I’ve loved baking ever since I was little.
By the time I was in the 5th grade, I perfected an oatmeal raisin cookie recipe. They just so happened to be one of my dad’s favorite cookies. So I would bake him oatmeal raisin cookies all the time, just because I could.
My love for baking continued to develop over the years. I am [almost] always trying out new recipes–unless I have my tried and true ones (banana bread, cobbler, sourdough bread, etc.).
But I don’t just love to bake because I love having all the goods from the work. I love everything that baking encompasses.
Baking as been a stress-reliever for me for a long time now. When I am overly stressed out, I’ll calm down after an hour or so of baking a batch of cookies or whipping up a loaf of banana bread. There’s something about finding all the ingredients, mixing them together, and then having the wonderful aroma of whatever is in the oven wafting through the house. When I was in school, I would go into high baking mode around finals. Sometimes I would skip studying and I would bake instead.
Baking is also a way I can bless people around me. I love having baked goods to give out to friends and family for no reason other than to just bless them.
The past couple of weeks, I’ve been doing a lot of baking. Some of my desire to bake had to do with my stress levels. They’ve for sure been elevated the past month–with Launch getting closer and closer. But I’ve also had different reasons to be baking–we would need bread for dinner, or my mom would bring home some zucchinis and we needed to do something with them, or we were going to have a party and we needed dessert. So I was definitely getting my stress out, but I was also able to bless someone. I guess I’ve also been thinking about how I won’t have much access to baking over the next year of my life. And so I’m trying to squeeze as much in as I can.
I leave on Friday for Atlanta for Launch.
It’s really hard to believe that it’s finally time.
Honestly all last week I was freaking out. My heart was thumping loudly.
Baking would calm me down a little. But I would still have freak out moments.
My times with the Lord were sweet. And I would ask for His peace…but it never really came.
Until Saturday night.
I was at worship with my church body. At the end of the service, my pastor called me up to the front. The Body was going to pray over me and send me out to the nations.
So the Body surrounded me, prayed over me, and the Lord’s peace descended on my soul in those moments.
What I had been longing for all last week came when the Body lifted me up to the Father. What a blessing this Body has been in my life over the past year.
So as I say my last “See you laters” to different people, my heart is filled with all kinds of emotions.
I’m excited to see what God will do in their lives over the next year. I’m excited to come back home to be able to share with them what I’ve seen and heard.
But it’s also so hard for me to leave people my soul loves so dearly.
I’m thankful that the leaving is hard, though. It means that the Lord has knit my heart with others, that He has grown my love for them.
I’m definitely going to miss so many. But I’m excited for the many I will get to love well over this upcoming year of my life.
It’s gonna be good, y’all.
