Submission and Banana bread

The Lord helped me this past week as I prepared for ladies’ meeting. I’m sorry I didn’t get any pictures. I don’t think to do so since I’m not accustomed to taking my camera with me everywhere I go.

For weeks I felt like I should talk about "Submission to God". As I looked up verses and tried to put something together by way of a Bible study, I realized it was going to require way more time than what I had to study properly.

As I sought the Lord more and more earnestly as the day came closer, still nothing was coming together. Finally the day of the meeting, I came up with the idea to make soft pretzels. The dough would be a symbol of our being "yielded" to God for Him to make us into what shape He wants.

The more I prayed and thought about it, I realized this probably wasn’t going to "click" with them the same way it would us. They really don’t even know what pretzels are and how would they even know if they were in the right shape.

Then the idea came to mind to teach them to make banana bread. They had asked me a while ago to show them. I got my ingredients together and as I shared on being submissive to God, I added ingredients. What about the baking soda and salt anyway? Are they REALLY important? Why can’t we let them out? I pretended to gripe about why they should be in there when I didn’t think they were necessary. The ladies were starting to get the idea of what banana bread had to do with submission to God’s will.

Finally when I had the batter mixed, I said, "Okay, it’s ready. Who wants to be the first to try it?" They answered that it was not baked and I had to put it in the oven. I said "The oven! It’s hot in there. I’ll die." Then I said, "Okay, but just for 5 minutes." They said "No, a half hour." "A HALF HOUR? I don't want to stay in there that long," I responded.

They seemed to apply the Biblical concept of questioning God when we want to let out ingredients, and skipping the oven He has prepared for us. If we let anything out, or don’t stay in the oven for the full amount of time, we won’t be as flavorful or beautiful to others, spiritually.
I thanked the Lord over and over for how He led me to do this object lesson. It was killing 2 birds with 1 stone - teaching them how to make something they love, and applying a Biblical truth the Lord wanted me to share.

I think it will be something they will remember for a long time and hopefully they can make the banana bread and sell it to get some income.