...my willingness to try just ONE MORE TIME!
My husband's favorite birthday dessert is strawberry pie! I learned this before we were married, and so I asked my future mother in law for the recipe. She kindly wrote it out for me.
With great excitement, I bought the ingredients and set out to make a wonderful surprise strawberry pie. The end result - strawberry soup in a crust. "Well," I thought to myself, "I must have missed a step." So, I began again only to reach the same result....strawberry soup in a crust!
Greatly disappointed with my perceived inability to follow a recipe, I went back to the grocery, and bought all new ingredients. I started over determined to present a beautiful strawberry pie to my fiance for his birthday! It was his gift after all!!
I diligently read and re-read and measured and re-measured every step of the recipe to the very end. The result....strawberry soup in a crust!
I failed!!
3 failures in the trash...and many tears later I explained my attempt to create a beautiful strawberry pie.
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| My Mom's Recipe |
My fiance was impressed with my perseverance, touched by my hard work and long suffering desire to surprise him with his favorite birthday dessert. And then a sheepish grin crept along the corners of his mouth as he said, "You know, maybe my mom left out the secret ingredient."
Could it be? Yes, indeed, my dear Mom B had left out the one ingredient which determines whether the end result is a strawberry soup or pie! We'll never know why, and it doesn't matter really because it makes for a really fun story of perseverance.
I've tried again and again over our 26 years of marriage, and finally just days ago, using my mom's recipe and her encouragement to try ONE MORE TIME, the end result was a surprise strawberry pie for my husband's birthday!
This is just pie; however, this same persevering spirit has been put to the test and found useful in every significant aspect of my life. Particularly there came a time in our marriage when I had to make a decision to try ONE MORE TIME. God blessed the willing heart, the act of obedience and the perseverance to try again, and He receives all the credit and glory for healing our marriage relationship.
Does persevering through pie making have anything to do with persevering in life? Perhaps more than meets the eye.
What I know is this; to be prepared for the trial when it comes, I must have practiced and practiced in advance to know exactly what to do in the moment of crisis!
James 1:2-4,The Message, teaches it this way, "Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way."
Blessings of GREAT JOY as you persevere on your journey with JESUS!
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