Tuesdays with Sarah… Biscuits and Jesus

I had my first date with my husband in April 1997.  We had dinner at Fuddrucker’s in Hoover and then played putt-putt at Galleria Fun Country.  Both of those establishments no longer exist and it makes me so sad.☹  Anyways, back to the story…  After that first date, we both pretty much knew that this could be the one.

I’m pretty positive we spent every weekend together after that.  I was still in school at Judson College at the time.  I would get home from Marion, spend either Friday and/or Saturday night out with Scotty boy, and then of course we went to church together before I made the long trek back.

A month in, and he asked me to go to his hometown of Gleason, TN, to meet his parents.  His little sister, Tori, was graduating high school, and he wanted me to go with him.  My parents said yes, and so we went.  It was a wonderful weekend.  We told everyone we were just friends…  but everyone could tell it was more lol.

Young and in love – Scott and I during the dating years – He was so tan and I was not lol

Hard to believe that was almost 24 years ago.  Time goes by so fast, yet so slow, if that makes any sense.  It feels like it was just yesterday that I was meeting all his family, and at the same time, it seems like so long ago.

One thing that Scott’s mom did that weekend was make homemade biscuits.  It was her grandmother’s recipe, handed down to her mom, and then handed down to her.  They were really good, made on a cast iron round griddle.  I had never had biscuits like that before.  We just had Pillsbury biscuits out of a can at my house!  My mom was a good cook, but she never made homemade biscuits!

I thought that maybe she just made these because it was a special occasion.  Her daughter’s graduation, or maybe because they had me as a guest.  But I can honestly say that I think out of ALL the trips I’ve made to their house over the last 24 years, she has made biscuits like 99% of the time.  It’s just what she does.

Me, my mother-in-law Rocky, and my sister-in-law Tori

I had once shown interest in how Rocky (my mother in law) made her biscuits.  She showed me and walked me through the process several times while I was there for holidays or just random visits.  She even gave me the tools to make them myself.  She gave me a cast iron round griddle and my own Vienna sausage can with a slit cut in the top to be my biscuit cutter!  Just like hers.

After Scott and I were married about 8 years, he took a youth pastor position in Union City, TN.  This is about 30 miles or so from his parents home.  It was in Union City where I finally worked up the nerve to make biscuits all by myself.  What happened?  They flopped.  They were not good.  They did not rise.  I was so down about it.

I tried again another day.  Flop again.  I went over and over again what I did.  I followed all her steps.  I was so confused as to why mine didn’t work when I did it just like she did!

Since we lived so close, I decided to ask her to come over and watch me do it.  I thought she might could help me figure out what I was doing wrong.

Me and Rocky at a scrapbooking event 🙂

I added my flour, cut in my shortening, and added my milk.  I mixed it all up until it stuck together.  Then I put the dough out on some flour and started to move it all around.  I rolled it, kneaded it, smished it (technical term lol), and then made it flat to then cut out the biscuits.  Rocky then said, “I think that’s it.  That’s the problem.  You are working the dough too much.”  I was like, “Wow, okay.  Didn’t even know you could do that.”  So we started again, and I handled the dough the way she told me to.  

What happened?  Biscuit success!!  I just needed a little more help.  A little more instruction.  A little more direction.  From someone who had done it before.  Who had experience.  Who wanted me to succeed.

This morning, on this rare, icy, snowy day in Fayette, AL, I decided to be a good wife and make biscuits for Scott before he went in to work.  As I pulled out that cast iron griddle and Vienna sausage can biscuit cutter, I was just so overwhelmed with gratitude for a mother in law who not only give me the tools I needed to make biscuits for her son, but took the time to teach me how to do it.

Biscuit making time! check out my Vienna Sausage biscuit cutter!

I’m not really good in the kitchen.  One could easily say I’m domestically challenged lol.  I feel bad for Scott sometimes, thinking he kinda got the short end of the stick when it came to wife-getting!  I just told someone Sunday, I’m really good at the churchy stuff.  I make a pretty decent pastor’s wife.  But I’m not a great every day, non-pastor wife!  But when I make these biscuits, it makes me feel like Caroline Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie or the Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond! And I have my mother in law to thank for that!

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As the biscuits were in the oven cooking, the Lord began to speak to me.  He revealed to me that everything Rocky did to teach me about making biscuits is the same thing we are to do to help others in their faith walk.  It’s called discipleship.

The definition of discipleship from Dictionary.com says “the condition or situation of being a disciple, a follower, or a student of some philosophy, especially a follower of Christ.”  In my biscuit making example, you could say I was a student of Rocky.  She gave me the tools and taught me how to make biscuits.  She stood by my side helping me do it when I was struggling, until I was successful.  She led from beside me.

Jesus did the same with his disciples.  He gave them the tools and teaching they needed to become “fishers of men”.  He taught them by example how to turn the other cheek, to speak the truth in love, to pray corporately and privately, to be a servant, to love their neighbor as themselves, to surrender completely to God.  He stood by their sides helping them when they struggled with their faith, like when they were scared during the storms, or cut someone’s ear off, or struggled with doubt and just needed to touch His scars.  He led from beside them.

Once you have become a follower of Jesus (accepted Him as your Lord and Savior), it doesn’t just end there.  Salvation is just the start.  Your journey is just beginning.  Discipleship begins.  You need to find someone that has been there before.  Who has been on this journey a bit longer than you to help you when you have storms and valleys.  Someone to gift you with the tools you need on this faith journey.  Someone to teach you how to avoid flat biscuits, but how to have successful biscuits!  And then celebrate them with you! Someone to help lead from beside you.  

And if you have been a Christian for a while, it’s time to start pouring into someone else if you aren’t.  Jesus led by example.  We are to do the same.  He was the most perfect example of discipleship.  Find some folks who are new to the faith and invest in them.   Give them the tools they need to look more and more like Christ.  Teach them by example how to love God and love others.  When they reach out for help, like I did with my mother in law, show up and listen.  Watch them make the biscuits and find out where they are messing up!  Give feedback when needed.  Speak the truth in love.  Celebrate the victories with them. Lead from beside them.

Who knew that homemade biscuits could be so spiritually enlightening?  But Scripture does tell us in John 6:35 that Jesus is the Bread of Life.  Being a girl of the South, I can’t help but think that must be a biscuit!  Taste and see that the Lord is good!  (Psalms 34:8). And once you have, you can’t help but share that glorious goodness with others!