This article is a part of "The Amish Cook Column", a weekly series of featuring a story & recipe from Gloria Yoder, Amish wife & mother of six from Flat Rock, Illinois
Imagine eating your favorite dessert every meal. How long would it still be good? How happy arechildren if they do only what they want to do all day, every day?
What would it be like if Christmas came every month or we went on a vacation every day?
At our house, we get many good-sized portions of action every day. How much quietness could I relish without getting too much?
My mind flashes to older widow friends, handicapped, and other lonely folks out there who would be delighted to have more interaction with others and once more have finger smudges on their windows. So there seem to be two sides to the spectrum. Isn’t the old saying true, “Too much of a good thing is a bad thing?”
Given a chance, we'd get rid of some of those difficulties, yet if we only had what we really wanted, what would that life look like?
A restful night’s sleep never had such significance until it was a nightly event of sparse sleep. The quiet moments behind a shut door would not have felt so good, even with twenty little toes wiggling their way through the crack under the door, after mama needed hands free for a moment.
When a good shift falls into place, giving us a break from the hard things, it seems to be that tendency to feel guilty to enjoy it. The summer after Daniel passed that became real to me; I discovered it didn’t feel right to laugh. But then how would my life look like now, had I resolved never to laugh again?
Or you may be in a position right now where you feel like you never want to smile again. I get it; when the pain cuts deep, it sometimes shifts things enough that we are left reeling, wondering what good things could happen in our lives again. Life will never hold the same thing forever unless we choose to stay there. Like eating the same dessert every meal will not work, in the same way, the heartache within will not forever be your diet. Better yet, as we find Jesus in the midst of it, he takes the burden, rewraps it, and in his time replaces it with something much better. Now this process takes much more patience than I have; I keep going to the Lord for more. Your reward may be waiting until you step inside those pearly gates, but believe me, it will be worth it, many times over.
None of us like to be stuck in the mundane or seemingly impossible without an end in sight. During those times when I find it hard to really talk to God, I whisper or even just think the name of Jesus. My latest favorite verse is in Isaiah 61:3 where we’re promised beauty for ashes and the oil of joy for mourning.
And while we journey our pathway, why not help take the monotony out of a lonely neighbor’s life by sharing a token of kindness and word of appreciation, or when we see a hurting individual, just tell them “I care,” and lift them in prayer.
If there’s a young mother at church, she may let you sweep her floors or wash her windows when you stop by, or perhaps she’d be ready to eat a meal with two free hands while you hold the baby.
My children enjoy a change, even in their daily routine. On Sunday mornings, they get to eat their breakfast in their pajamas and are welcome to bring a cozy blanket with them. Or better yet, a break from washing the supper dishes or on a cold evening, help with feeding the animals . It really doesn’t take that much to pass on the love of God’s Son and spread “Son- shine” into others’ lives.
I’ll pass on a recipe for soup, similar to what a church sister dropped off last week, giving us a break from cooking. Yes, little acts of kindness have a way of removing some of the humdrum to life. If you give, you will receive.
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