Missing Ingredient?

Have you ever cooked something and after tasting it thought you had left something out? This happened to me this weekend at She Speaks, a conference that encourages and equips women in ministry. At the conference, I was given the opportunity to participate in a speaker evaluation group. Each person in the group presented a 3 minute testimony and a 5 minute teaching session. Before the conference, I searched the scripture and was confident I heard from the Lord on what He wanted me to share.

After I shared, I knew the word had been presented well. But, the more I reflected on the response, or more applicably, how it tasted, I knew something was missing. It wasn’t obvious to me at first. It seemed like I had included everything that was vital to the recipe for preparing and sharing truth from God’s word.

Not sure of exactly what was left out, I needed an expert. One who knew exactly how it should look and taste—I needed a master chef. Reading through the gospels, I looked at the teaching of Jesus. He always taught with His audience and surroundings in mind. He discerned the need and spoke truth relevant to the needs of the audience. In Luke 19:11, I found an example of this. “Jesus went on to tell a parable, because Jesus was near Jerusalem, and they supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately.” Jesus taught in parables—stories that compared the spiritual to the physical. He embodied the ability to look at his surroundings and identify the need. Confronted with Jesus’ teaching style, I realized this was one of the missing ingredients in my own teaching. I had prepared to share truth, without considering the needs of the women to whom I would be speaking. Grant it, I didn’t have much time to gain insight on this, but I needed to depend on the Spirit to change the style, tone and even the message if necessary.

Awed by the skills of the master chef, I wondered how a sous chef taught truth relevantly. A sous chef is one who is under the master chef. Turning to the letters of Paul, the missing ingredient in my teaching became evident. In 1 Corinthians 2:1-4, I discovered Paul teaching to the early church of believers at Corinth. Corinth was a diverse, yet refined Greek city. Unfortunately, the identity for which Corinth was most known was its wickedness. Paul certainly could have thought he had to come strong and refined in his speech to the Corinthians. Instead, he came not with “superiority of speech or of wisdom,” but he came to them “in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.” Paul’s greatest desire was to demonstrate the Spirit of God and His power. His humble and vulnerable approach in preaching was to point them to God’s power and not his own.

Vulnerability—that was the missing ingredient! Power and strength come naturally to me—vulnerability does not. Although there are many reasons why I should be vulnerable, I overly compensate with power and strength. Through the teaching of Jesus and Paul, I learned vulnerability was essential for teaching the word of God. For one who enjoys baking, I know you can have all the vital ingredients and leave out something as simple as baking powder, and lose the volume and texture of the cake. Baking powder is a leavening agent used to increase the volume and lighten the texture of baked goods. I recognized being vulnerable to change the style and message to the need of the audience would increase the height of the message. Vulnerability is able to rise to areas in which words cannot. It can reach in and touch the heart. By demonstrating God’s Spirit and power, not my own, I could lighten the load for the hearer. Being vulnerable would help them to know that freedom and obedience to God comes through His Spirit and power, not our own. Although the vital ingredients were included, I learned the power of vulnerability to reach areas of the heart and grant freedom, were not optional, but crucial.

What’s the missing ingredient in your life? Maybe you’ve realized there’s something missing in your relationship with your husband, children or friends. Maybe your responses to your responsibilities and circumstances have not tasted as well as you would like. Could the missing ingredient be love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, or self-control? (Galatians 5:22-23)  I encourage you to take some time with the master chef and through his word, the Bible, allow Him to taste your life. He will gently and lovingly show you what’s missing.

It would be such an encouragement to hear from you. What’s been the missing ingredient in your life? Please share your missing ingredient in the comment section of the blog.

If you would like me to pray for you, but would not like it to be public, please email me at tfletcher@suddenlink.net.

If you have had trouble following my blog in the past I recently changed the settings to make it easier. I would love to have you follow the blog. I pray it is an encouragement to you as you seek for the Lord to mold your heart to look more like His.

Seeing God Smiles

Recently, I was reading a text message from a friend and noticed a symbol at the end of her text message. I had seen the symbol many times before on facebook, twitter and on text messages, but had just guessed at what it meant. Sometimes I interpreted it as something Forest Gump would say, such as, "that's all I have to say about that." Other times, I simply didn’t know. I continued to interpret facebook, twitter and text messaging symbols and abbreviations the way I wanted to. There are several reasons why I had continued to interpret them my way. 1) It wasn’t that important to me to know what they meant. 2) I didn’t want to take the time to research what they meant. I was a little lazy in regards to this issue. 3) I had been a little embarrassed about asking someone what they meant. There was one more reason I had continued to interpret the symbols the way I wanted, and this is the one that really exposed my heart, I liked interpreting the symbols in a way that was comfortable to me. I didn’t want to know if someone was giving me a symbol or abbreviation I didn’t like.

This time was different. I couldn’t risk not knowing what the symbol meant. My friend and I had been texting about important issues and I needed to know what she meant by the symbol. I knew she would most likely think I was a bit incompetent in the social media world for not knowing such well-used symbols, but I had to humble myself and ask her what that meant.

I was happily astonished when she replied, “that’s a side-ways smiley face!”  : )



Really…a smiley face. I turned my phone and saw the sweet little smiley face, smiling directly at me. It warmed my heart!

Then I realized…I had missed all the smiley faces!

There was immediate spiritual application for me in this new found smiley face. How often do I miss God smiling at me in His word? Sometimes, I fail to read and study His word because it’s really not that important to me. Other things seem to win my time and take priority over the study of God’s word. At other times, I’m just too lazy to study God’s word. I believe lies, such as, “I’m too tired or can’t think well enough right now to study God’s word.” Instead I watch television or spend time studying other people’s lives through social media. And there are times when I simply don’t want to humble myself and acknowledge that I need to know God and His word in order to respond to the messages I daily receive in the world. As a result, I find myself responding to the world’s messages, my way, and not God’s. And the worst reason, I would rather interpret God in a way that is comfortable to me and not in a way that exalts Him.

The biggest disappointment I recognized through the smiley face was that when I don’t spend time rightly interpreting and responding to God’s word…I miss Him smiling at me. I miss Him speaking His love, grace and hope into my life. I miss the smiles that come when I respond to Him and not to myself, my circumstances and the world.

I also realized that without knowing what a smiley face was I was unable to share smiley faces with others. Can I just tell you how much the smiley faces have revolutionized my social media life! I absolutely love giving a smiley face! How many people need to see God smiles in their lives? Sharing God smiles will completely revolutionize your life!

It’s His smiles that bring immense satisfaction and delight to my life. And, He, God, takes great pleasure in me, seeing Him smile, and in me sharing His smiles with others!

"And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards : ) those who seek him." Hebrews 11:6 (ESV) 

Would you like to see God smile? Would you like for God to receive great pleasure from you seeing Him smile into your life? Would you like to share God smiles with others who need a smile? What are a few ways that you will commit to seeing and sharing God smiles in your life? I would love to hear from you.

Sweet Smiles : )
Tammy