Friday I made two creations in the bread machine. The first were cinnamon rolls, which were incredibly yummy. I substituted almond extract for the vanilla in the icing -- and my family gobbled them up.
Then I put together all the ingredients for whole wheat buttermilk bread. Three hours later I checked, and had nothing by a glob of goo with dry flour on top. What happened? The paddle didn't effectively mix the ingredients.
I followed the same steps with both recipes. Checked myself against the recipe several times with each. Yet one was an amazing success and the other an abject failure.
Isn't that like life? In a spiritual sense you could say God was the missing ingredient. Everything was in place with the bread for a warm, fluffy, yeasty loaf of bread. Instead, I had a brick I could hardly knock out of the pan. God's been challenging me lately to examine my life and see where I'm leaving Him out of the mix.
I have the best intentions in the world. I truly want to live a life that pleases Him. But in the day to day, I sometimes fall short.
So here's to working this summer to keeping God at the center of our lives so He can whip our ingredients into something beautiful that will bring life to those around us.
3 comments:
Yep, sounds familiar!
I made two batches of bread last week too, they were nothing to brag about...but the buns I made turned out beautiful!
Life's like that. Some day you wonder...why am I even trying here, Lord? I keep failing. But the Psalmist who had a ‘heart that pleased the Father’ must have felt like that too. It is what refines us, brings us wisdom and helps us to keep on trying...Onward Christian Soldiers!!
This reminds me of my "Great Lefsa Disaster" (For those not familiar-Lefsa are Swedish potato pancakes)
I made a giant batch for Christmas gifts. I worked for hours. Finally, I spread that first one with jam. I took a bite, and CRUNCH!! Long story short, my mixing bowl had chipped and glass mingled with the potato mixture.
Sometimes we allow other things to get the mix (misplaced priorities, a harsh word to our spouse, ect.)and it can ruin our pure devotion to God.
Watch out for those chipping bowls in life!
Have a great day everyone.
Kristen
How timely your post Cara, as I am breaking in a new bread machine. I've learned no two machines are a like and what worked for one, doesn't necessarily work for the other! I made the same old recipe I always make for 7-grain bread and I had a brick. What?
Next time I used a recipe in the machine's book, following it exactly, even down to measuring the temp of water. It turned out.
So where I had wiggle room with my old machine (i.e. decide by feel the water is right temp) I have less with the new one.
I never thought of it as a metaphor for how it is walking with God. But it's a fact that some areas are what we call "gray." Within their boundaries we have wiggle room. Other's not, i.e. never in God's design is murder acceptable behavior. No matter how much someone might rationalize it. That's an extreme example but it can be applied to most anything.
Thanks for the object lesson!
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