Preserving Our Heritage

Baking is one of my passions in life. My family is well aware of this fact, and presented me with a KitchenAid mixer last Christmas. With this gift came a free subscription to a publication that is full of delicious new recipes to try. One article caught my eye. The author was talking about the passion he had for “starter.”

Centuries ago, someone discovered that yeast is alive and can be cultivated when mixed with flour, sugar, and water, stirred on a daily basis, to make what we now call sourdough bread. This “starter” can last for years if continuously fed, stirred, properly handled, and kept in an environment that is not too hot or too cold so as not to kill the yeast. In fact, the author had just received a gift of starter that was 125 years old. Imagine the nurturing and care that “starter” had received for over a century!

While reading this article, the thoughts came across my mind of how this is parallel to passing down our heritage of the truth of God’s word and the truth of who He is to the generations to follow. We must daily feed our children with the facts of who God is, how He has been our provider, our Savior, everything we need. We must stir up the gifts that God has put within us so that our children will see the working of the Spirit in motion in our lives so that they will desire the same thing for themselves. We must keep our children in an environment that is healthy to their Christian development, as they grow older.

So the next time you decide to mix up some ingredients to bake some wonderful treat for your family, take the time to talk with your children about the things God has done for them. Stir up some of the gifts God has placed in your children so they will be able to continue to preserve the “starter” that you have given them and watch what God will continue in the generations to come.

– Jeanette Davis