This and THAT

I made the short trip over to Teague this morning to visit with a group of women from Eighth Avenue Baptist Church for a recipe exchange. I gathered my thoughts all week long and related them to cooking to coincide with their theme. It was a good week for me to focus myself on the truth found in my own Bible in preparation for my time with them. I feel like I have always been in a kitchen. I was raised sitting on a counter or perched on a stool with my hands in a bowl stirring like I had my own show on the Cooking Channel. I loved to cook with Lula Mae Rischer at my Grandmother’s. She didn’t measure anything or use a recipe; therefore, she was in a class all of her own in my book. It was magical to watch her in the kitchen. She would just smile when I asked how much flour or sugar we were going to add to our baked goods because she never really measured anything. It was just a dab of this and that. Her “this” and a dab of “that” was, and the still is, some of the most delicious food my taste buds have ever tasted. Like her cooking, my life has been a whole lot of “this and that.” If I tried to draw out my life experiences on a timeline, it would look like a roller coaster with some sporadic zigzags thrown in the mix. Some up my ups and downs would be there because of my own sin and choices. Some of the diversions would show up because I believe that Lord has allowed certain trials and tests to come into my life. They have made me stronger and taught me to rely on Jesus and not myself. My personal timeline on paper is up and down, back and forth; however, if I was to draw a line that represented the Lord in my life, it would be steady and straight across. God is constant, consistent, never changes, always the same from beginning to the end. That is why He is my Rock, Friend, Savior, Redeemer, Healer, Prince of Peace, Hope, Joy, and the list goes on and on. When I have drifted far from where I belong and from the path God intended for me, He has never left my side. His line has stayed consistently right by mine, knowing all along that I would come back. I feel like sometimes He must think…I am right here, steady, still, and waiting, and YOU are the one running around in circles like a chicken with your head cut off, so get back in line, Sister! My time in the kitchen learning how to combine a little bit of this and a pinch of that served me well. I can cook up a scrumptious pound cake that is guaranteed to put a few extra pounds on you. My life lessons have served me well too, both the ones I got right and the ones I got wrong too because life is a process. Good cooks know how to revise a recipe to make it their own and improve on the desired, finished product. Maybe there is something in your life too that needs to be revised. Something may need to be added into your life, like a Bible Study with a group or prayer time in the morning. It is highly possible too that something needs to be eliminated from your life totally to make it sweeter. So, blessings to you this week in the kitchen and blessings to you as you seek the Lord. He sees all and knows all.