Loving Your People (& Pull Apart Apple Bread)

A little Grandma love for Jobay.

Hi all– I’m sure you have your people to love– the ones you stick with through thick & thin.  You know the ones I mean!  And I wrote about loving my people recently for a Women’s blog at church– Here it is:

LOVING YOUR PEOPLE

The Beatles famously sang it, “All we need is love!”

Blogger, Shannan Martin advises, “The way we spend our love is the way we spend our lives.”

Of course when our Lord Jesus was asked for the greatest commandment, he spelled it out, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself.” — Luke 10:27

And Francis Chan wrote, “Do you know that nothing you do in this life will every matter unless it is about loving God and loving the people he has made?”

OK, got it. Sounds good. I want to be that all out ever-loving kind of person. I’m asking myself how that works.

And I’m thinking there’re two components I need to have in place:

#1. I can’t really love people until I know them well, what they need, the things that make them feel loved. I need to pay attention to the people God has given me, be quick to listen, to truly know them.

#2. And actually, I’m not that naturally loving. So first, I need to wallow in God’s love, draw on his tender mercies, rest in his daily care. Sit with him. Ask for his help! Then I’ll have the wherewithal to go out and love my people…

Saw this on Instagram this week and wrote it on a little card to carry with me–

“Today’s order of business: Pay attention. Be captivated. Practice gratitude. Share something with someone in need of love.”

So I’m trying to dig in and love the people God has given me. Love them with a pot of soup. Love them with a phone call and a listening ear. Love them with a ride to the doctor or with help cleaning out a closet. Love them over tacos and long talks. Light candles and sing to them on their birthday. Pray for them. Cry with them. Hold them. Laugh with them. Love them deep and wide. Stay with them for the long haul.

I think this this way of all out loving won’t be easy. People have messy painful lives and love means joining them in that pain and mess. But isn’t that exactly what Jesus came and did?

“The way of Jesus is an invitation to be attentive to the people near us, to dig deep with each other and to stick around for the long haul. This is the abundant life. It’ll cost us, but it’s worth it. “ (Shannan Martin from her new book, The Ministry of Ordinary Places).

 

Here’s a few of the people that I love to love…

     
Extended family on vacation in Wisconsin, our Young Adults from church, and some of those Monday night ladies.

And thinking about the Monday night friends– here’s an Apple Bread we had together a few weeks ago:

PULL APART APPLE BREAD

Bread:
5 tab. butter, cut into chunks
3/4 cup whole milk (or half & half)
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1 package rapid rise yeast
2 eggs, room temperature
3  1/2 cups flour

Filling:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/3 cup sugar
3 cups apples, peeled, cored & coarsely grated (about 3 apples)
1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped (optional)

Glaze:
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 tab. whole milk or half & half (or use maple syrup!)

To make the bread, melt the 5 tab. butter in a large heat proof mixing bowl (about 30 seconds).  Then add in the 3/4 cup milk, 1/4 cup water and 1/4 cup sugar.  Warm the mixture a 10 to 20 seconds in the microwave until it is 120 to 130 degrees.

Stir the yeast into the warm mixture and let it sit for 5 minutes.

Then stir in the eggs.  And finally, stir in the flour.  When it’s all blended work it with your hands to make a spongy ball.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a towel and set it in a warm place (away from drafts) to rise for 1 hour.

While that is rising, make the filling.  Melt the 1/2 cup butter in the microwave. Then stir in the vanilla, cinnamon and 1/3 cup sugar.  Peel, core and grate the apples. Mix the apples into the cinnamon mixture.   Chop the nuts.

When the dough has risen, knead it a few times and then set it out onto a center that has been dusted with flour.  Dust the top of the dough with flour as well. and roll it out with a rolling pin to about a 20″ square.

Spread the cinnamon apple mixture over the the dough from edge to edge.  Sprinkle the chopped walnuts all over the top.

Cut the dough into 5 strips vertically and then 5 strips horizontally to make 25 little squares.  Stack 3 or 4 squares together and set them on their sides into a standard loaf pan* that has been sprayed with cooking spray.  Repeat with the other squares stacking them loosely on their sides to fill the pan.

Cover the pan with plastic wrap and set it into a warm place to rise for 30 minutes.

Remove the plastic wrap and bake the bread at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.

Let the bread cool a few minutes while you prepare the glaze.  Drizzle it over the bread.  Best served warm!!

*Sadly, I don’t have a standard loaf pan, so I used a 9″ springform pan in it’s place and it worked just fine.

“Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.” 
― Ursula K. Le Guin

“There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.”
― Jane Austen

“The art of love is largely the art of persistence.”  –Albert Ellis

“Love is always patient and kind. It is never jealous. Love is never boastful or conceited. It is never rude or selfish. It does not take offense and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins, but delights in the truth. It is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes.”  —I Corinthians 13:4-6

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One more favorite photo of people I truly love: