Keeping it in the Family!

I really have been led down memory lane today.  I got an email from my long lost cousin.  We were talking about my fascination with food and the daily devotions that I find in it.  His response was so evocative that I had to give it to you just the way he said it:

"That is neat that you have an interest in Grandma's cooking because I do, as well. I spent a lot of time with her during the many summers. You know we lived there next to her for a couple of years. The local school was my first school. I remember climbing up and sitting on her kitchen counter and just watching her cook. I use to climb the fig trees for her and pick the ones at the top. I was so little that I would not break the branches. These were the days she taught me to tie on a piece of thread to the leg of June bug and fly it around like a remote control bug. Ha! She taught me how to stir the figs when we were cooking them so that they would not get broken up during the process. She taught me how to check the syrup dripping from the spoon. This was how she knew the figs were ready for canning. I sat with her many times in the old swing underneath the pecan tree and she would tell me stories of how they used to make lye soap, hominy from corn and many other things. I use to help her and her sister GreatAunt Bill who live next to us hang rabbits on the clothes line with old shoe strings and prepare them for slaughter. I have many old stories.

   You know I have a unique perspective on Grandma because I lived next to her sister Great Aunt Bill, her brother Great Uncle Ollie and her other sister Great Aunt Olar. I use to sit with them, as wel,l and learn stuff and hear stories. I am a good cook and still cook my dumplings like she did - except I don't have the rolling pin that she used to use. I think it was and old Goose neck Elixar bottle. She would hold the bottle neck and rolled the bottle with the other hand. She taught me how to make up buttermilk pancakes in a quart jar. She said Grandpa like his pancakes small about the size of a large mouth Quart jar - which is neat because that's how my dad liked them. And who could forget her moist pound cake where the lemon would rise to the top and make that little lemon trench along the top of the cake?" 

Food is passed down through the generations.  Not just the food but everything else, as well. We take what we know and teach it to the next generation.  We take the good that we have learned and pass that along to our children, and sometimes we talk about the bad things that we've seen as well.  I have learned as much from the good in my life as I have from the bad.  A lesson is a lesson.  In Deuteronomy 4:9 God is commanding His people to walk in obedience and to remember how He has gone before them.  He says, "Be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live.  Teach them to your children and to their children after them."  There is great value is training up each successive generation. If done properly, those who come after us will be wiser, stronger and accomplish greater things that even we did.

I am doing everything that I can to train our children in the Word of God.  I am teaching them how to hear His voice.  I am leading them in paths paved with good decisions.  From time to time, we make mistakes, but even then, they witness our repentance and hear our apologies.  This is how it should be...from one generation to the next.

I loved everything my Grandmother cooked.  But that's not to say that I haven't added my own twist to an item or two.  Doubtless my children will take their cues from me...and add even to what I've changed.  The flavors will probably evolve a bit from generation to generation, but the foundational ingredients will remain.  Techniques will most likely stay close to home.  After all, the fig doesn't fall far from the tree.