Every Thanksgiving, my mom made her signature German Chocolate cake. After she died, my siblings and I still got together every Thanksgiving and my sister, Carmen, took over the cake tradition. Like everyone else, Thanksgiving 2020 was very different and it was the first time I wasn't with my larger family for this holiday. It was awkward and I inevitably felt a bit of nostalgia. I missed everything and everyone and I wasn't exactly sure how to mentally process the separation during this time.
To feel a sense of normalcy, I took a stab at the cake tradition. (Wait, wait...give me a chance! lol) I thought for sure that half the cake was going to be burnt and stuck to the bottom of the cake pan, but surprisingly, it turned out pretty good! Lol
I learned that part of the process to bake the cake was to sift the flour to ensure there were no clumps. Skip this step and you may end up with lumps in the cake!
My mom always used the process of sifting ingredients as an analogy for using my own "internal sifter" to "take what I need and leave what I don't." This meant that opinions and information I hear would be endless, but I had to use my own discernment and common sense to know what to receive (and who to receive from) and what to completely disregard. (Note: Don't let everybody pour into you! That’s a whole blog by itself!)
Each of us has a conscience or moral compass that attempts to guide our lives -- some of us listen to it, others of us don't. God gave you your “sifter” for a reason and it’s important for you to develop the practice and discipline to decipher what you need to help you to thrive. It’s equally important to know what (and who) you don’t need. To get started:
Be released from the bondage of other people’s opinions.
Protect the gates to your soul (i.e. your eyes and ears) and define who you are by what God says about you.
Identify and reserve your mental bandwidth for what’s important to you. Sift out everything else because…“ain’t nobody got time for that!”
Life is short and there’s only time to strive to live richly every day.
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