Summary: <br> We all want something better in life for 2020, but do you understand the ingredients and process required for the life you desire?<br> I come from a long line of good cooks. My mama taught me the secrets of a a thick flaky piecrust and a coconut cream filling with 3 inch high meringue worthy of the blue ribbon. But it’s her homemade bread that is most legendary. No one makes yeast rolls like my mama. I know her recipe and I follow it exactly, yet my bread still doesn’t rise quite like hers. So over Christmas I sat down with my mama and I watched her. I watched her flour drenched hands mix and knead and create and I saw exactly what I had been missing. Our ingredients had been exactly the same, however there was one difference between how my mama makes bread and how I was making bread. She takes her time working with the dough … I rush through the process. I’m gentle with the tender dough trying not to disturb it, she’s aggressive and relentless in kneading and mixing and working.<br> And this is why mama’s bread rises twice as high as mine.<br> The kneading process. The part where it’s pushed down, torn apart, squeezed, mashed together, and worked. This is what creates the rise.<br> Could we be much the same? We only rise after the hard parts? In fact, we only rise as a result of the hard times.<br> We all want to rise up to that next level of living and leave behind past troubles and hardships. We all want to excel forward and skip over the struggle. We’re seeking what can make it easier and get us there faster, when in fact it was never the ease and never the speed that helped us achieve anything. It was the kneading. It was the working.<br> To make homemade bread you need yeast. Yeast comes in a tiny little foil package with an expiration date printed on it. That yeast holds the potential of delicious bread, but it will never become anything if not used.<br> Within you is the same potential. Potential wrapped up in a tiny package that seems unimpressive. And yes, your potential has an expiration date on it. If not used in a timely manner, it loses it’s power. I’ve thrown away yeast I didn’t use in time … I’ve also thrown away potential I didn’t use in time. How about you?<br> Girl, what are you waiting on? If your creator gave you potential, why aren’t you ripping into it? Don’t save this up. Use what you have been given! Every ounce of potential was given to you for the purpose of USING IT, not storing it. You are not a storage container put here on earth to just house holy potential. You are a living, breathing soul sent here to live your life, make your impact and rise up in your potential.<br> But potential must be kneaded. It must be worked. It never just happens on it’s own.<br> Without giving away the family secret to our world class homemade bread, let me tell you about the ingredients added to the potential of yeast. Eggs … they’re broken. Water … it’s hot. Flour … it’s crushed.<br> You want a BIG, beautiful life? It comes with an expiration date and it’s made of what was broken, it’s made of trouble, and it’s made of what was crushed, then it’s all worked together. Not just mixed together, worked together. Worked and worked and worked.<br> Could there be a purpose in the broken things in your life? YES! Absolutely. What has been broken will not be wasted now. God is ready to use that to create something bigger and better than you ever imagined. If the egg is never broken, it’s never used.<br> Honey, if you’re never broken, you can never be used. You weren’t put here on earth to just sit there and look pretty. No, there’s a purpose for you and that purpose is revealed in the breaking. Embrace it and see what’s inside of you!<br> Where are the broken things in your life … this is what...
