I Am A Child Of God . . .

“There is something about spirituality that is central to the life of a woman. Not the kind of spirituality that only takes you to church on Sunday. I am talking about the kind of spirituality that makes you behave like a child of God.” ~Marjorie Pay Hinckley

"I think most people would concede that we have a spirit, even if some might say that there is no God. I wonder then . . . where do they think our spirits come from . . . if not from God; but then again . . . that’s a whole different question and topic.

I can remember, as a small child, sitting in a chair and looking at my hand. Around the outside of it I could see a glow, an aura . . . and I can remember thinking to myself, that’s my spirit. Even today, when I look at my hand I can see the same thing. My spirit still looks the same to me now as it did to me back then. It’s the very essence of my being, the part of me that makes me, well . . . Me! It’s the part of me that comes from God. My parents here on earth gave me my body, that part of me which will one day die and be no more, but it’s God, my Heavenly Father who gave me my spirit, the part of me that was with him before I came to earth, the part of me that he breathed into my body at my earthly conception and the part of me that will leave my body when my body is no more. My spirit is that part of me that is eternal and will go on forever in one place or another. I knew that even as a child. It was not something anyone had to ever tell me.



Knowing that you are a literal child of God makes a big difference in how you think of yourself and how you behave in and of yourself and towards others, because, let’s face it . . . if I am a child of God, then so are you and so is everyone else here on this earth. We don’t just happen to all know it. I think if we did, we’d all be behaving in a much different way, and earth would be a completely different place . . .

This is a precious knowledge to me. When I look in the mirror every morning yes . . . I see the me that is getting older, a few more wrinkles around the eyes, those extra pounds that I have to lose, grey hairs appearing at my temples . . . I also see the me that shines out from behind my eyes and that me is not any older than I was when I came here to earth. I still feel the same way inside that I did when I was sixteen or six, except I like to think I am a whole lot wiser now. All my experiences here have taught me things I did not know before and I continue to learn and experience new things every day.



I hope that most of the time I behave like a daughter of God, a daughter he would not be ashamed to call his own. I know that once in a while I fall down and I must disappoint him, and probably at some times more than others, but I like to think that as I get older and experience more, learn more, those moments become far and fewer between. I hope that when people look at me and watch the things that I do they see a difference and that they see a good person, that they see a reflection of my Heavenly Father and all that is good about people, and the good things they can do.

I am far from perfect, and I still have a long ways to go to be the person that I truly want to be. But with each day that passes I get closer and that’s a good thing. I see so many people around me struggling with the problems of life, and in the struggle to find their place in it, and I’m so glad that I have this knowledge of who I am and why I’m here. It makes things so much easier, and it helps me to feel so much better about myself. How can you not love someone you know is a daughter of God? How can you not respect them? That is how I feel about me, and how I feel about each of you. When I see a young girl struggling to find herself in this crazy world, someone like Britney Spears for instance, my heart breaks and I think to myself, if she only knew who she was, what a difference that might make in her life, in the way she behaves and the things that she does. Instead they have bought into the hype of the world, which tells them who they ought to be, and they measure their worth on a scale of unrealistic proportions and distorted opinion, instead of trusting on that quite still voice inside which will tell them who they really are and what they're really worth. . . if they would only be still enough to listen and wise enough to hear.



We are not here by accident. There is a purpose to all of this and to these lives that we live. I am so blessed to know that. I wish everyone did."

This is a piece I originally wrote on my Muses. Slowly I am moving a few of my better pieces from there over here. I don't think it hurts to repeat little gems like these. I think we all need reminding from time to time of the things which really matter in this life, don't you?

I baked my Jam Jam's yesterday afternoon. These are a cookie with a history, and yes . . . they are another one of the treasures from my Big Blue Binder. I had a lovely friend named Leona, years ago when all my babies were young. We met at Bingo one night and both of us, as army wives, had just moved into the area so were quite new and knew literally nobody. We became close friends and although we have both moved several times since them, we still are in contact from time to time. Leona was quite a bit older than myself and from New Brunswick. She was a great cook, an old fashioned cook, and a wonderful friend. We often got together as families, perhaps once every couple of weeks or so and broke bread together. This is a lovely cookie recipe that she shared with me. Now, back home, you can buy packages of "Jam Jam's" in the shops, but let me tell you the truth, not a one of them ever came close to the home baked version. These are wonderfully old fashioned . . . tasty . . . the type of cookie your nan would have filled up the cookie jar with!



*Jam Jam's*
Makes a lot! (about 70 or so)

This is one of those old fashioned recipes that exists on a scrap of paper, just a list of ingredients with no timings, temperatures or method laid out. A lot of old and handed down recipes come that way, relying on a cooks basic knowledge to help them to know exactly what to do without being told. In the old days these things would have been learnt at a mother's side. These are a soft and mild flavoured molasses cookie filled with raspberry jam, and are the type of cookie that invokes thoughts of home and hearth and the warm lap of a loving grandmother. Since the recipe makes a lot I would advise freezing half of the baked cookies without filling them for later use. You can thaw them out when you need them and fill them then. In the meantime enjoy!

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup molasses (if you are in the UK and can't get molasses, I recommend equal measures of dark treacle and golden syrup, 1/4 cup each)
1/2 cup firmly packed soft light brown sugar
1 large egg, beaten
2 tsp soda, dissolved in 3 TBS hot water
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
flour (The recipe says 2 cups but I find I always need about 4 cups. The important thing is to add enough flour to make a soft dough, without it being too sticky and yet also not overly dry.)
To Fill:
seedless raspberry jam

Pre-heat the oven to 180*C/350*F. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl. Beat in the egg and molasses. Stir in the vanilla, salt and soda water. Stir in the flour, one cup at a time, until you have a soft dough, not too sticky and not too dry, just right for rolling out. Mix it in well.

Divide the dough into quarters and roll each quarter out one at a time (On a lightly floured surface with a floured rolling pin) to about 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into circles with a 1 1/2 inch cutter. Place them about 1/2 inch apart on the baking sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until nicely risen and lightly browned on the underside. Remove from the oven and cool on wire racks completely before filling. Repeat until you have used all the dough. You may reroll the scraps. I usually do this as I go along, incorporating the scraps into some of the fresh dough and mixing it all in together so that you don't get too dry a mixture from the extra flour.

Once they are all baked and cooled, sandwich them together in pairs with a teaspoon of seedless raspberry jam in the middle of each. You can use other flavours of course or even seeded raspberry jam. Raspberry jam is just what's always been used and is my preference. I have seen these put together as well with Maple buttercream icing, which is also lovely. (In that case they are no longer jam jam's though!)



The photos in this post of the flowers were taken at Regent's Park in London last summer when Todd and I went in for a day trip. I thought they were particularly lovely.