Preparation

This morning I was awakened bright and early. This gave me a chance to spend plenty of time in prayer as well as time to get a nice long walk in. I came back home, showered, got dressed and was so excited I was walking out the door at a really good time. Before I could close the door behind me, it dawned on me I hadn’t eaten anything. So, I went ahead and put my things in my car and went back in to get me something to eat.

When I opened the refrigerator, there staring at me was a tub of Greek yogurt. “Perfect!” I thought to myself. I can get a couple scoops of that and top it with some fresh blueberries and get back out the door. As I was about to pull everything out, the thought hit me, “I’m probably going to need something with a little more substance than this.” Then I was reminded I had just bought a huge container of oatmeal a couple days before. “Yes! I’ll make me some oatmeal.”

As I pulled out what I needed to make the oatmeal, I was reminded that I bought the biggest container they had because I said I was going to start eating oatmeal everyday for breakfast. Well, if I’m going to eat it everyday, it doesn’t make sense to only make one serving. Right? So, I made a pot full. After it was done, I scooped out some for me to eat right away and I put the rest in a big bowl with a lid. Once I put it in the refrigerator, I said to myself, “You know, I could get out the door much faster each morning if I could just grab something and go.” That’s when I remembered I had saved all these little containers with screw-on lids that would be the perfect grab-and-go size. So I got all the containers out, pulled the remaining oatmeal out the refrigerator and distributed the oatmeal into the individual containers. After all the oatmeal was divided up, I still had containers left over. So, I decided to make as many yogurt and blueberry parfaits as I could until the yogurt ran out. Thinking I needed to get some protein in, I decided on scrambled eggs. And yes, you guessed it. All the extra eggs went into containers as well.

After I finished everything, I put all the individual containers in the refrigerator, stood back, and smiled. Although I was now leaving the house an hour later than I had originally attempted to, I couldn’t help but to think about all the time I was going to save every morning for the next several days. Not only was I going to save a lot of time, but I was going to be able to avoid the temptation to grab a pastry or something else with no nutritional value as I was attempting to get out the door each day. Now that I’m thinking about it, it’s also going to save me money. Rather than making the mad dash out the door without eating and stopping to get something quick on the way to my destination, I can save that money and use it to prep next week’s meals. The cherry on top is that by saving time, calories and money, it will also result in less stress getting out the door in the mornings and less worry about my hips!

While it’s easy for us to see the benefit of us preparing our food in advance, we have a tendency to not want God to take the time to prepare our character in advance. When we walk through seasons of preparation, our character is developed to sustain us as we walk out our calling. Even though these seasons of preparation may feel like they’re taking an extremely long time, they will ultimately save us a lot of time in the end. When our character is developed, we’re less likely to yield to the temptations the enemy throws our way that would get us off track. We pray and ask God for favor, increase and abundance, yet we don’t have the character to sustain the provision He’s already made available to us. When life throws you a curve ball and you find yourself in the midst of what could be extremely stressful circumstances, your character will play a huge role in how you choose to navigate those situations.

How many times have you prayed for God to use you? Well, the very definition of preparation is the process making something ready for use. We want to be used, but we don’t want to be prepped. When our due season comes, we don’t want to find ourselves unready, unable or ill-equipped. When God says, “Let’s go,” we don’t want to have to go back in the house to find something to sustain us for the journey. Embrace your season of preparation so that when morning comes, you’ll be ready to go.

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