Indians alone take Curd as Curd. Western world takes it as Yogurt, which got Sugar too, and sugar will not calm your Brain, but increases Glucose level and will put you more restless. Sugar is danger for the Balance of Neural activity. It triggers hyperactivity.

But Curd rice is the only food which can release Tryptophan in Brain, which calms down and brings a cool thinking, and your neurons are recharging with a mild rest because of Tryptophan. ( In Sanskrit there's word in this Chemical, as Thrupthophan, Thrupthi means Satisfaction).

by Lauren Winner

Scripture: 2 Kings 11:1–16

But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Jehoram and sister of Ahaziah, took Joash son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the royal princes, who were about to be murdered.
2 Kings 11:2

Until a few years ago, I was only marginally aware of this emotionally powerful story about Joash. It is, after all, stuck in the middle of the long section of 1 and 2 Kings that many of us sometimes, um, skim.

At any rate, we read here about King Ahaziah's mother, Athaliah, who had begun killing off the royal family so that she could rule as queen. Jehosheba, Ahaziah's sister, saw what was going on and rescued Ahaziah's young son Joash, hiding him and his nurse at the temple. Joash remained there for six years, finally emerging when it was time for him to be crowned as king.

What first gripped me about this story was Athaliah, a wicked matriarch of fairy-tale proportions. Can't you just see her as the Wicked Witch of the West? Once I tore myself away from that specter, I noticed how complicated her family was. On the one hand, this group of relatives was truly dysfunctional (they were, after all, related to the infamous family of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel). They were so dysfunctional that a grandmother began killing off her own grandchildren-her own descendants!-so she could grab the throne. Athaliah makes my overbearing grandmother look like a wimp.

On the other hand, the family wasn't all bad. Joash's aunt, Jehosheba, intervened to rescue the little boy and hide him till he was old enough to be king. That's a powerful illustration of how families that contain violent and destructive kooks and abusers can also contain courageous and self-sacrificing heroes.

I can relate to the story of Joash because my own aunts played such a huge role in my growing-up years. While never in danger of being killed, I sometimes felt like I didn't fit in with my parents and sister. My aunts stepped into that gap to nurture me, to explain the weird Winner family mysteries to me, and to help me feel like I belonged. Now that I'm an adult, my aunts continue to be my cherished confidants.

My own aunts-not to mention Aunt Jehosheba-remind me what a blessing extended family can be. They help me understand how important it is not to get so focused on our nuclear families that we forget our wider kith and kin. For some of us, extended families may not be biological; they may be in-laws, neighbors, friends or church family.

I certainly hope my own little family is never as destructive and broken as Joash's. But I would be fooling myself to think that my husband and I are perfect parents or that we can do the job of raising our children by ourselves. We need others to help us do that. By looking outside the walls of our own home to our relatives and church family, Griff and I will help ensure that our own bad tendencies are caught, checked and corrected by others who love us and ours.

Let's Talk

Thinking about each other's families, which people are the dysfunctional or difficult ones? Who are the heroes? How do all of these people influence our marriage?

Are we as a couple open to intervention, love, even rebuke from friends or extended family? If we have children how do we encourage relationships between them and other adults in our family whom we love and trust?

Have we ever acted as someone else's Jehosheba, stepping in to help the child of a friend or relative? What have we learned from this experience?

Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor.
ECCLESIASTES 4:9

I shared with you earlier about three little words that aren't always so easy to say: "I need you." But sometimes, all it takes to get those words flowing again is just a reminder of how many ways you truly do depend upon each other.

You need your spouse for:

• Honesty - Who else knows you so well and can give you such an honest perspective on things when you need it most?

• Variety - How black-and-white and one-dimensional would your life be without someone to add color and texture to it?

• Encouragement - Who still believes in you when others don't - including yourself? Who helps you remember your uniqueness and significance?

• Togetherness - Who else can multiply your joys, divide your sorrows and add to your experience with God by sharing it together?

• Counterbalance - When you're going too fast, who helps you put on the brakes? When you're afraid to take a risk, who encourages you to go for it?

• Understanding - When you don't want to talk, who can draw you out? Who else can force you to be real and authentic with your emotions?

• Parenting - How could you raise your children without someone to temper your weaknesses, complement your blind spots and help reinforce
your positions?

• Romance - Who else can share your most intimate secrets, see you at your most vulnerable, yet allow you to express yourself without shame, with pure joy in return?

• Companionship - Who is the difference between doing things single-handedly and doing them together, as a couple?

You really do need each other. And God knew what He was doing when He gave you to one another.

DISCUSS

Make your own list of the ways you need each other, or prioritize the top five from the list above. Then be sure to share your list with each other.

PRAY

Thank God for giving you someone to experience life with - someone you need probably more than you know.

● ​​Abraham would say, "The Lord will provide."​​

● ​​Jacob would say, "I won't let go of You unless You bless me."​​

● ​​Joshua would say, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."​​

● ​​Samuel would say, "Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening."​​

● ​​Nehemiah would say, "The joy of the Lord is my strength."​​

● ​​David would say, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want."​​ ​and "This is the day that the Lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it."​

● ​​Solomon would say, "Trust in the Lord, oh my soul, and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your path."​​

● ​​Isaiah would say, "Arise and shine for my Glory has come." and "No weapon formed against me shall prosper."​​

● ​​Jeremiah would say, "The Lord has plans to prosper me and not to harm or fail me."​​

● ​​Jabez would say, "Oh, that you may bless me and enlarge my territory."​​

● ​​Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego would say, "We will not bow down to any image but will serve the Lord."​​

● ​​Ezekiel would say, "Any dry bones in my life, live again."​​

by Cindi McMenamin

Just because an opportunity presents itself, and it looks appealing, doesn't necessarily mean it is from God. And likewise, just because an open door looks a little uncertain, doesn't mean you shouldn't walk through it.

The key is knowing how to discern if an opportunity is really an open door from God. I don't want to miss those open doors because I was afraid to walk through them. But I also don't want to take every opportunity that comes along, assuming it is from God's hand and has his blessings attached.

In a recent conversation with a friend we talked about the faith and courage to walk through a door that God is holding open for us, even if we're not exactly sure of what's on the other side. But then the question came up: How can you tell if God is the one opening the door?

The Bible gives us some principles to help us discern if an "open door" or opportunity is really from God:

1. The Door that God Opens Will Never Contradict His Word

Many Christians see opportunities to make more money as an open door from God, even though the opportunity means a job that will keep them from regular fellowship or service in their church. However, God's Word tells us not to neglect meeting together for worship (Hebrews 10:25). Some women have told me that they believe God opened a door to a dating relationship for them, even though it meant being in a situation where they were "unequally yoked" with an unbeliever, which Scripture also warns against (2 Corinthians 6:14). God will not lead you toward an opportunity that contradicts what he clearly says in his Word. Nor will he open a door that would require personal compromise or disobedience in order for you to enter. As humans prone to sin, we have an excellent way of turning a clear mandate of God's completely around and justifying it by our circumstances, but that is not how God works. If there is a compromise in any way, or we have to bend Scripture to justify our "open door" then it is likely not a door that God is opening for us. I would call anything that contradicts his Word a temptation, rather than an open door from God. And God's Word clearly says that God does not tempt us (James 1:13-14).

2. The Door that God Opens Will be Accompanied by Confirmation

In Matthew 18:15-16, Jesus laid out instructions for confronting sin among believers saying "But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses'." I believe the same applies when it comes to God confirming something in his Word. He will often confirm or establish a matter by "two or three witnesses" whether they be verses from the Word of God, advice from a pastor or well-respected person who is grounded in Scripture, or a non-compromising circumstance that continues to present itself. Through prayer, discernment and seeking godly counsel, you should be able to tell if that "open door" and its confirmations are truly coming from God.

3. The Door God Opens Will Require You to Depend on Him

God is not going to give us something that will alienate us from him or make us believe we no longer need him. He is a God of relationship, and a God who insists upon being first in our lives (Matthew 6:33). Therefore, if you find yourself saying "I can't do this unless God goes before me," or "I can do this, but only with God's help and leading" I would say, in my personal experience, it's likely something God is calling you to do. Hebrews 11:6 says: "And without faith it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him." Many times an "open door" from God is one that allows our faith to be stretched and strengthened. That, after all, is God's objective for us: to grow in faith and Christ-likeness.

Take your opportunity or "open door" to God and ask for his confirmation - through his Word and godly counsel from others - and his peace in the decision, and you can have the assurance that you aren't just choosing a door at random, but you're carefully walking through the ones he wants you to enter.

About The Author:

Cindi McMenamin is a Bible teacher, national speaker and author of several books, including When Women Walk Alone, When Couples Walk Together, and God's Whispers to a Woman's Heart.

by Eric Metaxas, BreakPoint.org

According to some surveys, half of all Americans believe that science and religion are in conflict. Closer to home, one-fourth of all young adults from a Christian background believe that Christianity is anti-science.

Given the way that the relationship between religion and science is presented in the media and popular culture, and sad to say, even in our schools sometimes, this is hardly surprising.

But just because people think that the relationship between Christianity and science is a "zero sum" game doesn't make it so. The truth is very different.

That's why I'm very excited to tell you about an upcoming one-night event entitled "Science & Faith: Are They Really in Conflict?" sponsored by my friends at the Discovery Institute this coming Sunday, September 21. It will be simulcast in churches across the country. More about that in a minute.

The event features Stephen Meyer, author of groundbreaking books such as "The Signature in the Cell" and "Darwin's Doubt," and also John Lennox of Oxford University. And I have the huge privilege of rounding out this august panel. We're going to address a number of questions, including: has science disproved God?; are science and faith really in conflict?; and just how "scientific" are the claims of leading atheists?

All of these are vital points in the narrative that increasingly dominates public discourse. In this narrative, as sociologist Rodney Stark wrote in "For the Glory of God," "heroic" scientists attempt to roll back the curtain of ignorance all the while fighting off attacks by religious fanatics.

This narrative, as Stark and others have documented, is not true now and has actually never been true. If anything, the opposite is the case. According to Stark, the theory of evolution, to name but one example, "has primarily been an attack on religion by militant atheists who wrap themselves in the mantle of science in an effort to refute all religious claims concerning a creator—an effort that has also often attempted to suppress all scientific criticisms of Darwin's work."

In case you're wondering, Stark insists he has no dog in the evolution versus intelligent design debate.

The use of the language of science as a cudgel against Christian faith is a relatively recent phenomenon. As Stark tells us, "the so-called ‘Scientific Revolution' of the sixteenth century was a result of developments begun by religious scholars starting in the eleventh century."

Most of the leading lights of the scientific revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries could reasonably be described as devout Christians. This makes sense, since "the rise of science was the natural outgrowth of Christian doctrine." It was based on the belief that "Nature exists because it was created by God. In order to love and honor God, it's necessary to fully appreciate the wonders of his handiwork."

That our contemporaries sometimes think otherwise represents the triumph of propaganda that had its origins in the Enlightenment and has reached its apogee in the dogma of scientism, which holds that empirical science "constitutes the most authoritative worldview or most valuable part of human learning to the exclusion of other viewpoints."

That's why I'm excited about the upcoming "Science & Faith" event this Sunday. It's bad enough that non-Christians have got the story about Christianity and science all wrong. But it's even more tragic that so many Christians have it wrong, too.

The event is being simulcast in more than 100 churches across the country. I hope you can attend! Please, come to BreakPoint.org, click on this commentary, and we'll link you the list of churches hosting the event.

About The Author: