27 Oct 2021 recipe for a sweet life

Posted at 2:23 PMh in Faith by

By Laurie Green

When I was younger, I remember hearing older folks speak of a time in life called The Golden Years. At 16, I was pretty certain this was the time in life you reached that ripe old age of 30 (lol) and you spent your days sitting in your rocking chair reminiscing. Now that I’m 49, I can tell you two things for certain. One, 30 is not old, and two, I don’t know exactly what season of life you reach those so-called Golden Years, but I can tell you I’m totally saturated in the joys of the sweet side of life right now!

Photos by Mike Kemp

I’ve often joked about how having two sets of twins was quite a daunting experience, and many memories have been safely filed away in the back of my brain in a file labeled “Do Not Open.” There were many tears shed, and I dare say only God knows who cried more, me or the twins. It truly was a hard season of life, and many of the blessings of that time were so wrapped-up in stress and chaos that I missed savoring that season of the sweet life. The truth of the matter is that every single day we wake up with breath in our lungs is a sweet gift from God. 

Have you ever watched all the different cooking shows on Food Network? From the world’s worst cooks to the best of the best bakers, I can totally relate this to the different seasons in my life. You see, when I began my family, I was definitely a novice. Becoming a wife and a mother, I felt like one of those new cooks who was just handed a surprise box full of life ingredients and I needed to make something special. Trust me when I say it took a lot of trial and error and often, looking back, things didn’t turn out at all like I had pictured, often because I was trying to do it without any instructions, but then came God!

Finding my relationship with Jesus was like being given the world’s best cookbook, the Bible. It was full of everything I needed to sort out all the different ingredients that life tossed my way. The more I applied things like hope, love, grace, and forgiveness, the better things turned out. And while I realize that my children may have had to grow up watching me make plenty of mistakes, it has finally taken a full circle and placed me in that sweet side of life I mentioned above — grandchildren!

I don’t think there is anything sweeter (on this side of life) than holding a baby from one of your children. Will and I have been blessed with six of the most beautiful and amazing grandchildren and No. 7 is on the way! I honestly believe God gives us these grandchildren as a second chance to get things right. I get tears in my eyes thinking about our grands and I savor every single moment we have with each of them. This is definitely one of the sweeter times in life for me.

I can only hope that as long as God allows, every moment spent in this season will be a legacy and a testimony to our children and our children’s children. I pray that when they look back on our life together, they will see me as not that novice “cook,” but as a wonderful baker who made life sweet!

Laurie Green
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