Like cold water to a thirsty soul,
so is good news coming from a far country.
Proverbs 25, 25
Dear family in Jesus!
Coming home last night I found a parcel addressed to me waiting in front of our door!
The feeling of waiting to open parcels from Germany is maybe best compared to a child waking on Christmas morning. Not sure what's inside the box, but it will be great!
The feeling of waiting to open parcels from Germany is maybe best compared to a child waking on Christmas morning. Not sure what's inside the box, but it will be great!
My Mom sent me, enveloped in 2 pounds of German chocolate, a binder of recipes of her mother, my Grandmother, she had long been meaning to put together. Filled with photographs of her and Grandpa, of us and the cousins, uncles and aunts. I am very grateful for the loving and encouraging influence my Grandparents had on my life. I can only desire to gain the ability to see someone in the best light at all times, open my house, heart, and kitchen to extend hospitality and comfort like they were able to.
This collection of Grandma's recipes reminds the remaining family of the God-given gift that she so willingly embraced to share with us. She would spent hours and days in the kitchen, preparing the most pleasing and taste buds exciting meals only to see her family be connected by the enjoyment and appreciation of her work. And it did work. She was the glue that held a family together. Her birthday celebration in July and Christmas gathering in December were given dates on all of our calendars. Without her we find ourselves in the process of developing a new family culture to keep the extended family connected, which proves to be challenging with members moving to all sorts of the world's continents or corners of the home country.
Since I picked up working in schools I got painfully aware that one thing I always took for granted is not a given in this country; Leaving school at 1:30pm to go home and have a home cooked meal with your mother. In a country where school ends around 4pm or later a child might even go through weeks at a time without ever having seen its parents bustle about in the kitchen or being asked to help with chopping vegetables or washing dishes.
Why do I think that there is something wrong with that?
1) I wish everybody got to experience the joy of someone cooking for THEM daily. Not trying to please the taste of the masses, but with them in mind while preparing the food. That truly is a language of love spoken in unmistakable words.
2) I honestly don't see a redemptive value in a fast food culture. Food is everything but fast. It takes time to grow. It takes effort to harvest. It takes patience to prepare. Once consumed it either supports the body's needs and functions or it causes damage. To prepare it in minutes and chomp it down in seconds is out of sync with the nature of food and the creator of it.
3) Thinking "I don't have time to cook a healthy meal" is like thinking you don't have time to go to work. If working provides you with the means to live a good life, then cooking a healthy meal provides you with the nutrients to sustain you to live that good life.
4) I expect my meals to keep me feeling good and nourished in the long run. Sure I'll have desert or a serving of junk food on very rare occasions. But my mindset dictates my day to day choices and with that created a lifestyle that I am not easily willing to see compromised. If that means I'm preparing a meal to take to school the next day at midnight, I'll do that.
Are you content with the status quo when it comes to the food culture in the Western World? How do we raise the bar?
We can't expect that the school/work cafeteria can provide the quality of food we need. If putting together a "to go care package" is not going to happen, let's find the time to prepare a home cooked meal for dinner, rather than warming up processed freezer food. We have virtually endless resources of healthy meal ideas and how to cook within our reach online. It might take some time to getting our recipients taste buds and the way we cook a healthy meal in sync (I've been there, it's a journey worth taking!), but like every relationship takes work and time so it is with the chef and the eater.
Dear family in Jesus, I pray that you are inspired to rearrange your priorities if necessary so you rediscover the joy of choosing ingredients, preparing and enjoying your own home cooked meal and reap the blessings that come from that!
Be blessed abundantly!
This collection of Grandma's recipes reminds the remaining family of the God-given gift that she so willingly embraced to share with us. She would spent hours and days in the kitchen, preparing the most pleasing and taste buds exciting meals only to see her family be connected by the enjoyment and appreciation of her work. And it did work. She was the glue that held a family together. Her birthday celebration in July and Christmas gathering in December were given dates on all of our calendars. Without her we find ourselves in the process of developing a new family culture to keep the extended family connected, which proves to be challenging with members moving to all sorts of the world's continents or corners of the home country.
Since I picked up working in schools I got painfully aware that one thing I always took for granted is not a given in this country; Leaving school at 1:30pm to go home and have a home cooked meal with your mother. In a country where school ends around 4pm or later a child might even go through weeks at a time without ever having seen its parents bustle about in the kitchen or being asked to help with chopping vegetables or washing dishes.
Why do I think that there is something wrong with that?
1) I wish everybody got to experience the joy of someone cooking for THEM daily. Not trying to please the taste of the masses, but with them in mind while preparing the food. That truly is a language of love spoken in unmistakable words.
2) I honestly don't see a redemptive value in a fast food culture. Food is everything but fast. It takes time to grow. It takes effort to harvest. It takes patience to prepare. Once consumed it either supports the body's needs and functions or it causes damage. To prepare it in minutes and chomp it down in seconds is out of sync with the nature of food and the creator of it.
3) Thinking "I don't have time to cook a healthy meal" is like thinking you don't have time to go to work. If working provides you with the means to live a good life, then cooking a healthy meal provides you with the nutrients to sustain you to live that good life.
4) I expect my meals to keep me feeling good and nourished in the long run. Sure I'll have desert or a serving of junk food on very rare occasions. But my mindset dictates my day to day choices and with that created a lifestyle that I am not easily willing to see compromised. If that means I'm preparing a meal to take to school the next day at midnight, I'll do that.
Are you content with the status quo when it comes to the food culture in the Western World? How do we raise the bar?
We can't expect that the school/work cafeteria can provide the quality of food we need. If putting together a "to go care package" is not going to happen, let's find the time to prepare a home cooked meal for dinner, rather than warming up processed freezer food. We have virtually endless resources of healthy meal ideas and how to cook within our reach online. It might take some time to getting our recipients taste buds and the way we cook a healthy meal in sync (I've been there, it's a journey worth taking!), but like every relationship takes work and time so it is with the chef and the eater.
Dear family in Jesus, I pray that you are inspired to rearrange your priorities if necessary so you rediscover the joy of choosing ingredients, preparing and enjoying your own home cooked meal and reap the blessings that come from that!
Be blessed abundantly!
