Dear friend,
Each morning, before I begin my daily work efforts, I meet with the Lord in prayer. I pray out loud to Him as I curl my hair, I pray with head bowed, I speak with Him intimately. Randomly. Imperfectly. I ask Him to bless the work of my hands, I ask Him to bless those who find themselves reading, watching, and creating from my humble offerings, I ask Him to help me work true, to grow and expand into what He would have me be. Thy will be done.
And I mean it.
I give the Lord thanks when I see the unsubscribes, when a guest books a room for our getaway, when a new member joins The Cooking Community, and when members leave. I give thanks for the daily bread that keeps a roof over our heads, food on our table, shoes on our feet, and the lights on. I give thanks for each newsletter subscriber, each blog visit, each book purchase, each message. I am a shop owner and this is my shop. Each customer who walks in our door is a blessing.
There is always much to give thanks for! And if you’re here, in whatever capacity, you should know that you have been prayed for.
I recently shared a few lamentations over on Instagram and the discouragement that tempts me daily as I log in to work. Perhaps you’ve experienced something similar, in your own particular way. Some days, it’s easier than others to keep your chin up. It seems as if the world may not continue to hold a place for human-paced content, content that in reality takes hours of heartfelt devotion to produce. In today’s online world, an AI bot could mimic the blog that it’s taken me almost two decades to populate with real stories, real photographs, and the real, harsh growing pains of life. It would probably take it half a day.
But I’m not afraid. Because the Lord holds this in His hands.
That makes it much easier to swallow the red arrows that greet me on the daily or the uncertainty of a full-time creative in a highly technical world. While many of my peers (smartly?) study business plans and marketing strategies, I (passionately?) study varieties of storage garlic and ancient Etruscan soup recipes. If my work is successful, it is purely from the love and devotion I have for my home, my kitchen, my land, and a God who leads me onward.
I’m putting one foot in front of the other. Lord, what do you have for me today?
{Secret: it seems as if the Lord has put the long, arduous, chaotically wonderful task of writing a new book in our future. More on that to come.}
Regardless, each footstep I take is secure. The future of our home and our family is held in the hands of a God who spoke the heavens and earth into existence.
Suffice it to say — I’m not afraid.
Uncertain times, whatever they may be, do not need to give us uncertain hearts.
So what are we to do, dear one? We are to cook. To clean, to nurture, and to delight. We are to bake breads and fill bowls with pasta. We are to dance, to work, to wash laundry, to delight in the good gifts that we have before us. We are to tend to our homes with joy and to do whatever work the Lord has put before us that day. Today, that work was my writing you this letter. I hope it meets you well, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, whatever your need.
In each season of our lives, I can trace the Lord’s handiwork in a thousand small ways, woven intricately and beautifully through the fabric of our efforts. He brought us here, to this day, and to this moment. Many of you blog readers can bear witness to this. My work, imperfect as it may be, is saturated in God’s sovereignty.
… such as when Stuart and I were invited to Tuscany, as a gift from our friend Carla. There was no way we could afford such a trip at the time and she planted seeds in my heart that are now beginning to bear much fruit. She passed away five years ago. I wish she were here to see how much that opportunity impacts us still.
… or the job I had at an insurance company that I absolutely hated, but it was a job that came with a fantastic co-worker who introduced me to MaryJane Butters’s magazine. This publication spoke to my homemaking and homesteading heart in a way that I could never have anticipated. I started my blog. I got into the kitchen. I came alive. And y’all know the rest of that story.
… or when we got an invitation from an unknown online acquaintance who volunteered to take us to Sicily. She put the whole trip together, purely out of love and devotion. Once again, I found myself in Italy, almost in spite of myself. Dolores Alfieri Taranto felt led to show us and we felt led to follow. (Side note: I scored a dear, dear friend out of the trip!)
These are big ones. But there are a thousand small ones too. Connections to publishers, failed pilots on Food Network, recipes, business protections. I can truly, and joyfully, proclaim that when God has said “No” to one of my many desires, He has said “Yes” to something far greater than I could have originally planned.
That’s why we can rejoice when we can only see defeat.
That’s how we can walk into an unknown world with confidence.
That’s how we can labor day in, day out, trusting the efforts will produce exactly what they need to.
This is harder to see when you’re younger, but even at the age of 40 (still young, right?), I know to celebrate whatever it is that my day brings. Because God cares about our days, He cares about our tomorrows, and “this, too, is from the Lord.”
I love ya. And it’s going to be okay.
Love,
Shaye
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