My Very First WFMW - Cooking and the Dishes

Strange title? But quite a simple tip and one that I learned a long time ago, but has stuck with me ever since.

My tip is this;

Before you start to cook, fill the sink with hot soapy water.

Read on for my explanation.

When I started high school, one of my favourite lessons was Home Economics (or Cookery as my mum insisted it was!)

When the class started, we had to do all the usual things before starting to cook, like washing our hands, tying long hair back and putting aprons on, but then, we had to fill our sinks with hot soapy water.

While we were preparing and cooking whatever we were making, everytime we finished with a utensil, we were encouraged to put them in the water, rather than just leaving them lying around on the side.

This meant, that when we came to wash up, most of the dirty dishes we had created had been soaking in the water for some time, and they were so much easier to wash up quickly.

Its something that I still do today, and it makes life so much easier. It takes about 2 minutes to fill the sink with water, but its made worthwhile by the time it saves you afterwards, because sometimes I'm surprised by how many dishes I make while I'm cooking.

One very important point - Don't throw something heavy into the sink when you've just put something fragile in - you will break the fragile thing (but I haven't learnt that from experience, honest!)

For more useful tips, head on over to We are THAT Family

I feel like a hypocrite

Because its really easy to write on your blog about wanting to glorify God with your blog, and by extension your life, but its really hard to then go and live it.

Take last night for example.

I had finished my second post yesterday, and less than an hour afterwards, went out with my husband in the car. We were trying to turn right out of a junction, and just because a woman wouldn’t let us out, I looked at her and mouthed “stupid cow”

Thankfully she didn’t see me.

But that’s not the point.

My husband heard me, and more importantly God knows what I did. How ungracious, unloving and unchristian can I get? Ugh, I really hate that I can write about glorifying God one minute, and then turn around and act like that the next.

No matter what I post about, I’m still a sinner. Yes, I’m a forgiven sinner, but still a sinner. So I guess I want to clear that up right now, no matter how my posts may come across to others, I am no more perfect than any other person on the planet. And to be honest, most of the time I feel like I must be the worst example of a Christian

The whole point of the Christian life is to show Jesus and His beauty to other people. And while that woman couldn’t have known that I was a Christian, that’s irrelevant.

I don’t want to be like that, I want to be loving, and gracious, and more Christ-like. I want to show others how amazing it can be to know Him and live for Him. I know that on earth I’ll never be perfect, but my prayer is that I will grow more like Him day by day.

And for me, that starts with truly loving others around me, because as the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 13

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind; love 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 wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."

According to the Bible, love is more important than anything else. It was because of love that Jesus died on the cross to save me from my sin, and you from your sin.

And love is the most beautiful thing in the world. I think if we got the love bit of our lives right, most of the rest of it would come a lot easier than it does.

So today, how can you (and how can I) show a bit more love to those around us? Even other motorists.

The Gratitude Community

For a little while now, I have been keeping a gratitude journal. Somedays I find it easy to think of things to be grateful for, other days its difficult, but the more I do it, the more I realise just how much I take for granted.

Sometimes the things I'm grateful for may not mean much or anything to other people, but by seeing everything in life as a gift from God (yes, even the bad things - post to follow soon!), it becomes easier to see every day as beautiful.

Here are some of the things I've been grateful for today:

- Our new car (again, post to follow soon!)
- Beautiful spring day
- Lovely walk home this morning
- Seeing new life everywhere
- The sunshine
- A God who makes all things new
- A busy week ahead

What are you thankful for today?

An Introduction, An Explanation and An Apology

Welcome to my little corner of the web, and thanks so much for stopping by.

By way of introduction, let me first say that I want this blog to be to the glory of God, the one who is alone responsible for the beauty we can find in every day if only we will look for it.

By way of explanation, I have named my blog deliberately. Beauty is defined as:

"The quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind."

It might be difficult to believe that we can find pleasure and satisfaction in everyday things, or in each and every day. I certainly struggle to find that beauty and satisfaction, but I believe it's there if only we would look for it, and ask God to help us see it and find it.

I'm tired of living my life as though it were a chore or something that has to be done and got through as quickly as possible. I only have one life to live, and when its over I don't want to look back and wish that I could change how I'd done it. I want to find beauty in every day I live, and I'm asking God to help me find that beauty.

Finally my apology. I apologise for posting simply as Beauty Seeker, but there are issues that I believe God has laid on my heart to post about that mean I don't want to be identified. I am a shy, quiet person and I would prefer to remain anonymous, at least for the time being. I will share more about myself at a later date - I have so many posts in my mind I could keep going for days!

Today, when I look outside its a glorious day, blue skies and sunshine, and so easy to see the beauty, it reminds me of this verse from Psalm 19

"The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork."

Wherever you are today, I pray that God will reveal some of His beauty to you.