"I am not a good cook!"

I am not a good cook. If you had asked me when I was young -- like up to age 40 and younger -- I would have answered that I was a fairly good cook! I was gutsy in the kitchen, and nothing stymied me. I really think it was the years of cooking on an electric range. A pox upon electric cooking!

But when we bought this house, I insisted that I was going to have a gas stove, and I got it. Immediately, my cooking improved! Then the old doubts crept back in, and I noticed I was back to telling people, “I am a terrible cook. I’ll buy something and bring it.”

One of the reasons I haven't considered myself a good cook is because I never stick to the recipe. Ever. I look at it and tweak it some way – often in many ways. Now, it is not like me to admit this, but 95% of the time, what I cook turns out wonderfully! But I am going to admit here and now that it is that 5% of the time that mobilizes what I say about my cooking. There. I wrote it. I base my concept of my being a bad cook on the failures, which truly only happen about 5% of the time, if that often! That 5% propels me, causes my cookery self-criticism, triggers my feelings of ineptness in the kitchen.

Similarly, this is often how we measure ourselves when it comes to our walks with the L-rd. We so easily get our eyes off Him and onto ourselves and our imperfections. But that is not how He thinks. He says that His strength is made perfect in our weaknesses [2 Corinthians 12: 7-9] – in those times when we know we are not strong, so we lean hard upon Him. The trick, however, is recognizing our weaknesses, not ignoring them, and yet not letting them pull us into the doldrums, but handing the control over to Him, so that we let Him, not us, shine!

Could I learn to operate with the correct percentage there? I have learned and am learning.