Every good cook knows a perfect dish begins with the right recipe, ingredients, and cooking time. Room temperature eggs will make your cake rise better, good sweet apples make the best pies and buttermilk makes a better cornbread. The recipe is the foundation for a great meal. Following the directions in the recipe will give even the novice cook the opportunity to create something appetizing and delicious. Life also has a recipe of sorts that if followed we have the opportunity to create beautiful long lasting relationships.

The recipe requires these ingredients: knowledge of self, a kind heart, the spirit of forgiveness, patience, understanding, a listening ear, compassion and a sense of justice. Now that you have the right ingredients, what do you do with them becomes the question? Each ingredient has a specific order in the recipe to accomplish the desired outcome. In life we are given the basic understanding of who we should be by our parents, as life continues we grow into a knowledge of self; what we like and what we don’t like. What is important to us, the things we treasure and our concept of happiness.

On this journey we meet many travelers along the way, through these interactions we discover kind hearts, compassion and forgiveness. From those experiences we learn patience, understanding and a sense of justice as we give a listening ear to the stories of their journey. We realize we are not alone as we walk this journey, however; our journey is impacted for good or bad by how we present ourselves to those we meet. These two recipe instructions create in us the sources to have the perfect relationship, “Love your God with all your heart, mind and soul and your neighbor as yourself”.

When LOVE reigns in our lives we become meek, patient, kind, understanding, compassionate, and forgiving. 1st Corinthian 13: 4-7 teaches us loves recipe for a good life; love is patient and kind; it does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way, it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong doings, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things. LOVE NEVER ENDS.

When time exits the stage of life and is no more, the Son of God will return; ONLY the heart filled with love will be able to stand in His presence, for He is LOVE.

My revelation as I sit by the pool of grace.