For years and years, I've tried to bake with yeast. I'm rarely successful in getting my dough to rise like I want. But today, I try again. This time: pizza dough for homemade calzones.I read a specific detail from this new recipe that explains my failure. This new recipe insists that I add the yeast and make sure the dough rests in a 70 degree kitchen.
That's what all the other recipes meant by "warm place!" That's the simple explanation for my failed efforts! My winter kitchen isn't always that warm (sometimes it's actually cold), so I put my bowl on a kitchen chair right by the heater (set at 70 degrees).
We check on our dough after an hour. It fills the bowl--abundant, glorious, fluffy! My first successful rising! It keeps on growing. Tonight, we'll feast.
When I think about my own failed attempts at growth in various areas of my life, I have to remember the role that my environment plays. If I'm in an environment that prevents my maturing, maybe I need to change something in order to create the kind of conditions that foster growth.
I like asking myself that question today: What do I need in my environment to spur me on to become the person God wants me to be? What do I need to purge? What do I need to add? I just asked my daughter the same question. We have so much to talk about!
_________________________
Journal: What needs to change so I can grow?
