~By Sharon Czerwien
My husband and I (and our kiddos!) were recently blessed to have my parents visit from the Midwest.
Everything worked out really well, and my daughter’s favorite parts involved the baking she did with my dad (A.K.A. Papi!). They made homemade pizza (regular and gluten free), dinner rolls (regular and gluten free), brownies, French toast, and my fabulous birthday cake (check out the picture). We all benefited from their hard work. Yay for me!
With permission from my dad, I share a funny baking story.
For a quick preface, I am only picky about a few things in my kitchen. I choose not to push my picky parts on guests; so I try to ignore and move on with other tasks.
One of my picky leanings regards dish cloths, and I only use them on dishes and not the counter.
Since it is not a life-or-death thing; I was otherwise okay when my dad grabbed a cloth to clean up the flour on the counter.
Here’s the funny part:
My tween daughter spoke up (on my behalf), though I certainly did not ask her to. When she saw Papi grab a dish cloth for the counter clean-up, she said, “Papi, momma wouldn’t like that!” Papi understood and grabbed something else instead.
I internally smiled (well, maybe it was more of a giggle) because I knew I had my daughter’s kitchen loyalty. With her loyalty, it inferred that she:
1. Desired to please me/do want I preferred with my dish cloths
2. Trusted my personal reasoning and followed through with my own kitchen desire (I truly do not care or cringe over what people do in their own kitchen, though!)
3. Wanted to encourage Papi not to use my favored dish cloths on the “wrong” things
The Spiritual Analogy
At bedtime that evening, I could not help but correlate this “loyalty idea” to a Christian’s hopeful loyalty to God and HIS desires.
If we remain loyal to God, it infers that we:
1. Desire to please Him/do what He desires (based on what His Word—the Bible—teaches)
2. Trust in His plan and then follow through with His way
3. Encourage other Christians in their spiritual walk
Call me crazy, but I was really intrigued by this spiritual correlation...and it’s all because of a little baking!
If we are truly loyal to God and want to do life HIS way, then we will live differently.
Psalm 119 Verses
Here are a few encouraging verses from Psalm 119. Loyal followers of God should have heart-felt desires like what these verses entail:
~Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart (119:2).
~How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. With my whole heart I have sought You; oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! Your word have I hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You (119:9-11).
~Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, for I delight in it (119:35).
~I thought about my ways, and turned my feet to Your testimonies. I made haste, and did not delay to keep Your commandments (119:59-60).
~I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Your word (119:101).
Quick Idea:
If you are pondering what to read in the Bible, I encourage you to read through Psalm 119. This chapter has 176 verses (I know…wow!). Thankfully, each section has only eight verses. So, you could read a section a day. In each section, you could then look for verses that stand out to you to help you remain loyal to God’s ways.
Keep on stayin’ loyal,
~Sharon
Perfect correlation!