Generation Cooking

Tuesday evening I went to my Mom's house for some cooking lessons. Its not that I can't cook, but I need specific directions and recipes. Mom started helping Kendra learn to cook and gain more knowledge on different dishes to make. So now that school is over, Im joining the fun cooking class. Mom had all the ingredients ready and let us do the work. I had a blast. We made chicken casserole, green beans, rolls, and apple pies. Needless to say I was stuffed after we ate. Mom is copying all the recipes we use and I am putting it into a book to have. The experience reminded me of being with my grandmother Dolly when we would get to spend the night once a year and she would let us help make biscuits for breakfast. A lot of my memories of her are in the kitchen. She was a home ec teacher and loved to cook. She would get things from her garden and would always have us something for a snack when we came over to visit. I loved getting to go to the garden to pick the strawberries. I loved getting to go to her classroom and watch her direct her students into making the perfect zucchini bread or sewing aprons. Nanny passed away when I was 7 but I still remember those cooking moments. Being at moms the other night reminded me of generational gifts, talents, and things we pass down to the next generation. Now I may have gotten my love for teaching from my grandmother and not the skills in cooking or sewing, but I also was reminded that I have received patience and love for helping others like my nanny and mom.

There are positive and negative generational traits. Ive been doing a study and right now we are learning how generational sin is passed down and how for ourselves to be the ones who break the cycle. Fear has come up for me that I have somehow been passed down with. Not sure which side and where it stems from yet. I had to write down positives and negatives from both sides of my grandparents and parents. Hating confrontation is a big one. But Im still searching for others that somehow maybe I can be the one to break the cycle. Its these generational sins that we sometimes think as normal way of living because its been apart of life for generations. I hope this summer not only consumes me with fun memories and making new ones, but to start the cycle of breaking free.