Bread of Life...Drink the Water

This is, once again, Sunday morning. For Chef Tess, this is a quite spirit filled time. A more religious devotional so to speak. If you care to read about my whole soul...this is how I get most of my inspiration. Connecting to the creative Being who gives all good things. So, read on if you would like. There are a lot of non-religious entries here on food as well.

I love the picture of wheat in a glass of water. It always makes me think of my potential...and also a few challenges I face with my kids from time to time. As I'm sure the Lord thinks this of me. I want to talk about our power as children of God and our potential for good. Mostly I want to discuss our ability to just stop and get what we need.

I was recently faced with a challenging moment as a mom. The one where a child was having an absolute meltdown in my presence. It wasn't pretty. He needed a drink...I wanted to help desperately. I also wanted him to know however, that yelling at me was not an option for getting my best response. Is it with anyone? I want him to learn respect...but I also want him to learn that I will give him what he needs if only he will stop freaking out. It's challenging for me to keep my cool in these situations. I ended up looking him in the face (oh that's ironic...it was Face) and saying "I love you...but I can't have you yelling. You will have to go in your room until you're ready to talk." He responded " do you want your kid to die?!"...ummm how do I answer this drama with a straight face? Will he die if I don't give him a drink within 3 seconds? No. Be impressed, I still just told him to go to his room and I would probably bring him a drink of water. The problem was that he didn't want water...he wanted juice. I was out of juice. Thus the meltdown. Eventually, he did stop the "freak-fest" and I felt like he understood the importance of not yelling at me. He was still allowed to be mad at me...just not yell at me. Certainly be mad in another room until he could talk to me in normal tones.

In anything there are spiritual parallels. When he was drinking his water, this one hit me. God knows me perfectly. He knows what I need. He wants to give it to me...and in fact delights to do so. Why do I freak out? It's in my power to just ask nicely. Or wait until He knows it will be best for me to have what He knows I need. Human nature aside, I know I need to be a lot better at recognizing that God is there for me. Is anyone else with me on that? I think I could get through anything...yes anything...if I just knew what God wanted of me and that He was there for me. It isn't the events of life that make it a trial, a confusing mystery. It is having our faces covered and our own lack of desire to just stop and listen that causes most of our frustration. Stop and feel. As soon as we're ready to look and listen, He'll begin to show us the lessons, the reasons, the principles behind all things. As soon as we're ready to listen, He'll start to explain. Then and only then will he give us the drink of water. Living Water.

So the next time I am faced with a meltdown I will think of this glass of water with wheat in it. The wheat I later used to make pancakes from the whole grains and gain a little more health and nutrition. Living Water is like that. Think on that...and the deeper meaning behind it. Then read about the sprouted wheat bread from just grains of wheat. If God was the baker and I was the wheat...what is there to learn from the master baker. It gets really, really deep if you let it.

There you go.