One thing that my dad passed on to me was a love for sweets. I love bakeries. Beth and I have always wanted to open a bakery of our own, maybe we will one day.
Tonight Luci and I were making some Betty Crocker chocolate chip cookies in the kitchen. You know, the mix where all you do is add an egg and butter. A few weeks ago I realized why I like her cookies so much. The recipe requires a stick of butter!
Back to the story. The one thing I hate about making the Betty Crocker cookies is stirring everything all together. It’s a lot of work! You have a whole bag of cookie mix and only one egg with a stick of butter. As I was stirring that batter, trying to get it mixed, I remembered doing this as a kid.
I told you that my dad loves sweets. When I was a kid, we would do chocolate chip cookies every week. My dad would let me make them. Of course, making them was simply mixing the bag of cookie mix with an egg and some butter. My dad would always say, “You get it ready and I’ll do the work.” Of course, this meant he would stir everything together which was perfectly fine with me.
In ministry, God wants us to get everything ready, but He wants to do the work. My pastor always says, “Work like it all depends on you but pray knowing it all depends on God.” Want to change lives in your ministry? Want to see kids come to know Christ as their Savior? Want to build strong families in your church? Guess what. You don’t have to. God will do it. Now you need to get everything ready. You need to get the ingredients out and do your share. But leave the hard work to Him.
um, now that i know you made cookies…. i expect to experience them tonight at church….lol. actually if you eat the sweets like your dad i can expect their aren’t any left!
Thanks for sharing - I needed to be reminded of this today!
Hey, I have checked your new blog a few times! This one drew my attention because I remember when we were in jr. high, we had bake sales at school and you always brought chocolate chip cookies!! It is my dream to open a bakery as well. Brad teases me and tells me that I’ll never do it, but I just may prove him wrong one of these days!!!
Great point and one I will remember!!
Carmen - oh the memories from Junior High. You could tell some stories on this blog that would really embarrass me but I know you won’t do that. Open that bakery up! I’ll be the first one in line! Thanks for checking out the blog.
Sweet post!!! (pun intended sad but true)Very good analogy…My dad was a carpenter and I am terribly lacking in mechanical skills. My dad was also physically but mainly emotionally abusive as was his Father to an even greater degree…with all that said I hated having to work with my dad as a young boy and teenager worse than anything in my world at that time…When God called me to ministry he asked me if I’d like to go to work with him…Through many tears I obviously said yes…He then showed me how I simply had to just be willing to do what he said and he’d do the work through me…He does restore things that the cankerworm has stolen and certainly is a Father to the fatherless and isn’t it awesome that everyone of our “ministries” is really named God & sons (or daughters if we need to get gender specific)
On a side note my dad got saved in 1998 after the Lord showed me the specific injury my uncle (his brother) suffered in a horrible wreck during the infamous may 3rd oklahoma tornado…2 of his 3 brain stems were completely severed and in the vision I saw them fused together…Keep in mind I had no idea what his injury was as I was in Romania at the time….So when I received conformation of his injury I knew I had heard from heaven and I was as sure as Abraham when he offered up Issac that my uncle would be restored..
My dad was beside his self as the doctors reports all stated 3-5% chance of living more than 6 months and 0% chance of ever being able to speak let alone walk etc…When some of us said he was going to be fine and he would be completely restored he got mad and huffed “well the only way that could happen is if God did it himself and worked a miracle..I told him of course God would have to do it none of us could but….he would use our faith and prayers to do it…I went and laid my hands on my uncle and prayed…3 days later my dad was alone in the room with him and holding my uncle’s hand and he squeezed my dad’s hand which was the first movement he had, every time my dad spoke to him he’d squeeze his hand…The only other person at the hospital at this time was my cousin who was bound by homosexuality and drug addiction. when my dad told my cousin he got mad and said it just nerves and started screaming at my dad and went back in the wrong and yelled at my uncle and said see I told you!!!! About that time my uncle came out of his coma and said Phillip what’s wrong come over here….Needless to say my dad gave his life to the Lord..sadly my cousin hasn’t to this point but on a brighter note my uncle can walk and has basically all of his facalities although he has someone near when he walks…Oh and he is in his 80’s!!!!
Sorry for the long post…