Spiritual Mise En Place

I have been reading the book A Woman After God's Own Heart and I am so amazed at the things God is revealing to me in order to open my heart (and mind) and truly be devoted to Him. The first thing which struck me the most was in in the basics. This is how He showed me.

In cooking there are the basic things you need to create a meal. All those things, including ingredients, tools, and equipment are called "mise en place" which, in French, means "everything in place". You gather all your mise en place so that when you start cooking you will not be lacking in the essentials needed (with minimal stops!). For instance, if you are cooking a complicated sauce you don't have time to stop what you're doing to chop up a bunch of vegetables or run around and gather milk and eggs....you have to have everything within hands reach so you don't ruin what you're making. In this process of gather mise en place and making sure I have everything I need I realize it is the same with my relationship with Christ. The Lord has given us ALL we need in order to live our lives to fulfill all the wonderful plans He has for us. What are those things? Simply put in three words, prayer, reading, and listening. This is our spiritual mise en place. When we have all these things we will not be lacking when we are put in a place where we don't have time to reach for the Bible and look something up. When we have these things we fill our spiritual stomachs with the fulfilling bread of life, and we learn to listen when words just aren't there, and we learn that once we have gathered what we need it is our responsibility to share what we have and enlighten the people around us with the amazing truths of God.

It's kind of funny because we grow up and hear about praying, reading the Bible, etc., but it's truly a lifelong process of truly getting it down. But the next thing about spiritual mise en place I realized was that if I do NOT have those things in my life, I will never reach the full potential Jesus has for my life. How can you reach your full potential when you don't take advantage of all the blessings around you? You won't. If you read your Bible every day, spend time in prayer, and sit in quiet and listen for God's gentle voice you are quietly taking the steps of reaching for the FULL potential God has for you.

So let's grab your mise en place, let's get cooking!!!