Recipes for the Family: Use Fresh Ingredients
06/14/09
Dr. Phil Wilkes, Luke 15:11-21
If you are like me you can probably taste a difference between vegetables you eat at a restaurant and those you prepare at home. Usually the restaurant is using canned vegetables to prepare meals. However, at home you may use fresh ingredients. When you eat them there is an amazing difference in the quality and taste compared to institutionalized vegetables at the restaurant.
When it comes to our families there are some ways you can strengthen, encourage and affirm those in your family. You can choose to add some fresh ingredients that will absolutely enhance your family.
Here is the danger. Many people work long hours and have little time to go home and prepare a meal. So they do the next best thing. They go out. Eventually you begin to accept the quality of institutional food as the norm. As time goes by you begin to accept that this is the way all food should taste or be prepared. But on that occasion when you do eat freshly prepared vegetables you are reminded that there is better quality and that the taste is greatly enhanced because they are freshly prepared.
The same thing can happen in our families. You can experience relationships in your family that are filled with conflict, perhaps a lack of caring, always limited by the other person or never given help in navigating life. You may even begin to believe this is the way it is for everybody. But then you get a glimpse of another family that seems to be different. They find ways to support each other, encourage one another and to actually enjoy being together. You don’t have to settle for something less than what God desires for you in your relationships and interaction with other people in your family.
In this story Jesus tells about the dad and two sons we learn some things about how to build up and strengthen those in our family.
Podcast
If you are like me you can probably taste a difference between vegetables you eat at a restaurant and those you prepare at home. Usually the restaurant is using canned vegetables to prepare meals. However, at home you may use fresh ingredients. When you eat them there is an amazing difference in the quality and taste compared to institutionalized vegetables at the restaurant.
When it comes to our families there are some ways you can strengthen, encourage and affirm those in your family. You can choose to add some fresh ingredients that will absolutely enhance your family.
Here is the danger. Many people work long hours and have little time to go home and prepare a meal. So they do the next best thing. They go out. Eventually you begin to accept the quality of institutional food as the norm. As time goes by you begin to accept that this is the way all food should taste or be prepared. But on that occasion when you do eat freshly prepared vegetables you are reminded that there is better quality and that the taste is greatly enhanced because they are freshly prepared.
The same thing can happen in our families. You can experience relationships in your family that are filled with conflict, perhaps a lack of caring, always limited by the other person or never given help in navigating life. You may even begin to believe this is the way it is for everybody. But then you get a glimpse of another family that seems to be different. They find ways to support each other, encourage one another and to actually enjoy being together. You don’t have to settle for something less than what God desires for you in your relationships and interaction with other people in your family.
In this story Jesus tells about the dad and two sons we learn some things about how to build up and strengthen those in our family.
Podcast