Lessons from Cupcakes

Good Morning Gorgeous,

It’s a brand new day. A fresh start! The day is washed in light. No matter how many days you’ve walked the earth, you’ve never lived this very day. This day gets it’s very own date on the calendar. There will never be another day given the date 7/2/2019. It’s a fresh new day all its own.

And on this day, you may be in the waiting place. In almost every season, I find that I am waiting on God for something. Sometimes, it’s a big something, a huge miracle that I am waiting and trusting and believing and hoping in Him. And those seasons are haaaaaard. And other times, I am waiting on smaller breakthroughs that are still significant to me or my family. What I have observed is that most of us are always “waiting” on something.

And I don’t really like to wait. I am a mover, a doer, the one who carries out plans and sees them through. I generally am balancing several projects at once, and as I am waiting on one to click into place, I can busy my mind with my other projects. Its just how I am wired I guess.

I did a search this morning in the bible app for waiting on the Lord, and the amount of verses that came up was overwhelming. Then, I started thinking about all of the people in the bible who had to wait… just about all of them waited on the Lord for something. Even Jesus waited 30 years before his time had come to begin His public ministry. So if the Lord Himself took time to grow and step into His purpose, then we as well will have many times of waiting and growing and building and stretching and strengthening before we are ready for our next step, next season, next breakthrough, next opportunity, or healing.

My kids and I made impromptu cupcakes this morning. I was groggily sipping my coffee and before I knew what I had just agreed to, we were mixing batter. Kids still had bedhead and the boys were only in their underwear as we cracked eggs, mixed, stirred, and poured cupcakes.

What got me thinking about waiting and trusting God was when my son Bentley started demanding to frost them when they were just poured into the pan. The batter was all liquid and the oven wasn’t even preheated yet! Addyson was pouring the batter in, and he was adamant that I hand over the frosting. I hadn’t yet pulled it out of the pantry, so when he couldn’t even see the frosting with his own eyes, he started to panic. “Where is the frosting mom? Do we even have frosting? What flavor is it? Show me the frosting! I promise I won’t touch it, just let me see it.”

I promised him that we definitely had frosting, described it as chocolate, and explained that the frosting has to go on after the cupcakes baked in the oven and then cooled.

That was not an easy concept for a 4 year old even though we have made cupcakes and cakes before. He still wanted to frost the wiggly, jiggly batter right then and there.

After some convincing, he ran off to play while the cupcakes cooked.

That got me thinking more about the process of cupcakes and the trust that my son had to have in me to finally go off and play while he waited for the time to finally come for the frosting and sprinkles.

How often in my life am I begging God to just let me frost my cupcakes!! I want Him to deliver the end of the promise already before we have finished mixing, and pouring, and baking, and cooling. There are a lot of lessons in the process. As I make cupcakes with my kids, they are learning how to measure, how to crack eggs, how to stir, how to take turns, and how to Be Patient.

If we skipped to the frosting, there would be consequences….they would miss the lessons along the way and the cupcakes would taste horrible too. I have the bigger picture in mind as I make my children wait to frost their cupcakes.

And suppose they wait for most of the process, but when I take the cupcakes out of the oven, the temptation is too much to bear and they start frosting them while they are still hot. What a mess that would be! The cupcakes would crumble and fall apart.

I am realizing I do this in my walk with Jesus. In my desire to be “in control” and “just get to the good parts” , I sometimes frost my cupcakes before God says it’s time. It messes things up a bit, yet in grace, He helps me through those times too.

How much easier life is when we trust even in the waiting. And it takes great courage to wait on the Lord. It takes great faith and trust to be still and wait on the plans of the Lord to come to fruition. It takes belief that He knows the process better than we do! He’s been creating masterpieces since the beginning and He knows when it’s time to mix and when it’s time to bake and when it’s time to frost, and even when its time to add sprinkles. I will exercise my faith and trust in God today. I will be bold and courageous and wait on Him!

Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for the lessons we can learn in the waiting. Equip us with patience and courage as we wait on You Lord. We recognize that You know the things that we don’t, and we trust You with the process and Your perfect timing. In Jesus’s name, Amen