When you run your kitchen like a boss, you know where everything is, and about how much you have.
But when three adults share a kitchen, watch out.
I was busy the other day, all by myself, cooking away. I added the spoon of sugar to my recipe, and a few more ingredients.
I paused to give my mixture a taste test.
Yuck! All I could taste was salt. I got out the container I keep sugar in, and low and behold, after checking the contents, it was full of salt.
But I was wrong, too; it looked like my sugar container, but there were two on the counter pretty much alike. One had sugar and one had salt. I had mixed them up unknowingly.
I had assumed what I had left set up in the kitchen was still there and nothing had changed. I hadn’t checked. Everything had to be thrown out.
When Daniel was young and baking chocolate chip cookies, he had a similar experience. He had followed his recipe, but misread the amounts needed for salt and for sugar. Instead of adding the correct amount of ¾ cup of granulated sugar along with brown sugar and ½ teaspoon salt; he added ½ teaspoon sugar and ¾ cup salt. He was so disappointed when he had to throw it all out. His brothers were sad, too, watching it all go in the garbage.
In the recipes of our lives, we need to be careful what we are adding to our lives and how much.
What are you adding to your life during the Christmas season?
Do you have the spice of friends mixed in your days? What about the sweetness of worship with your church family? That pinch of salt that preserves the memories and joy you are feeling? And, of course, the important ingredient of family.
We can get too busy, of course, and wind up losing our temper and being irritated which leads to hurt feelings and disappointment in ourselves. Too much activity and work without enough rest and restoration can mess up our day. During the busy days of Christmas, we need to find a balance.
When the apostles told Jesus all they had done when sent out to preach, drive out demons, and heal sick people (Mark 6 12-13), Jesus had instructions for them. In Mark 6:31 we read: “Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”
Holidays sometimes bring up regrets, resentments, or bitterness. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 12:14-15: “Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.”
So, if we add rest when we need it, and forgiveness along with grace to others when they need it; we can prepare our holiday to celebrate the birth of the Christ child as we should.
Like the wise men we can “bow down and worship him” with joy and grateful hearts (Matthew 2:11).
