SIMMER - DON'T BOIL

My sweet husband has released me from the chore of cooking and I have enjoyed the respite and the dinners out. (which are really late lunches because we try to make the lunch menu!). But - in today's economy, I feel the need to get to cookin' and save some money for the important meals out with our kids and grandkids etc.

As a result - I have had to recall my serious cooking days. I want to tell you - it's not easy being "Martha". On my first few attempts I must admit I had some classic failures. "Cowboy cooking" is what comes to mind. That's the phrase I used with the kids when something was a little darker tan than they thought was edible. "Eat it! It's cowboy cooking."

At first I blamed my cookware, (it couldn't talk back). But I had to admit that it was probably as good as anything I could buy today. So, pushing that alibi aside - I had to come up with something more realistic. So I began hunting up the old recipes and was amazed to find that right near the end of many of them was this phrase, "Simmer - don't boil".

This ushered in a whole new phase of successes in my dastardly attempts. I'll never reach the "Martha Stewart" stage - but I might make it to Martha of Mary and Martha.

I sometimes seem to see the lessons in life that God is trying to teach me through everyday occurences and so I looked more deeply into this one.

I think I have been blessed (?) with a strong choleric temperament, modified by a lot of sanguinity. I love order, organization, neatness etc. But I also love sponteneity - people - parties etc. These two temperaments usually get along pretty well - until there's some kind of crisis.

For instance if I find out that someone is really mad at me for something that I don't feel was a big deal..... I start to heat up. And it doesn't take me long to get to the boiling point. "How could she think that? What's wrong with her? Well, that's the end of that friendship! See if I'll help her again."
These are known as boiling reactions. Not good..... not good at all.

Over the last 47 years as a Christian - the Lord has taught me not to boil but to simmer. To me that means that I can have the first reaction which is always defensive - but then I have to sit back and simmer awhile.

When I force myself to simmer - I can bring God into the mixture. "This is bad Lord. I want to retaliate - defend - run away. But I can't find any scriptures to support any of these actions. So, what should I do?" And God always gives me an answer - "She's a sinner - but so are you! Why are you so surprised when she lives out her fallen nature? You do it too."

Then I like to pray for forgiveness and allow for all of those things that so tempt us to sin. The wonder is that it doesn't happen more often. I ask that I may be as forgiving of her as God is of me. And then I set my mixture aside. You know, give it time to cool off. Eventually, He brings us together - and I have the grace to hug and truly forgive her.

Christianity is a life of restraints. We aren't afforded the luxury of going to the extremes of any negative reaction. Just as Jesus 'opened not His mouth", we have times when we have to 'grin and bear it' . Well, maybe not grin - but at least not frown. Life is a serious test. We don't see Jesus "laughing" His way through His life's tests. No, but we see Him understanding...... Can we ever get to the point where we understand the tests of life? I pray we're getting a little closer each day.