The Blender

By Sherrie Brouhard

The brand new Osterizer blender, a gift from my parents, was packed in my car as I left for my freshman year of college. With it, I continued my habit of making a protein drink for breakfast each morning.

When my husband and I married, it was one of our first kitchen gadgets. I used that blender almost every day for so many years. It was great for preparing a variety of things for our family. It was used for frozen lemonade, milkshakes, homemade salad dressing, chopped nuts, carrots, onion, celery, bread or cracker crumbs, etc. It remained in our kitchen for over 20 years. With it our children learned to make frozen juice drinks and shakes.

The blender has now gone to college with our children, as we had replaced it with a new chrome one. As I looked at that blender in the hands of my departing college-age son, I thought of how many years it had been in our home. I reminisced that while I was pregnant, I depended on those protein drinks made in it, to supply me with part of the milk I needed to nourish our babies.

Life changes and time moves quickly. Though we were warned, somehow we failed to realize the rapidness of it. If we did, how different we all would be. Surely we would put more emphasis on things of eternal value and priority.

Days and years are a mix of joy and sometimes sorrow, challenges, rewards, learning, growth, preparation, and even fatigue. Often our plans and good intentions are covered up, forgotten beneath the unexpected weight of the demands in life. We must not let anything hinder us from keeping God first. After all, no matter what happens, we usually don’t forget to feed our physical bodies. Why do we neglect the spiritual?

“For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:” Eph. 5:29 KJV

In the same way I daily looked for nourishment and vitamins from my morning protein drink, we should reach for our Bible, and look to God. And as we pass down traditions to our children, may we, most of all, more than anything else, train them to seek God first, and surrender their lives to Him. As time is spent in His presence, praying and reading His Word, they will be nourished and will continue to grow in Him. When they leave our homes, and go out, may they take with them Another One, Who dwells in their hearts, and leads them by His Spirit, and teaches them with His Word. And may they always be obedient to His voice. That is my prayer. And my desire is that each and every day of their lives, they will always seek Him first, as naturally and routinely as reaching for a blender in the morning.