June 11: Housewives and Cooking

Back in my senior year in high school, I had to take a career aptitude test, and actually, I was pretty excited about it. I knew I was going to college, but I had no idea what I wanted to study. I thought this would really help me find some direction with my life.

The day the results came back, I tore open the envelope and read my results: housewife - 98% match.

And the next closest match was 70% and that was to a nursing profession. Let me just tell you all right now, I'm not great with blood or trauma.

Back to my near perfect match. I could hardly believe it. I had paid the deposit on college and I was going, yet this test to determine my strengths wanted me to stay home. I remember thinking that it was a horrible thing to tell a college bound, liberal girl that she should stay home and raise babies forever.

Fast-forward to 2002: I was a full time stay at home mom. I loved it, I was better at it than any other job I had tried and I was completely fulfilled by it.

Sometimes, the tests tell us what we aren't ready to hear.

Through the wonder that is Facebook, I have recently reconnected with a friend from high school, Brian. I saw on his profile that he was passionate about developing the concept of ministry through food.

I had never really considered that the two were related. When I asked him to elaborate, Brian said,"I am simply trying to take the methods of Jesus (to feed the hungry) and take those things to those that are the most in need (hungry). We take this life lesson, and try to apply it literally."

But it wasn't something Brian discovered about himself right away. He had worked in the culinary world for several years before connecting his passion of food with his strength in hospitality ministry.

In his own words: "It wasn't until I started seeing people being uplifted by a warm plate and the hospitality that exists around a table that I started to put the two together."

Here is a case of the groundwork being there, but the pieces haven't quite fit together. Brian recalls being interested in both food and ministry back in junior high, but it took several journeys and a lot of time before the two came together in Brian's life.

Sometimes, life experiences lead us to our gifts.

There is no right or wrong way to find your gifts. What matters most, is discovering what they are and then using them for God's glory.

Have you found yours?