by Beverly Hutchinson McNeff

It will soon be Thanksgiving Day in the United States. This is a day of gratitude and thanks, and usually much food! Now, while you may or may not be preparing food, many of you will enjoy food in some shape or form. This got me thinking about my favorite spiritual metaphor: a crock-pot!

I love cooking with a crock-pot – they are simply amazing! You can cook a delicious, complete meal all in one pot as long as you plan for the time. The key is slow cooking. And I mean slow. I remember finding a crock-pot recipe for scalloped potatoes (which usually takes about 45 minutes in the oven), but this recipe called for ten hours! I needed the space in my oven to cook something else, so I decided to give it a try. It was terrific! Tender potatoes and a crispy top, which I thought could only be achieved in an oven. Truly a crock-pot is a miraculous invention!

For a crock-pot to work, however, you have to be patient. You have to plan ahead the meal or dish you want to make and then trust that the crock-pot has it handled as you turn the heat setting to low and the timer to ten hours.

A crock-pot is a good metaphor for our spiritual growth. We are each of us crock-pots cooking. There are times we feel the peace of God shining in us now, and we seem to be like a crock-pot cooking on high. At other times, we might feel we are barely registering “heat” as we struggle to remember our workbook lesson. Or, as the day draws to a close, we feel as if we remembered nothing from the Course to bless our day. The fact is, we are always “cooking.” The Course reminds us, “You can wait, delay, paralyze yourself, or reduce your creativity almost to nothing. But you cannot abolish it.” (T-1.V.1)

We are holy children of God! This truth can never be extinguished. Perhaps it’s time to add that little ingredient to your thinking whenever you feel the day is a loss: I am a holy child of God. Adding this thought will help you. But, whether you remember it or not, you cannot stop the power and presence of God. “The Holy Spirit is not delayed in His teaching by your mistakes.” (Lesson 95) He is always there, whether you are aware of it or not. Becoming aware of this truth just makes life go a little more peacefully for you; it cannot add to or diminish God. God IS, and that is all there is to it!

So, the next time you forget your lesson, seem to make a disaster of your day, or feel like a spiritual failure, remember you are a mighty and able spiritual crock-pot cooking. And, when “you forget, try again. If there are long interruptions, try again. Whenever you remember, try again.” (Lesson 40)

Yummmmm, I think something wonderful is cooking! Happy day of gratitude!

“I am one Self, united with my Creator,
at one with every aspect of creation,
and limitless in power and in peace.” (Lesson 95)

Get this quote on a table tent

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