November 5, 2005
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Ministering to our families… in the KITCHEN!
Yesterday I went to spend the day with my parents. They live about 45 minutes away and even though we talk on the phone almost daily I get to where I just need to go ‘home’ once in a while. I’ve been blessed with wonderful parents and thank God that He has allowed them good health at 73 years of age.
Mom and I went through her cookbooks looking for recipes to add to my FAMILY COOKBOOK. I’m putting together a family cookbook for the women in our family. I especially wanted to do this for my girls before some of my grandma’s recipes were lost. My grandma passed away nearly 5 years ago. I have wonderful memories of grandma’s cooking. We used to spent all of our holidays on her farm. I was telling my Mother yesterday that I remember coming into her home as a child and seeing half a dozen pies or so lined up on her dining room hutch. What a memory! No one could make pie like my Grandma! She also made the best fried chicken, mashed potatoes and biscuits I’ve ever tasted. I have such warm, fond memories of her and her home and a lot of those memories are centered around her family table and the wonderful things she used to cook and bake.
This had me thinking about the gift we give to our families when we put our heart and time into cooking. We are creating memories for our children each day. These memories, good or bad, will be carried with them into their homes someday. Hopefully, the impression our homes leave on them will be good ones.
I spent years collecting recipes to cook for my family. I ran out of room in the little recipe box I once had so I followed my Mother’s example and began placing them in notebooks. I have a large notebook for MAIN DISHES (which includes veggies and salads), DESSERTS, BREADS (which includes tea and breakfast breads), HOLIDAYS & RECIPES FOR CHILDREN and now a LOW CARB notebook. I also have a notebook for recipes I want to try. I place the recipes on a sheet of regular size paper and then tape the recipe onto the paper. I then slide the page into a page protector. Each section within the notebook is divided into categories. I’ve labeled each notebook on the outside edge of the binder. When I use a recipe I just take the page from the notebook over to the stove and place it on a recipe page holder.
Baking is just like any other area of our ministry to our families. It takes a dying to oneself to give what is best for those we love and watch over. A good cook who blesses her family with good, nutritious meals has to invest some time into this part of her ministry in the home. She has to learn the art of cooking and baking and planning healthy meals not to mention the discipline of making it a priority in her daily schedule. I’ve been trying to adopt Laine’s (Laine’s Letters) example by cooking my dinner meal in the mornings when I have more energy.
Holidays are a perfect time to bless our families with their favorite foods and create special memories. I allow myself complete freedom on the holidays to cook all of our old, favorite recipes. We also love to have ‘family days’ when the children come home with their children and I cook up a storm. How blessed we are to have this privilege. May the Lord give us His strength to deny ourselves in this area of our homemaking so that our families will know how much we love them.
Blessings,
Georgene
Comments (5)
well once again i am so glad i stopped by. I have never looked at it that way before as being a ministry……wow! This is a struggle area for me right now. I have been wanting to & trying so bad to gain knowledge over how to cook & bake. Something i have been working on the last 2 weeks. Reading labels, what’s nutritious & what not. Its really hard when u have never been taught how to cook. I can’t say that i have had many great memories from my childhood……when i was little family always fought & didn’t get along thus meaning…..we didn’t have family over for christmas. I am with God’s help trying to change that in my life today. Praise God for changes. I am so at this point & time in my life ready & willing for any changes He has for me. I am an open vessel. Thank you so much for posting this post. That is a really neat idea about the recipe books that you do.
Thanks for your message to refocus our minds on why we do what we do. God bless you.
That is such a neat picture of going to Grandma’s and seeing the pies lined up on the hutch. As I was reading that I was thinking about the apple pie I just now popped into the oven and to tell the truth, I was working at that while taking a few seconds every now and then to check the computer, read someone’s post, run back and peel a few more apples, chop them into the pie shell, come back here, comment, click on the submit button, then click on the next person’s page and while it would be loading, stir up the crumbs for the topping. So unlike Grandma, but maybe my family won’t know the difference tomorrow when Sunday dinner’s served and there’s a fresh apple pie. I loved this thought about cooking being our ministry to our family.
Oh, how I needed your post this very day! Making up menus, preparing the meals and cleaning up afterwards was beginning to wear me out. We had a large family, six children plus live-ins from time to time, but we’ve been down to just the two of us for awhile. Recently, due to a health issue, one of our children had to move in with us, along with his wife and two boys. This has certainly changed the dynamics in my kitchen! Your timely words have changed my “attitude” into “graditude” for the priviledge of “ministering” to my family in this manner.
RYC: “Denki”, ever so much!
I agree, cooking is a ministry, as well as the time spent around the table. I love to cook for our family, but never thought of it as a inistry b/f reading your post. Thanks! May we all serve this holiday season with the right hearts. Your post was sooo timely, b/c its easy for me to get overwhelmed and become “short” during the holiday cooking season!