Keep your kitchen clean

This morning I found lessons in comparing the importance of keeping a clean thought to keeping a clean kitchen.


I asked, “Why do good cooks keep a clean kitchen?” And answered, “Because they don’t want the food they prepare to be spoiled.”

It’s not safe to prepare food in a filthy kitchen. A conscientious baker doesn’t want to roll out dough on a grimy counter. She doesn’t want to mix batter in dirty bowls, and is not pleased about storing salads and ingredients in a mold harboring refrigerator. It’s not sanitary.

A good cook has the know-how to prepare fabulous meals, but if the environment she has to work in is laden with foreign elements and lurking spores, chances of a final product turning out pure and perfect is greatly diminished.

The human consciousness is like a kitchen environment.


An individual may have the know-how to do great works, but if there are spoilers in the mental environment in which he thinks, the chances of a notable outcome are diminished.


What are the spoilers? They are anger, resentment, ire, grumpiness, selfishness, lack of commitment, distraction, pride and their associates. These negatives kill the leaven, spoil the meat and sour the drink.


We need to keep a clean thought just like we need to keep a clean kitchen.


We can have the best of intentions, but if the mental environment we work in is filled with foreign agents working against out best efforts, the final outcome is in doubt and difficult to achieve.

Before embarking on a major project or prayer, it’s healthy to start with a good scrub-down of thought to clean up the mental premises in which you work. Foreign elements need to be purged, thoughts not coming from God eliminated, and all negative attitudes dumped into the garbage can of no return.

Keep a clean kitchen today—a clean mental environment! And the tasks you perform in that workspace will turn out the best you could hope for.

The Refiner's Fire

"He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver." Malachi

This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.

One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver.

As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: "He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver."

She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time.

The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, 'How do you know when the silver is fully refined?'

He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's easy--when I see my image in it."

Nothing to agitate

Here’s a quote I found at the bottom of a recent email sent to me…

"..it is not the agitation of the waters (but) the sediment at the bottom, which troubles and defiles those 'who sit in judgement'! Where no sediment is, no impurity will follow on their agitation."

~ R.C.Trench

Cool quote! Eliminate the impurities, and there will be nothing to agitate or get agitated.