Thankful this Thursday for:
God showing me my sin.
I often hear my home is cozy. I love creating a mood in my house by adding texture, tabletop fountains, live plants, color, and candles. Add some inspiring music and a cup of hot coffee or tea and I’m set. Love the peace alone or a convo with my husband or a friend.
People also tell me my flowerbed are inviting. Gardening is my therapy. Digging in the dirt and spraying my kids with the hose invigorate me. Every home we’ve owned I add my touch of cottage blooms. I can’t wait to see my daffodils pop their heads up soon. Love my homegrown tomatoes.
Okay these are two areas I come alive in. I find pleasure in creating beautiful spaces indoors and out. I believe God created me this way. I would gladly help someone else make their house a home. It’s fun for me.
And then there’s the part of me I wish I could bury. An ever present battle—my daily struggle. As a wife and mom, cooking makes me feel so inadequate. I wish I had a love for making meals after 17 years of marriage, but I don’t. I struggle not to grumble about it every day. Sometimes I do okay. Other times I want to cry. I cook for company if it’s simple like barbecue or chili or an easy salad. I don’t like baking either. I justify that with the fact that most baked goods aren’t healthy anyway. My family doesn’t need a sweet treat after every meal.
I feel guilty I am not the Proverbs woman who loves to feed her family.
The other day I got together with some girlfriends. We ended up talking about cooking. Thanks to my complaining probably. Two of us aren’t cooks. Two of us are. One gal loves sifting through her cookbook. She’s tried every recipe and has rated them according to her own grading system. I said that would be like going to the dentist for me.
Isn’t it interesting how different we are?
Anyway, I left my friend’s home that night feeling like I fell into a comparison trap—again. I longed to like my two friends who cook. I prayed that evening for God to help me embrace who He has made me to be. I asked for forgiveness for complaining. I need accept the fact that cooking isn’t my passion.
Will I ever love to cook? I doubt it. But then again, God still does miracles. I want to get the place in my spirit where I do “all things—even cooking—as unto the Lord.”
Heavenly Father, please continue to show me the attitudes of my heart. Help me let go of my desire to be someone else. Forgive me for wanting what my friends have. Help me embrace my passions. And allow me to serve my family my “non-gourmet” meals with gladness. You’ve given me so much, the least I can do is thank you. My family has more than enough to eat. That alone is reason enough to shout and sing. Thank you. In Jesus name, Amen.
Thank you again, Iris,Sting My Heart for hosting this week’s Thankful Thursday. I appreciate you!
Well you can’t do it all! I’m a decent homecookin’ kind of gal but I kill plants. So, you’ve got me beat there.
I’m sure you are a Prov31 wife – you bring the food from afar, right? I think that counts Taco Bell! 🙂
Okay Heather, but like I told my friends. “What matters more important–plants or a meal?”
I’d love to leave a legacy of good cooking. That’s where the struggle is… What is of greater importance?
Is there a scale? I think not. But then again, I think so. This is way I battle. The things I enjoy seem meaningless at times. Who cares if I have a cozy home when I can’t cook?
Hmm, the battle..
I don’t like cooking and I’m not that good at it but I guessed I’m blessed that my husband likes to cook. At least we have a really good meal every now and then. HA
😉
Hey Tiffany,
Awwww you are so precious, so honest, and humble.
I’d love to come make a nice meal for you, or give you some EASY recipes.
It’s not like I really “like cooking”, but after raising 5 sons, I had NO choice!
I do enjoy waking up early and putting on a pot of something… what a way to start my day. This is why I don’t have your cute figure, I love to eat as I cook.
HOWEVER, I don’t like to get my hands dirty, and I have a bad back, so you know I’m not in the garden. I admire beautiful gardens~
I’d love to come see your house, I envision it to look like the picture on your blog, warm and inviting, just like YOU!
Don’t compare, God loves you just as you are, so do I!!
As far as that Proverbs 31 woman, don’t forget this:
The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Isaiah 58:11
Blessings to you my friend♥
God does not love you for your cooking, gardening, or any other skills. He loves you, because you are His precious and faithful daughter. Remember martha and mary?? Sit at His feet, that is what He desires from you. I love you my friend.
Two words – TAKE OUT.
Here’s another one… RESTAURANT.
:0)
After 21 years of marriage, I have learned to cook.
I failed F-A-I-L-E-D Home Ec.
I can barely sew a button on without needing a blood transfusion. I have an aversion to dusting, vacuuming and laundry. Irons scare me. And hurt me.
But I have two kids who are stepping into adulthood who love Jesus and live for Him. I have a husband that looks forward to coming home at the end of the day, even if he does have to take me out to dinner! Sure I could beat myself up over the fact that I’m not Martha Stewart, but truth is, I don’t wanna be. I like me. Oh, and I can write a pretty good story too. :0)
Tiffany stop by my house some time and teach me how to plant some flowers and I’ll whip you up a creative surprise to snack on 🙂 you can count on it having oat bran or something in too 🙂 I like butter and cheese (tsk tsk) so I have to keep those arteries clean…
You are gifted in many ways! I’m glad to have “met” you through blogland. Keep hungering and thirsting for Jesus and don’t worry so much about the kitchen. Hey the less you mess around in the kitchen the cleaner it stays 🙂
I love to cook, though good at some meals and terrible at others. Can’t organize a lick and to try and decorate is like pulling my hair out in chunks :-O. My house always has toddler toys where they don’t belong and looks very lived in.I Always feel inadequate (in many areas) when comparing myself to other mothers. So I too have to pray this prayer as you did here today, and just take it one day at a time. Thank you for sharing.
Be blessed,
Stacy
God’s been showing me my sin, too. He probably has all along, I just haven’t wanted to see it. So glad that He has patience with me.
I believe that you are beating yourself up over nothing. My mother was a great cook and so is my sister. I am a fair to middling cook. My family has never really complained. I don’t enjoy cooking, though I do enjoy eating. Your family has survived and will survive no matter what you cook or don’t cook. I believe the adversary is doing a number on you. God made you just the way you are and you need to accept who you are. We all don’t have the same abilities but that doesn’t make us any less in the eyes of the Father and I don’t believe it makes you any less in the eyes of your family. The comparison game is a no win situation. You have so many talents in other areas,you are blessed and your family is too. Focus on the positive and not the negative. Blessings.
Tiffany, thanks for visiting my blog. I too am not a good cook. I have no children or hubby to cook for, so my concerns on not exactly like yours. I get intimidated when cooking for others or dish to pass. I wrote a cute poem once about the my struggles with “cooking for one” thanks for sharing and know that we all struggle to be the Proverb 31 woman. God bless djdeb
You are right, Tiffany. Our Lord has given us all different talents. We all enjoy something – we are good at. I know that I have fallen into the comparison trap myself. I think the world would be pretty boring if we would love all the same things 🙂 Although I don’t mind cooking – I have other passions. After 25 years of cooking you run out of ideas – lol…
Thank you so much for sharing your grateful heart with us this past week…
Blessings to you and your precious family.
Tiffany, what I wouldn’t give to have your gift of gardening or beautifying the home or helping women in crisis through your talks and writing. But God made us each different because He likes a variety of flowers in His garden bed also. While reading your blog about cooking,and the comments, I was reminded that I wanted to post my weekly menu on my blog…which is what I just did.
I have to have a meal plan. I cannot shop without one, and I hate meal time coming when I don’t know what I’m going to fix. We are older and my husband is pickier about what he will eat, so I don’t try a lot of new recipes…I tend to stick with things I know he likes. Also, we are both horrible vegetable eaters, although I would venture out more if he would join me. I do try to have a main dish and two side dishes for the evening meal. I am sure your other blogger friends eat healthier, and could probably post better menus, but for now please feel free to check out my new menu blog (I’m not sure how to link it).
Aso, have you heard about ediet.com? It’s a terrific site where menus are customized to fit your particular needs. They provide three daily meals, two daily snacks, all the recipes, and the shopping list.
So if cooking isn’t fun for you because you don’t know what to cook, maybe some menus will help encourage you. If there is any meal item on my menu that you need a recipe for, I’ll be glad to share it.
And if you still don’t like to cook, just as I don’t like cooking, that’s okay…put the meat pounder away and quit beating yourself with it! You are loved, more than you will ever know, just the way you are!