my heart was so broken and wounded.

So I found a Christian counseling center that I had heard about through his sister who lives out in Oregon (USA). She had mentioned this place to me through a Christian newsletter she had received, not knowing that there was such a place

BLESSED MAGAZINE in our area for that kind of counseling. Well, I began to go and just pour out my heart to this counselor and did that for quite awhile. I think too at that time it was good for me because I had never had anyone really listen to me or give me a chance to speak of what was on MY heart. I would always listen to other people but never really know how to communicate what was going on inside of me, especially with my husband. That too stems back to my childhood because I was the last born of seven children in my family. I always seemed to be put in the background then too, never really receiving the nurturing and encouragement I needed as a child to grow up as a normal healthy adult. May I say too that my husband also has problems in communication, but praise God, because of our commitment to Him and to each other, we are growing in that area of our lives!

I came to realize later that the counseling I had been able to have was only a temporary fix or should I say it was like a bandage to cover up my hurt and pain until the real healing would take place. My husband and I were without a church home for about two years, and it was during this time that the Lord began to do a major healing in our marriage relationship. At the time, I wouldn't have been able to tell you that, but I know from my past learning of God and His ways that it is in the valley that He most effectively communicates and deals with His children. I wanted so much to be in a church because I longed to be in the atmosphere of praise and worship. I have a heart for worship and it does not go away but keeps getting stronger as I continue to walk with the Lord. I really missed that and I wanted so much for my husband and I to be together again in a church.

That desire began to be filled when my husband had sent me to talk to a woman about her possibly sharing her testimony. I honored his wishes and went to her and my visit with her became more than just a testimony contact. She became my friend and she was very instrumental in getting us back into a church. After we had gotten back into a church, we realized we still needed help in some

form of counseling again because we were still not completely healed in our hearts with and for each other. So through careful and painful strides of finding the right counselor for our marriage, we settled on a pastor who lived about an hour away from us.

We decided on him because we knew him from his sharing his personal testimony on our ministry broadcast and because he knew my husband's heart in the call God had placed upon him. My husband at that time would only go to someone who knew where he was coming from, and I was more than willing to travel as far as I had to in hopes of getting this marriage relationship back on the right track. We were at the point that we could not even counsel together for awhile. We went to this pastor once a week separately for his counseling so that we would each be able to open up our hearts without any reservations of saying what we wanted to say without the other one hearing or interjecting our thoughts regarding the subject being discussed.

We are now going to a smaller church, which we are very happy and blessed to be there. This woman, as I spoke of earlier, became my new friend and God used her mightily to get us to get back in a church. My husband never thought he could ever get me to go her church, let alone get himself to go. And he was right, only God could have gotten us to go there and get us back in fellowship with a body of believers in a local church.

It is such a very large church but it is very well balanced and has a very strong evangelistic ministry to reach the lost, which is what my husband's call with testimonies is all about. I also know that the call and desire to reach the lost should be on the heart of every born again believer. I personally remember having such a strong desire to reach others for Jesus Christ but things in this life can grow strangely dim when we don't keep our personal relationship with Him strong and we begin to focus only on those things or circumstances in our life that are not too pleasant.

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BLESSED MAGAZINE Satan has a way of distracting us and getting us so involved with how unhappy we are that we cannot be of any good or be used to reach others for Christ. At that point, our joy has been robbed and therefore who would want what we have found in Christianity when we look like we ourselves are so miserable. We need to seek first the kingdom of God and ALL these things will be added unto us (the joy, the peace, the contentment, our marriages restored...) (Proverbs 6:33) I know God has healed my marriage because I now feel love for my husband like I have never felt before. And I think that is only happening because I have determined in my heart to return to my first Love that I once had when first became born again and when I first began my marriage relationship with my husband. I have begun to learn what it means to be one with my husband and how to be in submission to him because he is the covering and authority God has placed over me when I married him. When I say the word "submission" I don't mean that I have to be under his control and he has to lord it over me. That is just what the world would like you to think submission is all about.

We need to be praying the Word of God over our husbands, and not necessarily our wants and desires all the time

The Bible says that when we as wives respect our husbands even when they aren't so lovable and they are maybe out of the will of God in areas of their lives, that by our loving and quiet example, they will be won over to what God wants to do in and through them. (I Peter 3 is a good chapter for that explanation). It is very important that we

stand in the gap for them by praying for them that God will make our husbands the godly men He intends for them to be. We need to be praying the Word of God over their lives and not necessarily our wants and desires. It is definitely God's will for our husbands to love us as Christ loves the church - to lay his life down for us just as Christ laid his life down for His bride, the church, so we don't have to wonder or worry about what God's will is concerning how we should pray for them.

Pray His Word over them and see what a difference it makes!

I have become more willingly involved in the ministry God has called my husband to, and I can now see that whatever he is called to I am called to also. I always used to think that God did not put that desire on my heart and I wasn't the one who received the vision for testimonies. Therefore, where was my calling? I am finally beginning to see that my calling is with my husband and that God can and will use me, as I have desired to be used of Him. After all, He gave me a promise through His Word that the children of the barren woman will be more than the married woman. I now see that His will for me is to enlarge the pegs of my tent and begin to be used of Him to reach a lost and dying world for His kingdom. That scripture I spoke of earlier (Isaiah 54) is not just for the natural in bearing children, but spiritually speaking, it is for reaching the lost for the cause of Jesus Christ.

The ministry that my husband has never let go of with testimonies is because God hasn't let him let go of it. We are now working together as a team in going into peoples' homes or churches and videotaping them as they share their full length born again testimonies. The videos are then played on nine TV Public Access stations throughout the State of Michigan and other states within the USA. Through the Internet, God is using our efforts on this website as well, praise His name. I always had a desire to sing for the Lord, an even that desire is being fulfilled. Doors of prison ministry have opened that we've felt to walk through and I'm having a chance to praise God with my voice while ministering to the

BLESSED MAGAZINE prisoners at the same time!

When I say I have become more involved in this ministry, I mean I am not in the background anymore. I have begun to let myself be stretched and used on these video broadcasts in ministering to the viewing audience and praying for them as I feel the Holy Spirit leading me. I may not know all of what I am going to say but I believe the Holy Spirit gives me something to begin to share and He speaks through me from there when I willingly avail myself to Him in that area. I know I haven't been in all this spiritual learning and training I've had for years for nothing. There has been so much deposited in my soul and spirit that I cannot let it lie dormant anymore. I need to begin to let it out to help those out there who are hurting and need what I have found, which is the love of Jesus and a personal relationship with Him in my life.

It is through this, the hurt and the pain in my marriage, and now my desire to do what my husband feels called to do with testimonies, that our love for each other is growing so much stronger. We finally are in tune with each other and God in our personal relationship with Him. There is so much more peace between us because we are now moving in unity toward the same cause and goal, and that is to be used of God to draw others to Him through His son, Jesus Christ.

I've always known that my place is with my husband, but I haven't really been able to understand how I am to fulfill my role to respect him as the Bible also teaches. I could never really understand how I was to respect him because I didn't really know how to respect him. You see, I never had a godly example set before me as a child growing up. My parents did not have the knowledge I have been privileged to know through my born again experience of walking with the Lord on a daily basis. My father died at an early age of his life with cancer and I was only six years old at the time. Because of that and seeing how my brother and sister's lives were turning out (and that is only because they too did

not have a good example set before them), you can see why I didn't know what a godly marriage was all about.

I have come to learn now that respect is not only an act of my will to be willing to obey God's Word in that, but also respect is so much easier when the husband is also doing his part in loving his wife unconditionally and laying his life down for her. I want to say here that my husband is and has been doing that with me no matter how hard our situation was and still is at times. He always tries to treat me with respect and speak highly of me with others, and most of all speaks encouraging words to me in person. There are still times when I don't understand how he could love me the way he says he does, but I think I feel that way because I don't always feel like I am worthy of such love and respect only because I never received it as a child. Now when I have those thoughts, I know that is not from God but that is the voice of the enemy whispering in my ear.

I am worthy because I am a child of God and He loves me so much that He would give me a man who would love me and Him at the same time as it should be.

Our marriage is so much stronger now than it ever has been because I have been able to see my place as my husband's "helpmeet" as the Bible refers to concerning marriage in Genesis 2:18 and 20.

I have learned to earnestly take an interest in what is dear and near to my husband's heart and to do all that I can to help him in that calling God has placed upon him. It is through my willingness to do that, that his love for me keeps growing stronger and stronger every day and my love for him keeps growing too because he is by an act of his will and in obedience to God's Word, loving me unconditionally. You see, we as Christians do not walk by our feelings, but we walk by faith faith in God that He will restore our troubled lives and marriages if we walk in obedience to Him in His Word.

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BLESSED MAGAZINE

The holidays can be a crazy time, but one thing that can make everything much smoother and reduce holiday cleaning stress is to plan ahead.

Try these easy ideas to make everything easier!

How To Reduce Holiday Cleaning Stress They‘re backkkkk!!!

The holidays are creeping up on us fast! I can see some of you breaking out in a cold sweat just at the mention of those words.

Others are doing a happy dance thinking of all the cute gifts you will make, the ways you‘ll decorate and the food you‘ll bake. Then there is the category most of us fall into. We love the holidays but also acknowledge that they can be quite a bit of work. Here are a few ideas to help make your holidays go a little smoother.

Relax – No Matter Who Is Coming In Laws – Relax, even if it is your mother in law who will notice that one little speck of dust you missed in the far corner of the attic. You will never please some people so don‘t even try. It is their problem not yours. It is an attitude problem, so they need to fix it, not you.

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BLESSED MAGAZINE

Friends and other Family – Things don‘t have to be perfect.

In fact, if you try to be perfect, it can never be perfect enough.

Hopefully your friends and family love you just the way you are. If they don‘t, you have bigger problems than having a clean house will fix.

What Happened? In most cases, five minutes after everyone arrives, your home will look like a bomb blew up in it anyway.

This is not really a bad thing. It means that everyone is relaxed and enjoying themselves in your home, so the things you weren‘t able to get done probably won‘t be noticed anyway.

Still, I know that many of you are like me and really want your home to look the best it can look, so here are some ideas to help.

Start Now This is not the time for major deep cleaning and organizing. I will be talking about homes that are in ―normal‖ condition. The important thing is to start now and not put this off or you will be overwhelmed later.

What To Do Some of this may be too much for you to do, so pick and choose the things that are most important to you and don‘t worry about the rest.

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BLESSED MAGAZINE You can pick any way you like to get this cleaning done. For example you may want to clean one whole room from top to bottom or you can choose to do one job at a time. You might clean all the baseboards in the whole house one day and clean all the lampshades the next day or you might clean the baseboards, lampshades, and so on in just one room.

Here is a list of cleaning tasks you can get done way ahead of time and then you won‘t have to think about doing them again until well after the New Year‘s holiday.

Vacuum or dust baseboards, lampshades, pictures, mirrors, vents, curtains, window sills and cobwebs from the walls.

Clean carpets and furniture. – By this I mean shampoo your carpets and furniture now. If you have young children, you may have to do some spot cleaning later but you will have the main part of it done now.

Clean rooms hat you don’t normally use. If you have extra rooms like guest rooms and baths that don‘t normally get used, clean them now and shut the door so they are ready to go. This is also the time to clean the rooms where guests may not spend much time, like sewing rooms, garages, the master bedroom and basements. These are rooms where guests may have a little peek but they won‘t use, so surface cleaning is all they need.

Appliances – Clean your oven and refrigerator. Get them ready for all the extra food you‘ll be storing and making.

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Clean and organize the pantry and freezer. Restock them, making sure you have plenty of all your basic spices and food items. Now is a good time to go through your usual holiday recipes and stock up on anything you will need for those.

Don‘t forget to plan for emergencies. Make sure you have plenty of canned goods and staples in case (heaven forbid) you have a winter storm and you get housebound with extra people there.

Closets – Go through closets, not necessarily organizing but just straightening and getting them in order so you don‘t have to waste time digging for clothes and shoes each morning while your company is present.

Toys – This is one area where you need to do some deep cleaning and eliminating.

The kids will be normally getting so many new toys that you need to clean out the old ones to make room for the new ones. One way to make this easier is to ask the children to pick as many of their toys as they can to give to children who don‘t have any. Most young children have really generous hearts and spirits.

BLESSED MAGAZINE If you say, ―There is no way my children will do this,‖ then remove a few toys to box up each day. If you do this gradually, they probably won‘t notice. If they do notice something is missing, tell them you will find if for them. Then, dig it out of the box when they aren‘t looking. If they don‘t notice anything missing for 3-4 weeks, you are probably safe to get rid of them. I know this may seem sneaky but, hey, when it comes to kids and getting rid of their toys, even the ones they don‘t want, it can be like going to war.

Bathrooms – This is the time to scrape off the year‘s worth of mold you have growing in the bathroom. Once that is finished, be sure to clean each bathroom once a week.

Then it will be very easy to do a quick cleaning right before your company arrives.

Guest baskets - If you are going to make guest baskets for your guests, prepare those now.

2 Weeks Before Company Arrives Check or get out linens Buy as much of the food you will need as possible. Make sure you have foil, plastic wrap, toilet paper, etc.

Take out and check or clean any small appliances or dishes you will be using. This includes serving spoons and utensils.

Make sure the entryway closet is cleaned and organized and ready to hold coats and boots for company.

If you don‘t have children but will have them visiting, buy or have ready some toys for them and make a special area for them to play.

This may seem like a silly thing but I would clean all the trash cans and put a roll of new bags in the bottom of each one. That way if one of your guests volunteers to take out the trash while you are busy, you won‘t have to stop and help them find a new bag.

1 Week Before Company Arrives Put fresh linens on the beds.

Make sure there are plenty blankets and towels in the room.

of

Include things like a clock and tissues on the night stand.

If you aren‘t making guest baskets, set out a few things in the bathroom like extra toothbrushes, toothpaste and razors.

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BLESSED MAGAZINE Put out a good supply of toilet paper and make sure there are air fresheners easily accessible.

If you don‘t have a closet at the front door, be sure to have planned ahead of time where they can put their coats and boots.

Do a quick light dusting of the house. This is one time I pull out the feather duster or Swiffer.

Last but not least, put your company to work.

Sweep porches 1-2 Days Before Guests Arrive The timeline to complete these tasks depends on your family and how much the house can be destroyed in a 24 hour period. : ) Do your basic weekly cleaning and vacuuming. (No dusting– Remember, it is done.)

Clean bathrooms, the kitchen and bedrooms.

Check everything once over and make sure the guest rooms have everything they will need including extra blankets and pillows.

If it isn‘t a super formal affair, ask your company to pitch in. People always feel more at home when you do this. If it is just for dinner, have them help you in the kitchen dishing up of things or working on small tasks like the last minute mashing of potatoes.

Ask the guys to watch the kids while you finish cooking in the kitchen.

If the guests will be in your home for a longer stay, then it doesn‘t hurt to ask them to help with a few things. If there are many people staying several days you will really need the help, so don‘t feel bad about asking for it.

Arrival Day Quickly go through picking up and touching up last minute things.

Light a candle or have something cooking that smells good.

Have a few lights on.

Depending on what time of day the guests are coming, have a snack or drinks ready.

Make sure you have hand towels out and double check toilet paper.

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BLESSED MAGAZINE

Confessions of a Sex-Starved Single

By Shea Gregory

My friend Diane got married recently.

Walking down the aisle, smiling big, she winked as she passed me. She was stepping into a new season of life—a husband, a new home, new responsibilities ‌ sex. I chuckled at the thought of the "s" word. Diane and Bill hadn't even kissed yet.

They wanted to wait until their wedding day. Hence, their dating intimacy had consisted of lingering handshakes, brief hugs, and very few moments completely alone together. "We hold hands and look at each other a lot," Diane once confessed. (Oh, please!) To this day I shake my head every time I think of it.

We've always been different, Diane and I. My mind drifts to the time when a man like Bill was nothing more than a whisper of hope hidden in Diane's heart. Back then we talked about men, marriage, romance, and sex. I was the verbal one; Diane, more modest. I'll never forget how her mouth flew open when I approached our pastor's wife with a fairly provocative question about sex. "I don't want to hear this!" Diane protested adamantly. She covered her ears and stomped away before the pastor's wife could answer. Me? I had no shame. God would send me a husband one day; I wanted to be ready!

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Diane says I think about sex too much and must learn to master my bodily urges. I tell her I'd rather let a man do that. She says I'm carnal. I say I'm

BLESSED MAGAZINE passionate. She says I must wait on God. I tell her I think God's watch must be broken because he's running a bit late. She says I'm silly because God invented time and doesn't even need a watch. I hate it when she gets theological on me.

My friend Diane says I must learn to master my bodily urges.

I tell her I'd rather let a man do that.

A few years ago, Diane and I signed up for a women's conference at our church. The subject was holiness, being set apart for God's unique purpose in our life.

The host of the gathering, a cheerful little lady with sparkling eyes and a bright smile, told us we needed to yield every area of our life to Christ, including our sexuality. The ladies in the room—several of whom were married—nodded their heads in agreement. I looked around. Easy for them to say! As for the others—was chastity really that easy for them?

I'd accepted Jesus as my Savior years before. I'd left

my boyfriend behind and started a new way of life. I truly loved God. But my hormones were going crazy, and I desperately desired to share my life—and my body—with someone special. So there I sat, feeling like some carnal beast among this lofty group of good Christian ladies.

Finally, it was question and answer time. I swallowed hard and bit my lower lip. Diane looked at me and furrowed her brow. "What are you thinking?" she whispered. "I know that look. Don't you dare embarrass me!― "Shhh!" I motioned to her harshly. "You're going to say something about sex!― I mouthed the words to her, "I want to have sex.― I'd never seen her eyes get quite that big before.

She hissed, "So help me, I'll never speak to you . . . ― "I want to have sex," I said plainly to everyone and to no one in particular.

A dead silence descended upon the room. "Excuse me?" the speaker chirped. "I said, 'I want to have sex.'― Diane put her head in her hands. I continued. "No offense, ma'am," I said, "but how do you handle not 'doing it'?‖ A few gasps rippled through the room. Suddenly I became embarrassed, but there was no turning back now.

"I mean, I'm 32 years old. I came to faith a few years ago. I was, um, … active before, if you know what I mean.‖

BLESSED MAGAZINE I looked around me. Some women had their heads down. Others had turned various shades of red. In an instant my mouth went dry. I felt like a fool and was about to apologize, when I saw her. We locked glances across the room, and her big brown eyes implored me to go on.

She nodded in approval. She understood. A kindred spirit! I felt empowered.

Looking at the host, I continued, "It's like no one wants to talk about it. You make chastity sound so easy, but it's not. There are nights," I whimpered, "when I'm so lonely, all I can do is hold my Bible close and cry. I love God, really, I do. I just. …" I didn't know what else to say. I felt small again, and ashamed. Why was this area of my life so difficult for me? I looked around the room. Eyes that had avoided me earlier now looked knowingly into mine.

Perhaps I wasn't so alone after all.

"I know what you mean," a voice said. My kindred spirit stood up, her eyes full of tears.

"Sometimes it's all I can do to hang on.― "But you do hang on," someone replied. "Maybe that's what counts.― "Sometimes I don't," I said softly. Sometimes my mind lingered unashamedly on intimate memories. Sometimes guys from the "old days" called, seemingly on cue, to test my resistance. Sometimes I was strong—but sometimes I acquiesced and hated myself for it. I didn't go "all the way" anymore, but I'd compromised my integrity too many times. Although there'd been no recent incidents, my body screamed daily. I knew I stood on the cusp of falling at any moment.

sex outside marriage is healthy and it feels good

As I considered my shortcomings, conversation began. I listened, amazed, as one woman after another shared personal stories of struggle, triumph, and even failure to maintain purity. We laughed and cried together, candidly discussing how to stay pure amidst raging hormones. The need to dress sexy and be sexy calls to us from every arena—magazines, books, media. The message we receive is that sex outside marriage is healthy, it feels good, and of course, everybody's doing it. For those of us who've tasted the delight of physical intimacy, finding satisfaction in life without it can be a challenge.

Is it possible to be content when something you want so desperately seems so out of reach?

The answer, we concluded, is yes! Contentment comes by trusting with every ounce of our being that God wants what's best for us and will supply it at the proper time.

Choosing to live celibate during this season of life allows me to focus on God's will—

BLESSED MAGAZINE to rely on him in times of loneliness and doubt. When my body aches for affection, I run to him, talk to him, and cry to him, learning to allow his arms to hold me. And in the end, there's nothing more satisfying than succumbing to the love of my Creator.

That day, I discovered I'd been putting my life on hold while I waited for a man. God, however, was waiting for me to take hold of the abundant life he'd planned for me. Focused on what I didn't have, I allowed my wants to determine my outlook. When I stopped whining for my way—right here, right now—I realized God was beckoning me to a closer relationship with him.

One woman stated, "I realized a long time ago, before I got married, that to get the caliber of man I wanted, I had to raise my standards as a woman. I threw myself into God's Word and learned as much about him as I could. I found things I enjoyed doing and began doing them. I found out who I was as a person. I not only began to feel better about myself, but I began to feel worthy of love, and worthy of waiting for someone who'd offer me more than just a feelgood in the middle of the night.― "I envy you," I said.

I threw myself into God's Word and learned as much about Him

"Don't envy me," she replied. "Emulate me.― "Honey," one older woman prodded gently, "is it simply sex you desire, or is it closeness, affection, and affirmation? Look, I've been married more than 40 years. Sometimes an empty feeling sweeps over me like Cinderella's broom. You may not believe

this, but no man can fully deliver you from that. So before you go doing something foolish, think of the consequences. Honor God with your life. Keep your vows to him even when it hurts. It'll pay off in the long run, you'll see." Her tender words rested on me with grandmotherly warmth.

The session ended with prayer, the exchanging of phone numbers, and insights into a new way of thinking—and behaving.

Still, progress takes time. The following week I was on the phone. "Diane!" I cried, "I'm about to explode in an exuberant cacophony of hormones.― "Again?" she asked. "Aren't you being a tad dramatic?― "I can't help it," I responded. "I'm in my prime. One day you're going to come into my bedroom and I'll have exploded. There'll be a big purple stain on the bed, traces of what I used to be.‖

BLESSED MAGAZINE "Purple?― "Purple, the color of passion." Must I explain everything?

I breathed a heavy sigh of frustration. She was spoiling a perfectly fine pity party. "Oh, brother!" Diane sounded exasperated. "Look, God knows you're in your prime. Go get your Bible and let's pray." When we finished she said, "You know, there's a lot more to having a man than a cacophony of hormones.― "Like what?!" I cried incredulously.

"Have you been reading Song of Songs again?" she asked.

"I had to do my daily Bible reading, didn't I?― "You have a problem.― I overlooked the offense and filed it away. She'll need me one day. When that day comes, I'll remind her of her snobbishness—and graciously forgive her.

The pastor pronounced them husband and wife, and Bill and Diane kissed for the first time.

At the reception I pulled her aside and whispered the answer to the sex question I'd asked the pastor's wife a few years prior. Diane blushed but smiled big. "You're a sick woman," she said, laughing.

"I know!" I cried, doing a little dance. "But my husband will be a happy man.― Diane grabbed my arm and pulled me close. "So will mine!" she exclaimed softly. "So will mine!― Was that a sparkle of passion I saw in my friend's eyes? We both laughed and did a little dance together. Maybe we've helped balance each other in more ways than we've realized.

Funny thing—I caught the bouquet. "You're next!" everyone shouted. In the meantime, however, I have things to do and dreams to follow.

Shea Gregory, a writer and speaker, lives in California.

BLESSED MAGAZINE

Miracles happen everyday, change your perception of what a miracle is and you’ll see them all around you.” — Jon Bon Jovi

If rock stars can believe in miracles, so can you.

Man looks at the outward appearance but God looks on the inside — the heart of the matter.

We should change our perception so we acknowledge miracles.

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BLESSED MAGAZINE It‘s a common problem in the media.

Some news organizations distance themselves from any reference to God, Jesus, or miracles, even when it‘s germane to the story.

Such is the case with Morgan Lake whose car plunged 40 feet off Maryland‘s Chesapeake Bay Bridge into the water below. Incredibly, Morgan managed to survive the horrifying ordeal. Many news outlets have reported her dramatic escape from death after her car but her mother explained to me, when I met both of them Tuesday, that some of those stations and networks deleted Morgan‘s words of gratitude to God. During my interview with Morgan, she emphasized that she wanted the whole story told. She wanted me to let you know how God‘s supernatural power gave her superhuman strength to break free from a watery grave. So, here‘s the rest of the story.

Morgan Lake of Dunkirk, Maryland is a vibrant and enthusiastic young woman.

The 22-year-old college student is majoring in communications. She dreams of becoming a Sports anchor or host of a television show. Morgan also teaches gymnastics and cheerleading to young girls.

Morgan is the kind of young woman

that makes people feel good about life.

She always seeks to provide people with encouragement and inspiration.

That‘s how Morgan lives, loving God and loving people.

On Friday, July 18 at 8 p.m., Morgan was enjoying one of her best days ever.

Everything was just going her way.

It is a day that she will never forget.

Early evening along the Chesapeake Bay can be a wonderful time of day, especially when the sun is just beginning to set; it‘s simply beautiful.

As Morgan was driving across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, she was feeling the euphoria of having one of those spectacular moments in time.

Then suddenly…calamity struck.

It all happened in an instant, in a blink of an eye, but it felt like an eternity.

Morgan had slowed her car to a stop on the bridge for a toll. In her rear view mirror, as she blinked her eyes, she could see a large tractor trailer truck approaching.

As she blinked her eyes again as the truck showed no sign of slowing down.

BLESSED MAGAZINE After the third blink of her eyes…Bam! Morgan heard the thunderous crashing as the truck rammed into the rear of her car. The momentum of the truck began pushing Morgan‘s car forward. She could see the jersey wall and the water below.

Her mind was frantically racing with thoughts and prayers for her car to stop on the bridge. Please, don‘t go over this bridge into the water, she thought.

Morgan felt helpless and she reasoned in her mind, ―this is it! I‘m going to die!‖

There was no way of escape. Morgan‘s car was jerked like a rollercoaster. Her greatest fear soon became a reality.

After being pushed along, on the top of the barrier between the bridge and the water, Morgan‘s car was now plunging into the treacherous waters below. As the car quickly submerged beneath the water‘s surface, fear and panic gripped Morgan.

Her seatbelt was locked and would not open, her arms were now flailing about, and her mouth and body were filling up with water.

Morgan says; ―I started to feel the drowning sensation. I didn‘t like how it

felt.‖ With that, she felt a rush of hope as she told herself; ―I‘m not going out this way — I‘m not dying.‖ Then suddenly… fortune struck.

Morgan says in that moment of defying death she reached out to God. And she claims God turned her situation around; ―I just felt as if God touched my shoulder and pushed me back against my car into my seat to relax me.‖ Morgan says that divine intervention allowed her to unlock her seat belt and then pull herself out of the driver side window, swim to the surface, then swimming to shore where help arrived.

Morgan‘s story is being told all around the world. It is being described as a modern day miracle.

Morgan explained to me that she knows some people don‘t believe in God. But now, she says; ―They can look at me.

They can look at the video of the bridge and my car being pulled from the water.‖ Morgan adds; ―As long as you have God with you, he will be there to support you through everything; even going over a bridge.‖ In this age of cynicism and abandon-

BLESSED MAGAZINE -ment of faith, Morgan‘s story is a dramatic reminder that God is real.

Miracles happen every day; they‘re just not reported.

If you doubt it, just take a look in the mirror. You‘re a miracle, a work of art, and a masterpiece of God-your creator.

Morgan‘s family is strong on faith, hope and love. One of the family‘s favorite scriptures that applies to Morgan‘s near death experience is taken from the book of Numbers, chapter 14-verse 17; ―Now may the Lord‘s strength be displayed, just as you have declared.‖ Morgan, keep declaring it!

Some people find it easy to give up or quit when they face difficult situations.

Morgan‘s story is an example about overcoming tremendous adversity through faith in God. Your frightening ordeal may not be a bridge over troubled waters. But suddenly, you could be going through something that causes you to fear or to doubt. It could be unemployment, foreclosure, bankruptcy, sickness, or more.

Just know that while we all experience setbacks, God suddenly shows up to

turn our setbacks into setups for a comeback.

So, follow Morgan‘s example; starve your fear and feed your faith. Your soul will be greatly satisfied in knowing that something good is going to happen to you. Live your life expecting miracles.

Change your perception; they‘re all around you.

BLESSED MAGAZINE As a parent of two children in diapers, I‘m always looking for quick things I can do that will improve my financial situation. I like things I can do once, then just sit back and watch as they provide financial benefit for me over the long haul.

By Trent of the Simple Dollar

Here are ten things you can do to improve your financial situation. Each one can easily be done in fifteen minutes and then forgotten about, but over time, these moves will slowly put significant money in your pocket. Think of it as an investment of time that continually pays dividends to your wallet

1. Request a reduction in your credit card interest rate. Take your credit card. Flip it over. Call the phone number on the back. Ask to speak to a supervisor (when you finally get to a real person). Say that you‘re considering switching credit cards with a 0% balance transfer and ask if they can reduce your rate to keep you as a customer. It won‘t always work, but it‘ll work often enough to make it well worth your while.

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BLESSED MAGAZINE 2. Review your health insurance and other benefit choices at work. Take a look at what kind of health insurance you chose at work. Do you use it regularly? Would a less expensive option cover you just as well in an emergency?

Do the same for your other benefits as well.

This is a good time to bump up your 401(k) contribution a bit, too.

3. Sign up for a customer rewards program. If you shop regularly at a particular store (for me, the weakness is Borders), sign up for their customer rewards program, especially if it‘s free. I constantly get 20% and 30% off coupons from Borders, and somewhat regularly I get $5 in credit there as well. The program costs nothing, I get the coupons in my email, and it took me just a few minutes to sign up. Concerned about spam? Just use a Gmail address for this purpose – it‘s free and the spam filtering is impressive.

4. Install a programmable thermostat. A programmable thermostat lets you define a program for temperature change in your house throughout the day, which basically means your air conditioner and/or furnace won‘t run during the day when you‘re away from home or during the night when you‘re asleep. This will save drastically on your energy bills. Even better, they‘re easy to install if you‘re a bit familiar with home electricity – but don‘t hesitate to get an electrician to install it for you if you don‘t know what you‘re doing.

5. Optimize your auto insurance. Consider raising your deductible on your comprehensive insurance – or consider entirely eliminating it if you‘re thinking about buying a new car.

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Call your agent to get quotes on these changes. It might also be worthwhile to shop around a little.

6. Visit your local library. You‘ll find out exactly what‘s available there – and the quantity and quality of the free stuff is usually surprising, from books to CDs and DVDs. You might just find yourself using their DVDs for your DVD rental needs for free instead of buying them or using Netflix. For me, I get the majority of my books from the library, saving quite a lot on book costs.

7. Air up your car tires. Look in your car‘s manual and see what the recommended maximum tire pressure should be on your car – that‘s what the pressure for your tires should be. Get an air gauge, then the next time you‘re at a gas station, head over to the free air pump. Check the pressure in each tire, then air up to the maximum. For every 8 PSI you add to any tire, you improve your gas mileage by 1%, and the

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BLESSED MAGAZINE average tire is 10-12 PSI below the recommended maximum. Thus, airing up your tires can save 6% on your gas mileage. If gas costs $3 a gallon and your car currently gets 20 miles per gallon, over your next 10,000 miles (a typical year), this tip will save you $85.

8. Eliminate any monthly bills for items you don’t use. Still paying for Netflix but haven‘t received a new movie in months? Paying for unlimited text messages but only use four or five each month? What

about premium movie channels on your cable bill that you maybe watch once every few weeks? These are pure money wasters, and they‘re well worth getting rid of. All you have to do is look at your last month’s worth of checking account statements to identify your regular bills, then eliminate the ones that you‘re not using. Then, look at a few specific bills, like your cell phone bill, and eliminate any optional services you‘re not using. The first time I did this, I came up with an extra $30 a month quite quickly.

9. Replace your light bulbs with CFLs. Even if they‘re not burnt out, replace them. Let‘s say you use a bulb four hours in an average day.

Over one year, at $0.10 per kilowatt hour, replacing a 75 watt bulb with a 26 watt equivalent CFL will save you $7.15 over a year. The bulb has paid for itself in four months. Even better, consider replacing every bulb in your home – replacing just fourteen of the old incandescents will put $100 a year directly in your pocket.

10. Sign up for an online savings account and set up an automatic

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savings plan. There are a lot of reputable online-only savings accounts out there offering interest rates above 4%. Sign up for one, then set up an automatic savings plan within the account to pull out a small amount from your checking account each week. How much? Why not just save the amount you‘ve saved from these other tips? Let‘s say all together, you figure that you‘re saving $60 a month from these tips. Set up a plan to save $15 a week into the account. You won‘t notice any difference at all in your day-today spending, and at the end of the year, you‘ll have about $750 in the account without lifting a finger!

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Living On A Tight Budget

by Nathan Chandler

Before we launch into our tips, it may help to clarify exactly what it means to live comfortably on budget. There's no black-andwhite answer to that question.

For some people, putting away enough money to go on an annual three-day vacation might be the ultimate luxury. For others, going out to eat once a week or getting a monthly pedicure might be a real treat. Whatever you enjoy in life, there's a difference between living on a fun-starved budget and living comfortably -- yet still affordably.

Perhaps, the only thing stopping you from enjoying life a lot more is developing a better understanding of how to get the most from your money without having to sweat important bills.

So if you're one of the vast

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majority of Earth's citizens who must carefully plot out purchases both minor and major, keep reading. You'll see some tips that may help you save more money and have more fun at the same time.

5: Prioritize Your Life No matter where you live, the culture that surrounds you affects the way you think about money.

Some societies preach the gospel of rampant, wasteful consumerism.

Others stress the importance of extreme frugality and a sense of doit-yourself survivalism. And of course, in between those extremes lies a whole range of attitudes and beliefs about money.

The culture around you affects what you consider to be

BLESSED MAGAZINE comfortable living. If everyone you know has not one, but two 60inch HDTVs, while you hobble on with a 27-inch TV from the dinosaur age, you're bound to notice the disparity.

But does your sense of comfort require that you own massive (and massively expensive) technological marvels? Do your life's core values mean that more toys equal more happiness? If that's the case, you'll have to make sure you have the earning power to buy those toys without sacrificing critical aspects of your finances, such as savings and important investments, like education or a house.

savers instead of consumers and spenders [source: Reuters]. But that kind of shift will take years to complete. As it is, Americans spend a tremendous amount of money in areas that could be trimmed. You can compare your spending against the average by checking out this illustration at Visual Economics.

In the meantime, economic realities mean people must learn the art of balancing the cost of comfort items with necessary expenses in a sustainable way.

Keep reading and you'll see just how to do that.

Many people must simply pick and choose what's most important to them in terms of comfort.

Whether it's a livable home in a safe neighborhood, good food, a house full of puppies, or a bevy of tech gadgets makes no difference.

You just have to decide what really matters to you.

With consumer confidence in the United States at its lowest in three decades, there's talk that maybe people will slowly learn to become

Jupiterimages/ŠGetty Images/Thinkstock

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BLESSED MAGAZINE 4: Find and Use Budgeting Tools Whatever their reasons, many people don't apply any sort of planning to their personal finances. And just like businesses without plans, individuals also fail financially. That's why you need to create a budget.

For many people talk of budget planning causes boredom-induced comas. Whether you love or hate numbers, this critical task can mean the difference between living comfortably and picking change out of (other people's) couch cushions to buy pizza once a month.

But like any other long-term project, by setting goals and tracking them you actually make budgeting fun. The delayed gratification of watching your savings balloon might greatly offset the pain of cutting silly expenses.

Use the power of budgeting tools to help you. You can start immediately with online tools like those found at Kiplinger's budget tool page.

Ramsey offers free budget worksheets on his web site. Suze Orman, another celebrity debt fighter, provides free online tools for determining a range of expenses, from mortgages to interest and much more. Mint. comoffers a free online money management tool that lets you track everything from your credit cards, to bank accounts, to investments, all in one place.

Enough with the grown-up lectures about budgeting. On the next page, we'll start diving into the juicy tips that let you get more enjoyment out of your money.

3: The Good Food Fight

Financial wizard and author Dave

BLESSED MAGAZINE For some people, a spectacular meal at a five-star restaurant is worth missing a mortgage payment. For others, the act of cooking and subsequent mastication is a boring but necessary chore. No matter how you feel about food, one thing is for sure -- you gotta eat.

Americans spend a lot of money on food, to the tune of about $770 per month for a family of four [source: USDA]. But really, that cash could be spent more wisely.

There are plenty of ways to think smarter about food expenses.

Here's one critical pointer -- eating out often costs more than cooking at home. So even if you hate cooking, it pays -- literally -- to do some reading up on easy, fast recipes that prevent you from calling for carryout seven days a week.

Buying ingredients for those recipes is itself an art form. You can opt for dozens of fancy, individually packaged products that actually cost more than restaurant food in the long run. Or, you can buy fewer (nonperishable) items, in bulk, and use them for months before running low on supplies. Items such as dry beans,

pasta, nuts, sugar, dried fruits, flour, grains, vegetable or chicken stock -- and all sorts of canned vegetables -- save you money in the long run.

Grocery coupons are making a huge comeback, and for good reason. Americans clipped 3.3 billion coupons in 2009. The savings from those glossy bits of paper? Around $3.5 billion [source: Time]. The key is to plan your meals in advance with the items you see are on sale in store circulars, the Sunday newspaper and online at sites such as CouponCabin.com and Coupons.com. Don't forgot about coupons that are available directly through the manufacturer's Web site, too.

Of course, you still have to go out on the town now and then. That's where the social coupon phenomenon (from the likes of Groupon, LivingSocial, Scoutmob and others) comes in handy. Buy deals from great restaurants and wait to use them for special occasions, and you can eat very well for very cheap.

Food is just one facet of your budget. On the next page, we'll 77

BLESSED MAGAZINE dive into making another necessity -- your home -- more comfortable.

2: The Roof, The Roof is on Fire Hopefully, your living quarters aren't literally on fire, but if you're paying for digs that are well beyond your means, those shingles might as well be singed because you won't be there for long. You need shelter of course, and you can find comfortable living quarters without sending your bank account up in flames.

If your situation allows, finding a roommate is one of the most powerful ways to reduce living expenses. Stay in the same location and cut your rent and utilities literally in half, or move into a bigger, swankier place and you can still pay less, just by sharing your space with someone else.

This rule is especially true in areas with high costs of living. For example, in Los Angeles, you could easily save more than $200 per month by sharing your space [source: AAGLA]. In San Francisco, you might save a whopping $700 per month. That's like giving yourself a nearly

$9,000 raise in salary [source: William Paid].

Just be sure to choose your roommate carefully, and consider setting automatic payments so that you'll never have to worry about getting stuck with someone else's share of the rent [source: Bank of America].

Carefully furnishing and maintaining your home can also drastically lower expenses. Opt for used furniture and appliances instead of fancy new items. Take the time to clean and refurbish them yourself. Not only will you save cash and learn some extremely useful skills, but you can take pride in your work and value those items as more than throwaway, disposable goods.

BLESSED MAGAZINE Extend that DIY attitude toward maintenance, too. You may not have Bob Vila-level skills, but you can solve many household problems without hiring an expensive expert. Just look for a YouTube video that walks you through ways to unclog that sink.

On the next page, you'll see even more about budget living, and how you can avoid the enemy of all good budgets -- burnout.

1: Beware Budget Burnout The fancy-pants media name for budget burnout is "frugal fatigue," (a phrase coined by analyst Paula Rosenblum) and with economic worries escalating, it's the kind of fatigue more people are getting familiar with [source: RSR].In short, frugal fatigue refers to the mental and emotional toll that sets in when you feel like you have to carefully weigh each and every purchase you make.

It doesn't matter whether you're used to having a large disposable income or you're more acquainted with limited spending power. This kind of fatigue can strike anyone who is trying to be more conscientious about limiting

unnecessary purchases.

One potential pitfall to frugal fatigue is that eventually you simply get tired of being so deliberate with your money. As a result, you might start splurging unnecessarily, perhaps as a onetime weakness, or as a chronic pattern that threatens to obliterate your savings.

It's important to recognize fatigue if it begins to affect you. If you feel totally bored with budgeting and sick to death of squeezing pennies, you're at risk for a spending bender of sorts. Don't give in to the temptation.

Instead, be creative and kind to yourself and to your family.

Splurge and treat yourselves, but be smart about it. Use resources such as Frugalista, Woot or Clark Howard's tips to find cheap deals that let you have a little fun without hemorrhaging big money.

By shopping for deals and planning your leisure time around them, you can save scads of cash on everything from food and amusement parks to airline tickets.

And whatever you do, keep tabs on your expenses. If you're in the

BLESSED MAGAZINE 42 percent of people who plan to use layaway to buy Christmas gifts, you may want to reconsider how you're spending your money [source: CNN Money]. Remember the first rule of budgeting -- don't spend money you don't have.

Now you know a little more about budgeting, but more important, you understand that while living comfortably has a lot to do with managing your money, creativity helps, too. With a little more forethought, you can alleviate financial stress and have more fun at the same time.

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10 Tips to Save Time in the Kitchen

by Sara Elliott

If you're doing more cooking at home, make the minutes count by working smarter in the kitchen. If you feel stressed when you try to prepare a meal, having a battle plan and some front-line assistance can mean the difference between a disaster and a triumph. Remember, cooking can be a creative as well as practical talent, and beefing up your approach, sometimes literally, might make your forays into the kitchen a lot more entertaining and successful.

Injecting a little efficiency into your kitchen routine will save you time and make you feel more in control of the process. No one starts out as a great cook, and the less time you spend on getting organized, the more time and energy you'll have to spare for developing your own unique cooking style.

1: Make Safety a Priority Keep a fire extinguisher in your kitchen and learn how to use it. Nothing will upset your timetable more than an unexpected grease fire. Keep a first aid kit around, too, and make sure it's stocked with bandages and burn ointment.

Wear insulated mitts when using the oven, and keep towels, aprons and dangling sleeves away from stovetop burners. According to a 2008 survey conducted by The Home Safety Council, 20 percent of respondents suffered a burn in the kitchen sometime during the previous year, so keep the cook and everyone else in your house safe by being prepared for kitchen mishaps

2: Set Up a Time Line Most meals are made up of multiple dishes that have different ingredients and require different

BLESSED MAGAZINE cooking times. This means that one oven temperature doesn't always fit the needs of every dish. This goes for the microwave, too. A little planning can help you come up with ways to cook your meals efficiently and still get everything hot at the same time.

You might want to step down the temperature to add a second dish after the first one's had a chance to heat up for a while. A lower than called for temperature during part of the cooking process can keep a companion dish from drying out too quickly while still allowing both dishes plenty of oven time. Whatever strategy you employ, evaluating the problem before you're ready to pop the pan in the oven is the key to a successful outcome.

You may want to reconsider preheating the oven before you use it, too. Many dishes can be started in a cold oven without a problem. You may not want to do this with bread, but casseroles and other simple dishes can take advantage of the building heat, which will save you time and money.

3: Have a Strategy All meals aren't created equal, but they do have some things in common. They use ingredients, they require some cleanup and they usually need to be stored somewhere. To get the job done faster and better, anticipate the steps of your cooking process and have a handle on what you'll need and when you'll need it. If you're making cookies, pull out the measuring cups and spoons, sugar, flour, flavoring, bowl and other utensils before you begin. That's what the extra counter space is for. As you move from step to step, pull the tools and ingredients you'll need. As you use ingredients, put them back in the cupboard. When you get a utensil dirty, put it in the sink and rinse it out right away.

This will make it easier to clean later. If you have a little extra time, wash or stow dirty items in the dishwasher.

Keep the recipe handy on the counter at all times. Working this way will alert you to any potential problems, like a missing ingredient, and you'll start to develop a rhythm. Less fumbling, backtracking and hunting for things means time saved and better meals.

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BLESSED MAGAZINE 4: Buy a Crock-pot Crock-pots cook food slowly over a period of six to nine hours. The result is a meal that almost makes itself. All you have to do is add the ingredients, close the lid and turn the unit on. You can literally prepare a one-pot meal with 10 minutes worth of effort. The great part is that it'll taste like you worked on it all day.

Crock-pots save you time with clean up, too. There's just one pot to clean and the plates, of course. If money's tight, crock-pots can also help you save a few dollars in ingredient costs.

Because they use low heat and moisture in the cooking process, crock-pots can transform less expensive, often tough cuts of meat into very tasty meals.

5: Cook in Batches If you want to save money as well as time in the kitchen, try consolidating your efforts by cooking large batches of food and freezing what you don't use right away. A large pot of spaghetti or chili will take about the same amount of time to make as a small one, but cooking a larger batch could yield double the number of meals.

Another advantage to cooking in bulk is that you can eliminate some waste. If you've ever let half a head of celery slowly disintegrate in the vegetable crisper because you didn't know what to do with it, you've got the idea. One afternoon or evening is all you need to make enough food for a week's worth of meals or more. After that, just defrost, microwave and eat your creations in peace.

6: Buy Packaged Goods To save time, you can always buy prepared entrees and microwave them. Along the same lines are packaged mixes to which you just add water and meat and frozen mixes that you can heat up on the stovetop or in the oven. The world has come a long way since the TV dinners of the 1950s, and updated preservation methods like freeze drying have made prepackaged meals something to look forward to.

There are any number of ways you can use partially prepared ingredients and whole meals to help you speed up your kitchen duties. From packaged quick bread mixes, like Thrifty and Bisquick, to sauce packets and dried or canned soup bases, retailers are happy to do the hard work for you -- for a price.

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BLESSED MAGAZINE 7: Buy Tools That Are Easy to Maintain Those cheap aluminum pots and pans may look like a great deal, but chances are you'll spend more time scouring them than they're worth. Instead, go for quality cookware that is reliable and easy to clean.

You'll save money on scorched food and dishwashing liquid. The same goes for knives and many small appliances. Before you buy an item, like a crock-pot, mixer or griddle, determine how hard the appliance or tool is going to be to maintain. If you get stuck with a poorly designed gadget that's hard or impossible to clean, you'll end up wasting time and money. Consumer Reports and other consumer publications and sites offer product comparisons that will help you make an informed decision.

8: Make Some Space Over time, you lose precious counter space in the kitchen. Appliance creep starts innocently enough with the addition of a toaster and then slowly grows to include the food processor, mini mixer, can opener, toaster oven, and on and on. Before long you're trying to cook in a postage stamp-sized space only large enough for an eggcup. Reorganize you're counter space to give yourself some much needed room. Everyone who shares work in the kitchen at the same time should have his own workspace. That means that the barbecue wizard in your family should have an area in which to blend his signature sauce while you're working on the salad.

9: Keep the Basics on Hand Creative cooking extravaganzas can get to be a real pain if you have to run out and buy bags and bags of groceries every time you want to try a new recipe. To support your creative efforts and make life a little easier at mealtime, keep the basics on hand in your cupboards. Staples like flour, sugar, herbs, spices, grains and oils store well and are used again and again in both sweet and savory recipes. Keeping your fridge stocked with milk, butter, ice cubes and other oftenused refrigerated items couldn't hurt either. If you know that you use onions, carrots, celery, fresh garlic or potatoes often in cooking, stock up. If you have a regular inventory and rotate it efficiently, you'll be able to save time and the stress of last minute shopping. You'll also be able to plan your buying efforts better, taking advantage of bargains like double coupon days.

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BLESSED MAGAZINE 10: Get Organized There's no better way to save time in the kitchen than to have easy access to all of your tools and ingredients. Imagine how much more smoothly your culinary efforts will come together if you never have to fumble around looking for a measuring spoon, spatula or potato peeler.

One good organizational strategy is to put like items together. That way you'll have an intuitive grasp of the first place to look for a little used gadget, like the tool that plucks the stems off the strawberries, the mushroom brush or the nutmeg grater. Plot out the storage space in your kitchen and inventory all the stuff you need to find a home for. Keep sections for the most frequently used items close to the central work areas like near the stove, sink and refrigerator. If you have peripheral storage, like in a kitchen island or breakfast room, reserve it for items you use less frequently. If you only bake around the holidays, don't use valuable kitchen real estate on glass pie pans and that marble rolling pin

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Great Recipes That Please All 88

BLESSED MAGAZINE Apple Pie Pancakes If you feel too guilty about having pie for breakfast (although we wouldn‘t judge!) whip up a batch of these apple pie pancakes. With freshly grated apple in the batter and a diced apple topping, these are the perfect homemade treat for any Sunday morning.

Ingredients

For The Diced Apple Topping (Optional)

1 cup all-purpose flour 1 apple diced 2 Tbsp light brown sugar, packed 1 1/2 tsp Brown sugar 1 tsp baking powder 1 1/2 tsp sugar 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 1 Tbsp butter 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg Cinnamon, to taste 1/2 tsp ground clove 1/8 tsp salt 1 cup whole milk 1 large egg 1 Tbsp butter, melted and cooled slightly 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 cup grated apple (about 1 medium apple, peeled and grated) Instructions

• In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and salt.

• In a separate small bowl combine the milk, egg, butter and vanilla and beat to combine.

• Preheat your skillet over medium heat and grease lightly with butter or cooking spray.

• Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix just until combined--don't over mix, the batter should have some small lumps. Gently fold in the grated apple.

• Spoon about 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake. Cook until small bubbles form on the surface of the pancakes (2-3 minutes), and then flip and cook on the opposite side until golden brown.

• For the topping, combine diced applies, brown sugar, sugar, butter and cinnamon in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat until apples are slightly softened (about 5-8 minutes).

• Serve pancakes immediately with diced apple topping and your favorite syrup.

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Mustard-Roasted Chicken With Vegetables A coating of mustard and soy sauce bakes right into the chicken, giving it a big flavor boost.

Ingredients 4-pound chicken, cut into 8 pieces 3 tablespoons whole-grain mustard 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce 2 tablespoons kosher salt and pepper 4 small carrots, cut in half crosswise 1 medium fennel bulb, cut into wedges 1 red onion, cut into wedges 8 sprigs thyme 2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions Heat oven to 400째 F. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Combine the mustard, soy sauce, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a large bowl. Add the chicken and stir to coat.

Combine the carrots, fennel, onion, thyme, oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a roasting pan.

Nestle the chicken among the vegetables. Roast until the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are tender, 45 to 50 minutes.

Divide the chicken and vegetables among individual plates.

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BLESSED MAGAZINE Chocolate Pudding Yield: 6 servings Prep Time: 25 minutes - Cook Time: 15 min Ingredients: 2 large egg yolks 1/2 cup granulated white sugar 3 tablespoons cornstarch 3 cups whole milk 5 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped pinch of salt 1 tablespoon vanilla extract whipped cream and chocolate shavings, for topping (optional) Directions:

1. In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch.

2. In a medium saucepan, combine the milk, chocolate and salt and warm over medium-heat; stir until the chocolate melts. Gradually whisk the hot chocolate mixture into the egg mixture (1/4 cup at a time), whisking quickly, until you have warmed up the egg mixture. Pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan and keep whisking until thickened- 12 to 15 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in the vanilla, then divide among 6 serving cups. Cover each with plastic wrap and refrigerate until well set (at least 2 hours).

Tips: *To make whipped cream: use an electric mixer to whip 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream in a medium bowl. When it begins to thicken, add 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar and continue to mix until it reaches "whipped cream consistency." *If you are preparing this recipe as GLUTEN-FREE, just be sure to use brands of chocolate and vanilla that are known to be GF.

SOURCE: RecipeGirl.com

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BLESSED MAGAZINE Cinnamon Streusel Pumpkin Coffee Cake with a Brown Butter Maple Glaze PREP TIME: 10 MINS COOK TIME: 40 MINS SERVES: 16

INGREDIENTS Cake Ingredients:

Topping ingredients:

½ cup salted butter, very soft, almost melted ½ cup packed brown sugar 1½ cups pumpkin 3 large eggs 2½ cups all purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder ½ teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon each cinnamon, ground ginger, allspice a pinch of nutmeg and ground cloves

⅓ cup flour ⅓ cup white sugar ⅓ cup packed brown sugar 1 teaspoon cinnamon 3 tablespoons butter, melted Brown Butter Maple Glaze: 4 tablespoons butter 1¼ cup powdered sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 tablespoons maple syrup

INSTRUCTIONS Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×13 inch pan with cooking spray and set aside.

To make the cake: Using an electric mixer or wooden spoon, mix butter, brown sugar pumpkin, and eggs together until smooth. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices. Mix until just combined and pour evenly in prepared baking dish.

To make the topping: Combine flour, white sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and melted butter.

Crumble with your fingers and sprinkle on top of the cake. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until center comes out clean when a toothpick is inserted.

To make the glaze: Place the butter in a medium sized saucepan and melt over medium low heat.

Bring temperature to medium and continue to stir until butter starts to foam and turns brown.

Remove from heat.

In mixing bowl, add powdered sugar, vanilla, and maple syrup. Add brown butter and mix until smooth. If it is thick, I put mine in the microwave for about 20 seconds so that it could easily drizzle over cake.

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Creamy Oven- Baked Mashed Potatoes Yield: 12 servings Prep Time: 25 min Cook Time: 35 min

Ingredients: 10 large potatoes, peeled, washed and cut in half One 8-ounce package cream cheese 1 cup sour cream garlic salt, to taste 1 tablespoon butter, chopped into small pieces Garnish:

chopped chives and paprika, optional Directions: Boil the potatoes in a large pot of water until tender. Drain, transfer to a large bowl and mash.

Add all other ingredients and beat with an electric mixer until fluffy. Transfer the potatoes to a large, buttered casserole dish. Top with dots of butter, chopped chives and paprika.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake potatoes for 15 minutes, or until they begin to brown on top.

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Rosemary Pork Roast Yield: 12 servings Prep Time: 15 min Cook Time: 1 hour Ingredients: 3 1/2 pounds boneless pork loin 2 tablespoons dried rosemary (or 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh chopped) 2 tablespoons olive oil (plus one more Tablespoon) 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place pork, fat side up, in large heavy roasting pan. Insert meat thermometer in center of roast. Roast for 30 minutes.

In small bowl, stir the rosemary with the olive oil, pepper, vinegar and salt. Spoon over pork and spread all over.

Return pork to the oven and roast about 30 minutes longer or until internal temperature is 140 to 145 degrees. Remove from oven, cover loosely with foil, and let rest for at least 10 minutes.

Slice thinly and pour any juices over the meat. Serve warm or at room temperature.