Oh Jesus captured my attention one morning. I read an email from I Hear His Whisper and, whew, every time it’s right on time. One phrase exploded in my mind, like when you double-click on a link and images instantly open on your screen.
Line your heart with gratitude.
The authors went on to explain how gratitude and praise in each moment softens our heart and helps us see even more things to be grateful for. Please go read their words. It’s beautiful.
But I’m sitting on this phrase, line your heart with gratitude…
I don’t know how many of you cook, but lining a pan takes some skillzzz. You take wax or parchment paper and cut it to the size of your pan.Then you place it in the pan and place uncooked food on top of it. Into the oven it goes.
Sounds easy until you have to match flat paper to a shaped pan. Think bundt pan. Yeah. Not so easy. Thankfully, my mom showed me how to cut out a rough circle by folding a piece of paper in half and then into a cone so it will fit a pie or cake pan.
It works well enough. But to be frank, I have an upcoming baking project and I cheated. I bought perfectly sized liners for the specialty pan. I need all the help I can get to make this tall cake.
But… Back to Holy Spirit.
WHY do we need liners in the first place?
So the food doesn’t stick to the pan. Cakes, candies, and vegges need the heat of the oven to transform them into edible wonders. However, lots of things can happen in the heat.
Have you ever tried to get a beautiful cake out of a pan? You flip it over and …nothing happens. Or worse! Half of it flops out! That cake didn’t make it out of the heat well.
Veggies sweat and stick to the pan making it nearly impossible to eat and even harder to clean up. Butter and sugar when heated becomes sugar-y concrete.
The pan was needed to cook in the oven for a specified time.
The liners protect the food from get stuck in the pan.
Stay with me.
You and I are headed over and over for the oven. It is the heat of life that transforms us and reveals the mature, finished, delicious us. The various trials, aka pans in hot ovens, produce lots of expressions of God’s wondrous goodness.
And the liner? The liner is our praise. It seems small. Even insignificant. And yet praise protects my heart. It keeps me from sticking. From getting burnt. From getting stuck in the pan instead of out on a serving platter.
Liners create a moisture barrier between food and pan. Praise and gratitude does the same. Keeps us tender, keeps our hearts soft.
Listen, I know it’s a crazy picture. But when it says, Line your heart with gratitude —it’s not a cute little ditty. It is a well-worn, time-tested, kitchen-approved reality. It really works.
“His praise will always be on my lips” Psalm 34:1