The True Beauty of Brownies

"Stir sloooowly."

Those words repeatedly came out of my mouth this evening while I was cooking with my oldest boy.

"Mom," he said, "I've got it.  I know what to do."

And then, of course, while I was working on getting dinner in the oven, the brownie batter went a-flyin'.

The controlling woman in me could have easily gotten upset, but God was whispering to me during this joint cooking experience, and I kept my cool.

You see, there are two kinds of cooks in this world.  The one, like me, who cleans up along the way so as not to have one huge mess at the end of the project to clean and there's the one, like my husband, who waits till the last. possible. second. to clean up everything all at once.  It's labor intensive.  It's messy.  And it most definitely is not my way of doing things.

My son is preferring my husband's way of doing things, so we naturally butt heads a bit whenever he's in the kitchen with me.

Tonight, though, those brownies were his absolute pride and joy, so I just went with whatever he wanted to do.  We got messy.  We worked hard.  And now I have a plate full of completely delectable, warm and gooey Ghiradelli brownies to have for dessert.

Isn't that how our walks with God are?

Follow me here...

When we look at other Christian women, we see only the outside - the completed, delectable, mess-free, warm and gooey goodness.  We don't realize the sheer work (and absolute mess) it took to get to where they are.  We look at them and see all the things we desperately want to have...strong faith, complete trust, free-flowing Bible verses, true inner beauty, hands lifted in real worship, etc.  But, ladies, wow.  What if we took the time to ask them just how in the world they were able to make it all happen?

I'm sure we'd learn that some of the very women we look up to are those wait-till-the-absolute-minute-to-clean-it-all-up kind of women.  Just like my husband (and maybe you) when it comes to cooking, they're the women who could literally be falling apart at home, but they have that magical ability to pull it all together before they get outside the walls of their house and look, well, just awesome from the inside out.

I'm sure we'd also learn that there are women out there like me (and maybe like you) who clean up their messes along the way.  You'd never know that they were facing any sort of spiritual challenge or even having a bad day because they live by the motto of, "It'll all be okay."  They may be smiling through their tears as they're wiping up the little messes along the way, but they repeatedly smile through it all and TRUST that it really will all be okay.

Nope.  We don't see all that.  The mess.  The hard work.  The tears. The brownie batter a-flyin'.  All we see is the perfectly delectable, warm, gooey goodness.

So the next time when you're looking at another Christian sister and thinking that she has it all so perfectly together.  Remember the true beauty of brownies, and ask her how she's able to keep it all together.  And maybe, just maybe, offer her a brownie...and smile.

Until the next whisper,

Em