Compliments to my Chief

I enjoy cooking and baking almost as much as eating!  One thing I especially like is an American-style breakfast.  Toast and tea is a fine starter once in a while, but I prefer food from scratch cooked to perfection:  eggs, bacon, sausage, waffles, pancakes, omelets, french toast, muffins, fried eggs, zucchini bread, and sour-cream coffee cake (not all at one time!).  My idea of fruit for breakfast usually ends up as jam spread on an English muffin or pumpkin or apple pie!  Whereas most people have cereal for breakfast every day but once a week, I try to have cereal about once a week.  Breakfast is so good I don't even mind having it for dinner - how about a egg-bacon wrap or some huevos rancheros?  Count me in!

Today I did something a little different and made some buttermilk biscuits from scratch.  The last couple times I wanted to make them I didn't because there is no cooking shortening in Australia, and I don't own a pastry blender.  I decided to make them anyway, substituting butter for the shortening minus 1/4 teaspoon of salt.  I also had to blend the dough "crisscrossing two knives," a royal pain with firm butter!  But in a short while the buttermilk biscuits were hot from the oven with flaky golden brown edges and were arranged on a platter in the center of the table.  It was a success, and now buttermilk biscuits will be fair game when the ingredients are on hand.

Laura was very liberal with her praise, and her obvious eating enjoyment clearly revealed her appreciation.  My boys, however, seemed much more interested in the honey on their spoons than the biscuits!  So after the meal I asked Zed what he thought of the biscuits.  After a lengthy pause he said, "They were fine."  "That's it?" I said to him.  "Just fine?"  When good food is prepared and cooked, it feels good for the effort and labour to be appreciated - even if the results aren't perfect.  When the food turns out great and both our mouths and stomachs reap the benefits, thanks and compliments are in order.  It seems that my culinary talents, limited though they are, sometimes seem wasted on my sons.  I want my sons to enjoy their food, but I also I want them to fully appreciate the labour that went into the process.  It would have been much easier to give them oatmeal, cereal with milk, or toast.  But this morning's breakfast was a labour of love.  I wanted them to eat something good and a make it a little special too.

In mulling this over, I'm certain God knows exactly how I feel.  I'm not offended in the slightest, but I want my kids to be excited over a delicious meal.  How many times has God cooked up a great meal from His word that I yawned and dozed through?  The power and wise insights were completely lost on me.  I didn't even appreciate all the labour that went into the writing, transcribing, translating, editing, printing, and the anointing with the Holy Spirit of the author of God's Word.  God has so much to say through the Bible and we hit  the snooze button.  We know it is rude not to thank someone for feeding us, even if the food isn't our favorite:  have we remembered to thank God for the food from His Word He lavished upon us this morning?  Let us give Him our compliments, though much of the truth might be lost on us.  Just like when Christ fed the 5,000 with five loaves and two fish, there will always be holy leftovers of the Living Bread who came down from heaven.  There's always more than we can handle.

Thank God for the sustenance He provides for our souls!  Let us feed on Him today and be resolved to thank Him for His labour of love towards us:  while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  He rose from the dead and has sent the Holy Spirit to teach us eternal wisdom which supplies us spiritual nutrition.  What He sets before you eat, whatever He says do it, and thank Him too!