Aye, Aye Captain!

The first rule of learning to sail is to obey the Captain’s orders, or at least to try to hear what is being said and taught and do it. As I start my third day of writing this blog I’m trying to find a daily rhythm that will enable me to hear His voice more clearly.

In the last season I’ve been a bit stressed, trying to figure out what I’m meant to be doing. Covid has brought so much change into our culture.

At the beginning of the year I knew that I had drifted away from a habit of just sitting down with Jesus and resting in His love. I tried to just “be still and know” that He is God, but I was overthinking all the time. Just sitting down and having a rest time with Him was really difficult. Should I be reading the Word, praying for people and discerning what to do about so many pressing issues?

I actually wrote a poem at the end of last year called “Relationship Renewed”….but I quickly flitted off again from just resting with Jesus and got distracted. If you want to listen to that poem- here’s a SoundCloud link….

https://soundcloud.com/kate-stanway

Resting at anchor

Yesterday I was truly blessed. I think it started on Sunday by reading Colossians 2 with other people – in such a way that really meant we had to gently hear what was being said there.

Then, yesterday, I was reading a Daily Devotional that I should have finished at Christmas (awful words- should have!) and I really liked what the author was saying about finding rest in busyness. I wish I had read it at Christmas! One of the verses of scripture that she included was:

“In returning (to Me)and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and confident trust is your strength.”

Isaiah 30:15 AMP

I realised that returning is actually repenting, but it’s not hair shirt stuff! It’s turning back to the good way of being with Him. To rest, listen, gain confidence and find new strength.

P.S.

I have a very dear friend in California. She read this blog yesterday and gave me so much encouragement, as she always does. How we treasure our good friends! So thank you, dear Angela. And the Cheese Scones (!) are baked at 200 Celsius… for our American friends, I guess that’s around 400F. Hot oven!

Learning to sail

How hard can it be?

Starting something new as we get older is hard, I’m finding. But even though my head is beginning to spin a bit with the technical jargon and the editing process, I’m sticking in there.

For some reason I found the learning to sail analogy interesting, particularly because I’ve never sailed. After all this blog site is called The Bakery and I would probably do better using some baking terms! But I like a mixed metaphor so, as I wondered how I would get more proficient quickly (I do like quickly!) I found myself writing yet another short poem…

Learning to Sail
When things are new and I'm at sea
Lord Jesus, please encourage me
I don't know how to hoist the sails
And up ahead there may be gales 

Yet this I know, You are the Way
And I will learn to sail today
To catch the breeze and tack and lean
Into the winds of this new scene

I will keep calm and breathe and move
Under Your steady Hand of love
And as I move and watch and pray
I'll surely learn to sail this day

Thankfully, I appear to have caught some breeze and a little understanding. I do know that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, so I’m not heading straight into the open sea…yet!

Tacking off course

I’m quite interested in how to use images and audio but this might be a diversion for a novice. I also want to know how to change the layouts of a blog but I can’t navigate those features yet. I am weaving back and forth, but quite close to the shore!

So, here is my first diversion.

Cheese Scones!

A desire for cheese scones with a soup lunch, came about when I was a bit exhausted by mastering this blog as I set sail…

I know how to make cheese scones, so it was a happy fallback position. It also gives me an opportunity to try to share an image! Here’s the photo:

So here’s the finished product. Not from a master bakery but a bit rustic, sitting in their pan on the top of my stove. They are very quick to make and very tasty, so I thought I’d share the recipe.

Cheese scones

Using a food processor makes this recipe very quick. 
I made 6 small scones out of a small quantity.
To make larger scones, double the ingredients.

4 oz SR flour
Dashes of mustard powder and paprika 
Pinch of salt (to taste)
1 oz butter
2oz cheese grated
1/2 egg
2 tbspns milk 

Sorry about the old style measures in ounces, but 
that's the way I work!

Method

Rub butter into seasoned flour. Use a food processor 
if you don't like the mix up your fingernails! 
Stir in most of the cheese. Keep some to sprinkle on top.
Add egg and milk. Make into softish dough. You may need more milk..
Roll or pat out to at least 1/2 inch.
Handle lightly.
Cut with small cutter. (Keep gently re-rolling and cutting)
Brush top with milk and add saved cheese on top.
Place on lightly floured sheet, or tartlet tin.
Bake in 200 degree oven. 
About 15 minutes or so. 
Returning to shore

I think that’s my training session completed for this day. I just want to finish by saying that I’m incredibly thankful that the wind of God’s Spirit was blowing me along. All the glory goes to Him!

I pray that you, too, will find uplift in your life, particularly if you’re trying something new in 2022. I really enjoyed these words today from the Amplified version of The Bible:

Psalm 103 – A Psalm of David

Bless and affectionately praise the Lord, O my soul,
And all that is [deep] within me, bless His holy name.

Bless and affectionately praise the Lord, O my soul,
And do not forget any of His benefits;

Who forgives all your sins,
Who heals all your diseases;

Who redeems your life from the pit,
Who crowns you [lavishly] with lovingkindness and tender mercy;

Who satisfies your years with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the [soaring] eagle.

Identity

The great reset. Identity change. The key to true identity.

Before I could write this blog for the first time I had to think of a name for it. My husband Roger came in this morning, when I was grappling with something quite different, and suggested a name “The Bakery”!

He knows that I love to bake. He also loves to eat! And we are both attracted to the baker’s shelves with all that fresh bread on display. So many different types…I can almost smell the aroma now.

I love to write. Recently it’s been mostly poetry. I’m not claiming excellence but it’s a creative blessing to express myself in words. And most of these poems actually rhyme. Rhyme is a heaven sent gift. It comes out of the blue and often unexpectedly. This morning I was wondering about my own identity as I woke up. I’m now in my 70s so there’s a lot to look back on. And I don’t look the same any more. In fact I’ve had some major identity changes in my life. So, struggling a bit, I got myself an early morning mug of tea and sat down. And then the poem arrived. Bit by bit. As if the different ingredients were being added to the mix for some fresh bread.

(I’m sorry if you were hoping for a recipe. This is a different sort of bread! Another day, perhaps…)

Identity

Who shall I be and to whom? 
A woman who enters the room
Who will they see? Will it be me? 
The one that they've seen on their Zoom

Long ago I was me in my skin
Accepted. Not troubled within 
But today I'm not sure, if I'm me any more
Who am I and how to begin?

The reset is here  - so they say 
Is that why I'm feeling this way?
Are we all going through, yes, both me and you
An identity change in our day?

The world has been turned upside down
What's upper once used to be down!
And truth is now lies, and lies are the prize
For those who today get "life's crown"

And yet in my heart I still know
That goodness and mercy, they follow
The one who knows You, for You will stay true
When everything else becomes hollow

So it's all about who they will see
When I present simply as me
For if You are in me, and I am in You 
You're really the One that I'll be...

I know, that because I owe my true identity to the One who saved me and loves me unconditionally -Jesus Christ – that there are keys to being restored and feeling whole again. And the real key is knowing that I’m now in His identity. But to live that out I must choose to live daily in Him.

John’s gospel chapter 15: verses 1-11 in the Amplified version of the Bible were very helpful to me this morning.