About a week ago I attempted to bake for the first time since I had left culinary school. Now the one thing I can say is this, cooking is easy and baking is a practice. Needless to say I was disappointed in the end results. This isn't to say the bread was burned, or inedible but I had made one mistake during the mixing process so the bread turned out denser than I would have liked. I brought one loaf to my brother and his family and shared it with them during a family meal, there was none left afterwards but I was still disappointed in what I had produced. A couple of days later my girlfriend came over and as we were preparing dinner I had mention the bread and how I didn't know what to do with it since it wasn't "good" without having seen, or tasted the product she mentions "why not make bruschetta?". Now I have to say this woman amazes me to no end. Later on that evening she tried some of the bread and instead of critiquing it herself she allowed me to troubleshoot and figure out what I had done wrong. One mistake was all that was made and I was ready to never attempt to make this bread again. This is the story of my life and probably everyone's life to some degree or another. The lord often uses other people to get his point across, for the better portion of my life all it took was one mistake to trip me up, bring out my negativity, and walk away from any other attempt at trying. She made the point that first of all there are many people in the world that can't even attempt to look a recipe let alone take it from start to finish, I had not thrown the bread so on some level I was proud of what I had done, and out of this one this I could make at least a half a dozen other dishes.
There are many verses in the Bible that talk about mistakes but they all sum up to one thing and this is the same thing I was told by the lord through my girlfriend "Your mistakes do not define you." To use a quote from scripture "I am a new creation. The old is gone and the new has come." 2 Corinthians 5:17. I have allowed my mistakes to define me for most of my life and it is time to be made new. The next day my brother and I talked for some length about our dreams, inspirations, life in general. For the first time that I can remember my brother and I had a conversation without wanting to kill each other afterwards. There were a couple of reasons as to why one: I was open to hear what was being said and two: my brother wasn't on the attack trying to force his opinion. I have always said I couldn't work with my brother but after he and I conversed with each other as adults, peers, and brothers my mind was changed. Yeah we still have a long way to go but the first step has been taken. That night during practice at church I am given a bass guitar to learn. I had not mentioned learning this instrument to the group for quite some time and our lead pianist had one lying around not being used. So after all of this, all of my mistakes, and my resignation to no longer let my mistakes define, I am given an instrument I have always wanted to learn. There is no way I can't make mistakes on this instrument but I'll have to work through them, and my brother plays the guitar therefore to get started I have to work with him since I can't afford lessons so we will have to continue working together. The lord works in amazing ways and with the Lord guiding me, and teaching me I know I can overcome this obstacle/test.
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