A couple months ago I was making fried chicken for a team get together. Let me just stop right there and say, this shot isn't of me making said fried chicken. This is a great Thanksgiving shot from when our dear friend Laurie Doden was here and we were cooking up a storm. But, I felt like for this post I just had to have a kitchen shot!
So back to a couple months ago when I was making Pioneer Woman's fried chicken.
I don't know if you've been introduced to Pioneer Woman but she is my new friend! The kids bought me a couple of new cook books for my birthday this year and I have loved them! I prefer to do once a month cooking, since it frees me up to be more involved in ministry when dinner is made and just needs to be thrown in the oven with a salad on the side. But someone on facebook suggested The Pioneer Woman's cookbook and I LOVE it! I love how she loves her husband and flirts with him. I love the step by step pictures that give me confidence as I follow one of her recipes and her meals are yummy and feed a lot of people!
As I said, I was trying her fried chicken recipe to take to a team get together and I was thinking about how much Josh was going to enjoy this chicken. I married a man who knows how give compliments! He often comments on how thinly the tomatoes were sliced or how my banana bread is his favorite. He always notices the little additions or the new things I try. I knew that we would come home that evening and he would tell me that my fried chicken was out of this world!
I sort of chuckled to myself because if you've ever made fried chicken then you know it is quite a bit of work and mess to boot. So I thought it was funny that rather than just wait for a night when I could be making fried chicken for my family of 6 and get all the compliments from my husband with less work; here I was making it for 30 people and thinking all the while about how much the guy I cook for every night was going to like this meal!
I wasn't cooking for those 30 people, I was cooking for him and thinking how pleased he was going to be.
And that's when I started to smile and cry at the same time.
I smiled and cried because it was just then that I heard the Lord.
As clear as if he spoke out loud, which he didn't but it was still clear, I heard him say, "I wish it was like that with you and me." Not condemning. Not disappointed or anything of that sort. Just a true and simple statement.
The thing is that I cook and bake all the time for groups of people. I bake for bible study on Tuesday nights, I host lunch meetings and we have dinner guests often. I cook for my family every night. But the truth is that every time I make something I'm thinking about what Josh would like and the way he likes things.
What would it be like if it was like that with me and Jesus?
Well, I guess then I would lead meetings and not wonder if someone thought I talked too long or too much. I would have my eyes on Jesus and if he liked what I said.
I guess I would speak the truth in love to people while we had coffee and not wonder if they thought I was too spiritual or had good things to offer because my eyes would be on Jesus and I'd be thinking about how he loves it when his people focus on him.
I guess I would lead bible studies thinking about what Jesus was strong about and what things he gave grace for rather than what these people's denomination teaches.
I guess I would speak to peoples needs without worrying if I was being too "preachy".
I guess, that at the end of the day I'd climb into bed waiting to hear the Lord's opinion of what I had done that day, expecting kindness, truth and delight. Just like when I cook for Josh I'm quite certain he's going to love it and tell me mine is his favorite!
And even if he had to tell me something I did that day wasn't his favorite or didn't line up with His will, I'd be so safe and enjoyed by him, that it would bless me as well.
Whatever I did or didn't do, I'd do it with my eyes on Jesus because I wanted to make or do something that I knew he would love and enjoy.
I wish it was like that with you and me too, Jesus.
