Kitchen Hygiene

While it was great for him to offer to assist me I was still keeping a close eye on him to make sure he put things away in their proper place.

Philippians 2:1-30

Reference:  v.2 …then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. (NIV Bible)

Explore:  A couple of months ago I came back from doing some grocery shopping and dumped all my shopping bags on the kitchen bench.  As I was sorting out the contents of each bag my husband came and offered to help me put the groceries away.   He picked up the bag with most of the refrigerated items and started putting them into the fridge.  While it was great for him to offer to assist me I was still keeping a close eye on him to make sure he put things away in their proper place.  As he got some fresh meat out of the bag I noticed his hand going towards the top shelf of the fridge.  “Can you put the meat on the bottom shelf please?”  I said quickly before the meat gets too comfortable on the top shelf.  “Why?” he asks.  Before I can even start my sentence on fridge hygiene my daughter pipes up.  “I even know that you should put meat on the bottom shelf!  It’s because if the meat drips it doesn’t contaminate the whole fridge.”  With that sound logic my husband obediently moves all the items from the bottom shelf and positions the meat there.  But while he was doing that I was just standing there startled by my daughter’s comment.  It’s amazing when children come up with some knowledge or observation that you never knew they held.  “How did you know about putting the meat on the bottom shelf?” I asked her.  I was expecting to hear about some ‘boring class’ that she had to sit through in Home Economics where they went through hygiene in the kitchen.  Or maybe she had been instructed to do the same thing when she was at someone else’s house.  “You told me,” she said as she walked out of the room.  Those three words stunned me.  I couldn’t believe it, I had taught her something!  It may only be about kitchen hygiene, but it was a start, right?!

Application:  It is no anthropolgical mystery that we have an affect on the people we surround ourselves with and that we too can start imitating other’s characteristics.  In the book of Philippians, Paul instructs the disciples to have the same attitude as Christ Jesus, that of humility.  As the Christmas story is still ringing fresh in our ears we can not miss the humility of Christ, that He was willing to leave the glories of heaven and walk amongst us.  In Revelation we hear of how the angels glorify God.  They are constantly proclaiming His goodness and holiness.  Jesus left a place of constant praise to come to earth to receive ridicule, rejection and death.  That is humility beyond my understanding.  But as I spend more and more time with God, worshipping Him and reading the Bible, I see His attitude start to rub off on me too.  I’m by no means perfect and I constantly fail, but the more we spend in God’s presence the more we will understand how we should live.

Prayer:  Lord, thank You for the example You have given me.  May I continue to learn more and more from You and be open to how I sh […]

Philippians