What's so special about the family ?

I recently talked to a lady who held that practically everything that I listed in my (random) 10 reasons for polygyny could very well be done in a monogamous marriage or even without being married since some social group or another was just as good in taking care of the elderly, supporting you in your home schooling efforts, etc., as long as people chose to treat each other with love and respect. I disagree. Here is what I think is so special about the family:

Our approach to the family is purely biblical. The vision of the family that we have is multi-generational, and that does not only mean that many generations live under one roof, but that the vision is meant to sustain the family for hundreds of years, a vision for our children's children's children, and their great grand-children, too. Think of the promise given to Abraham, and whom it concerned.

The family is the place where all social responsibility used to be placed - care for the young as well as the old, education, work, etc. etc. etc.. This is an ideal we are restoring: We are building a
household. No other group of people, whether they are bound together by ideology, common interests, creed, race, vicinity (like a neighborhood), common fate, employment, etc. has ever been or will ever be able to substitute the family adequately. Groups like this as well as the state institutions that have taken over the responsibilities of the family (like schools, nursing homes, etc.) are weak, inadequate, mediocre, and short lived.

The family is more than just a group of individuals that happens to live under one roof for a time.

Dandelions

As you might have noticed, I haven't blogged as regularly recently, and here is the reason: The gardening season has begun ! We have been eating our own spinach and green onions already, planted a lot of stuff and worked on our other garden beds to prepare them for what will soon be planted in them.

Tomorrow we will harvest a particular crop that grows unasked, but certainly not unwelcome, and in abundance: Dandelion greens.

Dandelions have roots that go very deep into the soil. Thus, they draw lots of minerals and nutrients to the surface of the soil, and store them in their greens too. Therefore, they are a very healthy addition to our, and your, diet, if you take the time to pick them.

All parts of the plant are edible, really, here is a list of uses (via About.com):

• Dandelion root can be roasted as a coffee-substitute, or boiled and stir-fried as a cooked vegetable.
• Dandelion flower can be made into a wine, or boiled and stir-fried as a cooked vegetable.
• Dandelion greens (i.e., the leaves) can be boiled, as you would spinach, and used as a cooked vegetable, in sandwiches or as a salad green with some "bite."

After cutting them, wash your dandelion greens well, and cook them like spinach. A little bit of garlic and onion goes well with it, and if you add Parmesan cheese when you serve it, I am sure you will like it, too.

Gather your dandelions while you may.

The Feast Week

After some days of busy preparation the Feast of Unleavened Bread is now upon us, dear sisters, and I hope you had a blessed and tasty Passover meal last night.

Now let me say a few things about feasts.

I know that many Christians know that what they usually celebrate - Christmas, Easter, probably Pentecost - are not biblical feasts, but feasts that were introduced by historical Christianity. We know that Jesus was not born towards the end of December for even in Israel the shepherds are not out there at night in the middle of the winter. There is no such thing as Easter in the bible, but peoples have worshiped the sun and fertility goddesses for a long time, and all the symbolism - including sunrise services and eggs, right down to the name of the feast - points not to any biblical feast, but to the pagan origins of Easter. Yes, Pentecost is mentioned in the bible as the occasion on which the Holy Spirit comes down on the disciples, and time-wise it coincides with the biblical Feast of Weeks (50 days after Passover), but there is no biblical indication that Pentecost should be celebrated.

In short, what Christianity does is ignore the biblical feasts, probably for fear of appearing Jewish in some form or fashion, and celebrate their own feasts instead. Jesus is clear about this attitude. He condemns it, saying:

"And he said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, "'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.' You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men." And he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! " (Mar 7:6-9)

But many Christians seem to be very fearful of giving up their traditional feasts, even if they know that it is not right to cling to them. Especially when it comes to Christmas, they feel as though something very precious and special is taken from them and their life is the poorer for it. They do not want to lose the "magic" of Christmas, so to speak.

Well, you know what ? If we celebrated the Hebrew feasts as they are appointed by Yahweh, they would be as precious to us as Christmas and Easter are to people nowadays, they would hold as much festival atmosphere, and what is more, they would add to our life what Yahweh meant to be added to our life by those feasts. If you look at traditional Christianity's feasts closely, there is not much Christian about them anymore anyway. The important bits are gifts, Easter egg hunts and the like, not what is actually commemorated according to the churches...

To cut a long story short: You don't really have all that much to lose if you give up your pagan (i.e., historical Christian) feasts and celebrate the Hebrew feasts instead, but you have much, much to gain.

Unleavened Bread

Yesterday I mentioned Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, so today I would like to share a recipe for flatbread. This unleavened bread is great for sandwiches because it stays moist:

Ingredients:

3 eggs
1/3 cup oil
Salt to taste
3 cups all purpose flour

Beat eggs, mix with oil and salt (to taste), then add flour gradually, alternating with water until the batter is easy to pour. Pour into a very well-greased 15x10-inch jelly roll pan. Bake 15 to 20 minutes at 450°.

If you prefer whole wheat flour, use 4 eggs.