6 gifts in kitchen today

 

#188  new, fun and healthy snack when daughter gets home that makes her smile!

#189  recipe from my mom in her handwriting…she used to make that when I was younger!

#190  ewy – gooey batter

#191  Lent devotion with family at the dinner table

#192  ugly-beautiful dessert 

Some desserts look delicious but when you take a bite, it’s disappointing and not as good as it looked.  Some things look better on the outside than they really are on the inside.   There’s also the anticipation…you mixed all the ingredients, made the counter a mess with flour that didn’t make it into the bowl and cracked egg shells.  You can smell the rich chocolate or butter and lick the bowl to tide you over until the dessert was ready to eat.

Then it’s finally time!  Time to sink your teeth into the sweet treat it seemed to take forever to bake.  But it was too dry, or must have miss-measured an ingredient.  It wasn’t’ as good as you expected.  It just wasn’t as good as it was the last time you made it.  It was disappointing.  Uugghh!

Isn’t that how we often react to any expectations that go under or don’t end up the way we want it to turn out?  Sometimes things go our way and sometimes they don’t.   The way you wanted your recipe to turn out, not getting the Christmas gift you’d been hoping for, not receiving the bonus at work I wanted…

But each outcome is not a surprise to God.  When the situation doesn’t end up the way I want it to, I can look at it as ugly.  Why don’t I remember that God’s will is done?  Why don’t I accept the outcome with gratitude?  Why can’t I find beauty in something I so often look at with aggravation or disappointment or give myself a pity party? 

That shows me I am not living with a thankful heart.  I am not offering God the burnt offering, the sacrifice of gratitude and giving service and honor to God. 

During Lent, I want to offer to God…give the realest fast…”the realest fast is to hold fast to Christ,” (Ann Voscamp)  to allow Him to shape me, mold me, change me, and rescue me daily from the temptation of ungratefulness.

“Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips that confess His name. And do not forget  to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” Hebrews 13:15-16

For Lent, I am daring myself to see all things with gratitude.