Family Altar Project and Black Bean Burritos

I just want to share with everyone the wonderful idea that our church's first lady had laid on her heart over the last year. The idea of the family altar project was born by inspiration of the biblical account of the children of Israel building an altar to memorialize what God had done for them (Joshua 4:1-9). The purpose was to have each family with a child (or grandchildren) to construct and decorate a box out of precut wood that, at the completion of the project, would hold mementos of answered prayers and serve as a reminder for what God had done in their lives.

One Friday, Bryan took the girls and together they built our altar. Then I took the girls to decorate it. Aside from Roland, who is obviously too small to handle power tools, a wood burner, or polyurethane, our whole family was involved. Bryan and I loved involving our kids in this process! We got to spend much needed time with our girls, and since they were involved, the altar doesn't just seem like a piece of furniture, but truly a family heirloom.

Here is the finished product:

This past Sunday evening, Pastor preached on having a sacred place in the home to pray and seek the Lord. It was a beautiful sermon about returning to the place where one feels like they can be alone with God. After the sermon, he dedicated each of the 22 altars that had been made and praying over them that every time one sees their altar, that they would be reminded to pray and reminded of the works of God in their life. Each family stood together in prayer and submission to God and His word. Bryan and I prayed that not only would our family bond become stronger through prayer at home, but also that we would stand as examples to our children of how to be Godly parents. It was truly one of the most beautiful services we have ever been a part of, and I'm so glad that we were! We already have things that we can place inside as reminders of answered prayers!

Now, I know you were promised black bean burritos, so let me include that before this post becomes a book! The original recipe for the burritos can be found here, but if you know me at all, you know that more often than not I am incapable of leaving a recipe alone. So, as is my almost-irrational urge, I tweaked it. To stretch the recipe a little, I added chopped mushrooms, chopped black olives, cumin, paprika and tomatoes. Then I made a double batch of a Daniel Fast friendly  version of my father-in-law's Mexican rice. Dinner was amazing! And the leftovers were ridiculously tasty! This is definitely a recipe that we will make even after the fast is over!

Happy fasting!