Let’s bake

Last night I decided to bake bread for the first time ever. Making homemade bread has always been something I have wanted to do but never attempted. Let’s keep in mind. I am a huge cook and LOVE experimenting in the kitchen. Not to mention, I baked for a living for about four years. I could take a cake and turn it into a 3 dimensional dog. Yet a simple loaf of white bread intimidated me.

I spent hours yesterday Googling recipes and on Pinterest pinning everything that looked scrumptious to me. I even took out the book of all cookbooks, “The Joy of Cooking” and looked at recipes in there. I sat and compared and before long, I mustered up the courage to start. With my mixing bowls and ingredients all laid out so perfectly across my counter, I began to work. This was a nail biter for me. I carefully measured each ingredient and followed the recipe I had finally settled on, to the T. The kids were getting excited while I was becoming more and more nervous. What if my bread doesn’t rise? What if it doesn’t bake right? Before long the rising phase began and everything looked great. It was finally time to bake. We anxiously awaited the baking process and before we knew it, the timer went off and the sweet aroma of freshly baked bread filled the house.

It’s funny when I look at how nervous I was last night. Today I baked two more loaves, with total ease. I wasn’t all worked up like last night. I baked it so effortlessly. Sometimes in life we get ourselves all worked up over something that intimidates us. Like this loaf of bread. We allow that fear of the unknown to keep us from being at ease. We try to find the easier way to the process and cut corners. We stop trusting in God’s timing and take matters in to our own hands. How we see best fit. We want to rise quickly to the next level but don’t want to wait out the process.

One thing I learned while baking this bread. It takes time! Lots and lots of time. And patience is needed for every step in every process. You can’t cut corners and miss a step. You can’t change the recipe up and not measure precisely. Everything has to be just right in order for the bread to bake correctly.

Our dreams and visions are the same way. It takes patience and sometimes lots and lots of time. There is a process to every thing we do. Through each process will be periods where we have to wait. Periods where it seems nothing is happening. Those moments of discouragement that try settling in. It’s in these very moments we must remember God’s promises.

Galations 6:14 says, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Genesis 29:20 says, “So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.” When we look at these two verses, we clearly see where patience is key to everything we hope to aspire or attain in life. It’s doesn’t all happen overnight. You don’t get to the front row overnight and you surely don’t get the stage by jumping over. It all takes time. It takes time to work your way up. It takes time to rise to that next level. Step by step. Process by process. Had Jacob not been so patient and in love with Rachel, he would have settled with just marrying the oldest sister Leah or he would have walked away all together. But he waited those 7 years and served with a great heart as he patiently waited on his love Rachel. He did whatever it took, the length of time, the work, to ensure he could finally take Rachel as his bride.

When I sat here today writing today’s blog, I had nothing. Zilch. Nada. And Jeremy, my youngest, sat down and said, “Mom, why don’t you write about the bread?” I laughed but as I thought more about his question, I realized it wasn’t so much the bread I was to write about. It was about the process. Jeremy was right. I needed to write about the bread. The process of it all. My process. The very same baking process I am in right now. This season of waiting. This season of prepping and waiting out each process patiently. My process doesn’t come with a timer that beeps. My process comes with faith in what God is doing. It’s me waiting patiently on His timing. His process. And until He says, I am baked and ready to serve, I sit patiently waiting. But until then, I am in my process.

Don’t get discouraged my friends. Know that the process you are in has it’s own course and purpose. Be patient and trusting in God’s timing. Know that this process you are in is just one step closer to fulfilling your dream and vision. Trust this process and believe that soon the time will come for you to rise. But for now, we bake.

XOXO…Ileen