Veggie Soup

It's been way too long since I've written and I'm bursting at the mental and emotional seams. I'm gonna dive right in...


This week in Origins, we studied in Colossians 3 about how God wants us to live in our families. Greg included the statement that the place where our faith should go to work is in our homes and families. I think for most people, the greatest source of joy and pain in life is the family and I'm no different. The ones we love the most have the power to hurt us the most but also have the ability to bring us the most happiness.

As we spent the week studying and discussing how wives and husbands, children and parents should relate to one another, I enjoyed reflecting on what God is teaching me through my husband and my children. My awesome husband is a chef, and does most of the cooking at home. However, this week he had a little surgery and as he recovered, I of course took over the food prep. I decided to make vegetable soup.

Veggie soup, you must know, is one of Mackenzie and Levi's favorite dishes. Mine too. Dwayne can put together a veggie soup that can make you feel on top of the world. He's gotten me through a few colds with that yummy stuff. It's a beefy, hearty, spicy soup that is SO hard to put down. He had frozen part of the last batch he made and so I grabbed it, thinking I could quickly turn it into a good dinner for all of us. There was only about half as much as we would need, so I started by throwing some onions in the bottom of the pot. Then I added some more veggies and a couple of cans of tomatoes. See, my Granny made a tomato based veggie soup that was absolutely amazing. As I've mimicked her recipe in the past, the kids have learned to adore it. I stood there stirring the half-Dwayne-half-Rebecca veggie soup and had to smile.

This is just like our family. We're blended. Some spicy, some hearty... a little straightforward southern and a little crazy cajun. I set the soup down in front of everybody and it disappeared in no time. His recipe and mine blended together to make the best soup yet. The combination of the two becoming much more than either of them could be on their own... something unique and wonderful.

There is no cook book with a recipe for that soup. I may never be able to duplicate it again. And that, too, is just like us. We're going full speed ahead. Our days are filled with learning how to love each other as a husband and wife, talking boys with a twelve-going-on-twenty year old girl, soothing the frustrations caused to a little boy by second grade math, trying to make enough breast milk for a six month old, and juggling the bills to try to pay for it all. Some days we drop in bed too exhausted to say goodnight. But in all our crazy running, all the crying and trying, laughing and working, we are becoming something delicious. Something one-of-a-kind and wonderful.

I love the soup that I'm in. I love the intensity in my husband's eyes, the laughter of my children, even the months on end without a full night's sleep. I love the crazy wonder of trying to live life following God, and the adventure of following Him together. Neither of us are sure what God is up to, but we know He's working in our lives. I love what He's making of our family, of our marriage, of me. It's not always easy, but I don't have to go far to experience God and what He's teaching me. It's right here at home, right here in my family, and following Him in life means trusting Him to create just the right recipe with me and the ones I love.