by the Grace of God

Now that I am unemployed, I have time to cook. It's been a while since I did such a thing. Lately "cooking" and "disaster" has been synonymous for me. Yesterday was a bad day. I made beef stew in the slow cooker, but misread the directions and had the cooker set on "high" instead of "low." It cooked for maybe six hours before I realized the mistake.


Then I made cornbread to go with it, but I think I was once again a victim of shortening that had gone bad. The only time I use shortening is to make cornbread. About the only time I make cornbread is to make cornbread dressing for Thanksgiving. I can't think too far back, but I know we've been out of town for Thanksgiving the past two years. It's likely that the shortening is several years old. I had baked a cake before with vegetable oil that apparently went bad. I didn't know that cooking oil can go bad. We don't cook much, so cooking stuff may sit on the shelves for several years.

Cooking is supposed to save money compared to take-out food, but it doesn't save money if the food ends up being inedible. The beef stew was ok to eat, it was overcooked but tasted fine. I re-did the cornbread this morning and Gumby was so enticed by the smell of cornbread that Gumby had beef stew for breakfast.

What was really bad about yesterday was that I caused an "almost accident" due to a lapse in good judgment while driving. I try to live my life without regrets, but I sure regret that moment of stupidity. It was only by the Grace of God that no collision occurred. It made me think about our need for God's Grace. We are like little children living this life. We're not very good at it, and like 3-year olds pouring milk from a large carton, we need some help. Our judgment is far from perfect, and God comes along and sometimes He helps prevent the mess; other times He helps us clean up the mess. Sometimes he keeps us from hurting ourselves; other times He soothes the injury. I thank God that He prevented the "big mess" of an auto accident yesterday, and apologize to all the drivers around me at that moment. I pray that God bless them all.
 
I thank God that the stew was still edible. All good things come from God.