Dried Chicken for the Soul
Regardless of what we might like to believe, women are not born excellent cooks. Or if some are, I’m not one of them. I had to learn through practice, seeking advice and many mistakes. In my first year of marriage, we had some gracious family members come to visit us in our little seminary apartment. Despite my determination to be the perfect hostess that weekend, I was a complete novice at the art. I had no concept of how to simultaneously cook potatoes on the stovetop and chicken in the oven. The reality that our sweet aunt and uncle were both phenomenal cooks just added to my increased blood pressure. Poor Kenn and Linda were subjected to dry, crusty chicken at dinner and burnt pancakes for breakfast the following morning. Even though they politely chewed and chewed through both meals without a word of criticism, the experience was not a large confidence booster for me in the pursuit of becoming the hostess with the mostest.
Thankfully, if you were to join our family for dinner today, you would receive a hot tasty meal rather than the slightly edible food described above. What’s different in my kitchen today compared to a decade ago? Experience. I practiced what I cooked well and slowly added to my list of successful dishes. I began to stock my pantry shelves with regular and essential ingredients so I am prepared to calmly adjust for extra guests who appear at our door. And not to toot my own horn, but some guests even ask for my recipes these days. I love to discover a friend has used one of my recipes for a gathering she had and others then asked her for the recipe as well. That recipe might become famous one day!
Do you know what gives me even more joy than others appreciating my cooking? When I share Christ’s love with another woman through my words or actions and she is blessed. The icing on the cake is when she passes on the love of Christ with someone else in her life. So many women want to be loved by us, but we too often think we have nothing to offer them. When we entertain the idea that we have nothing to offer another, we spend time allowing women around us to walk through life alone. We all have special recipes, a lifetime of experiences that can help another woman grow in their walk toward Jesus and God wants to use each of us to touch women in our lives right now with His love.
You may wonder how to shift from the stage of life filled with burnt pancakes to a season where women are requesting your list of recipes, so to speak. It requires our willingness and obedience to our Lord. Women everywhere are looking for spiritual mentors, someone to love them with Christ’s love. The questions we have to ask ourselves are the following: Am I stocking the shelves of my mind with the Word of God? Am I regularly preparing myself through prayer so I am ready to notice a woman who needs love, encouragement and guidance? Am I filling my heart with the Holy Spirit, inviting Him each day to control my thoughts and attitudes so I may demonstrate His grace to a woman who needs love, encouragement and possible guidance?
My recipes may never truly become famous. I certainly do not have enough successful dishes to compile my own cookbook and none of my recipes are original. Yet I will continue to share my cooking with those around me and if some ask for recipes, I will gladly pass them on. In the same way, I do not have any strengths or gifts that are unique only to me. My gifts are simply a variation of the gifts God bestows to all His children. Mentoring another woman does not depend on my strengths or expertise, but on my obedience to Him. If I can share the love of Christ with another woman by passing on my experience of a growing relationship with Him, she might just ask me for some “recipes”. And if our sharing life together helps her grow in the Lord to the point that she is sharing Christ’s love with another woman, than maybe, just maybe I can be a small part of making the name of Jesus famous. And that makes my humiliating dry chicken and burnt pancakes well worth my time and His glory!
“Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown (fame) are the desire of our hearts.” (Isaiah 26:8)
“Your name, O Lord, endures forever, your renown (fame), O Lord, through all generations. For the Lord will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants.” (Psalm 135:13-14)
Some resources that have encouraged me:
Spiritual Mothering by Susan Hunt
Choices by Mary Farrar
Disciplines of a Godly Woman by Barbara Hughes
