Wednesday, February 1, 2012

self control: a little bit goes a long way

I lost my pizza dough.

I made a dough recipe that could be refrigerated overnight and then made into pizza the following day, but when I went to make dinner the dough wasn’t in the fridge.  I felt ridiculous looking everywhere for it.  I know where to look for car keys or my purse or my glasses –but misplaced dough?

I finally found it in the cupboard.  I was so efficient that I had put the bowl away the night before - right where it belonged.

It’s rather shocking how large a yeast dough can become when left to rise for 24 hours.

Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.” (Matthew 13:33) 

When my grandma would read us the Bible at the breakfast table, she would often take dramatic license just to see if we were really paying attention.  I imagine her rendition of Jesus’ parable would sound like this:  “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a very blonde woman mixed into a large amount of flour and then accidentally put in the cupboard overnight, and the pizza dough grew, and grew, and grew until the lid popped off the bowl!”

Our seemingly small lives are meant to have an effect on a large amount of the world around us.  That’s our motivation for gaining self control –because an increasing measure of control allows us to be a living, effective, productive yeast, and the influence of our lives rises to an astonishing, left-in-the-cupboard-overnight big.



MY FAVORITE PIZZA:
on homemade pizza dough NOT left to rise overnight:

1 tbsp. olive oil
a thin layer of freshly grated parmesan
steamed broccoli -cut up real small
cooked chicken -cut up
pepper
dollops of ricotta cheese
thinly sliced tomato
heaping mounds of mozzarella

after pizza is cooked -thin sliced, fresh basil

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