Saturday was a full day in my kitchen. In my calendar, the day was free of appointments or commitments- so I was quite carefree! I made plans to get my shopping done and get lots of food preparation done for the coming week. There were loaves of bread, muffins, and brownies to bake; soup to be made as well as hard boil some eggs; and there was fruit and veggie prep for easy snacking access.
When I got home from the store, and everything was unloaded and put away – I started with the bread dough. As things were moving along in my kitchen, I found myself at the sink washing the same few utensils and bowls over and over again- in the middle and at the end of projects. It is how things have always been done in my kitchen, my mom’s kitchen and my grandmother’s kitchen.
You clean up as you go.
Not long ago my cousin, Ang, and I created a Brubacher family cookbook full of recipes from our family. But, it also included pearls of wisdom from my Grandma’s kitchen. And do you know what was the first thought she shared with us? Clean up the kitchen as you work. Don’t leave a big mess for the end. I think my mom and my aunts will all vouch for her. This is how my Grandma has always operated. It is good advice.
Its not just good kitchen advice.
When life really gets cooking, there are things that I tend to neglect. And before I know it, I’m full of junk. Let me be more specific – sin- I let sin pile up like a big load of nasty, dirty, sour-smelling dishes. I can feel the weight of it, hanging heavy on my heart. The more build-up, the more daunting it is. It is so much better to keep a short account of my heart – to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to help me notice the sin, to acknowledge it and to confess it. My Heavenly Father promises to forgive.
I love how the Psalmist describes it in chapter 32:
Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah
I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah
I’m grateful to a Heavenly Father who has provided the only way for my heart to be made new. There is forgiveness in His hands and He is prepared to make me clean, if I’ll only ask. What a refreshing promise!
And thank you Grandma for being a godly woman of wisdom, not just in kitchen matters, but matters of the heart!
daily portion 