Baking Day Thoughts

My baking day thoughts. 

This is the one day I set aside to make our household bread for the week; and today I’m sharing my baking day thoughts.

I love making bread. Measuring the ingredients, and seeing the yeast foam up and activate delights me. The process of mixing and kneading; when it starts out as a mash-up of separate ingredients and ten minutes later – thanks to my awesome Kitchen-Aide mixer – it’s combined, smooth and ready to rise, still thrills me after each and every loaf I make. And, I love how baking day makes my home smell. There is something about the smell of bread baking that brings about a sense of peace, comfort, and purpose. It evokes memories of Grandma in her apron cooking over her wood stove. Today, I’m trying a new recipe; Cinnamon Raisin Bread (recipe credit to Pioneer Woman). Sweet and spicy cinnamon smells permeate the house. Are you drooling yet?

Therefore, please allow me an short analogy about my baking day thoughts, I believe my life is a bit like making bread. There are so many aspects to what creates me and my essence. The flour, salt, water (or milk), oil, and sugar all combine for the basis of who I am. But it isn’t until the warm yeast is added that the magic begins. Scientifically, yeast is a single-cell fungus! It consumes sugar and then emits carbon dioxide. In this way, it exhales gases that merge with other ingredients and causes the dough to expand. In bakers’ terms we call that “rise.”

However, without yeast the dough is just a biscuit, and nothing against biscuits, it’s not the same. We need yeast in our life in order to “rise” to our fullest potential. We need yeast to take us from sticky, inedible dough to a full loaf of warm, golden-brown yummy goodness.

Baking day thoughts about yeast?

For me, my yeast is the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit alive inside of me that takes my mishmash of basic, everyday life and turns it into something that rises, stretches and grows to become all that God has created me to be. The Holy Spirit in me:

• Guides me into Godly living and choices
• Fills me with the power to reflect God’s love in all circumstances and to every person
• Helps me utilize my gifts and talents to be God’s “hands and feet” in a hurting world

If you have ever made bread, you know that it’s all in the kneading. Twisting, mixing, turning, folding, and punching until the mixture of ingredients is combined into a smooth, warm dough. So, it is with my life as well. There are times when I need a little kneading! A loving hand to mix and turn me. A strong hand to fold and twist me. The result is that I am changed. I become strong and purposeful. Then I rise, just like the bread in my oven on baking day.

I rise larger than I could ever be without the “yeast” of the Holy Spirit and expand my capacity for goodness and love. I fill myself up with the Holy Spirit to become a new creation; one that can serve with purpose to accomplish what the Creator planned for my life.

Mix – Rise – and bake!

In the oven my life gets stronger. I become hot! I become able to stand against the “heat” of the world. To remain firm and in most cases to rise higher than if I was not challenged or tested. And once the bread is removed from the oven, then it can be shared and consumed. You see, I believe that the purpose of the Holy Spirit in our lives isn’t just about us. It’s about those that we serve when filled with hope, grace and love for others.

Many Christians spend their entire lives living in a bubble. They go to church with other Christians, they socialize with other believers, and they live and work in an all-Christian environment. How then, do they share what the Holy Spirit grows and develops in their life?

We are designed and intended to be the “hands and feet” of God to physically reach a lost and hurting world with God’s love, grace and mercy. We are to fill ourselves with the yeast of the Holy Spirit and then serve all!

12 Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony.

Colossians 3: 12-14

It’s all about love.

A love that is strong and unconditional. A love that comes from our spirit deep inside us and reaches out and touches the lives of those around us. If we truly have the Holy Spirit within us, how then can we ever look at the hurting world and do nothing!

Are you ready to activate the yeast in your life? Are you ready to share the “bread of life” with those who are struggling and hurting?

In closing, I want to challenge you with this baking day thought. As we so recently celebrated the season of “thanksgiving”, I urge you to step out of your comfort zone and look around you. Are there those in your community who need some tenderhearted mercies? Does it take “spirit-filled” patience to spend the day within difficult family situations? Have you forgotten to wrap up some love to give others? When you truly see others as God does… then what shall you do? Maybe baking a warm, yummy loaf of bread and delivering it to someone who needs some love? What are your baking day thoughts or memories?

-Connie