Brighten Your Day

When I was a little boy growing up I would always change out of my good clothes after church and run outside to play for a few hours. When I would come back inside the house would smell heavenly. It was my Italian Nana making our Sunday dinner. To call it a feast would be an understatement. There would be loaves of freshly baked Italian bread with butter. There would be mounds of pasta covered in red sauce slowly simmered for hours. Slow cooked with the sauce too would sometimes be meatballs, sometimes potatoes, sometimes chicken, sometimes steak or deer meat and most often a combination of them. I remember we would all gather around the old, metal dining room table. Then we would eat with smiles, laughter, and joy. I always felt so peaceful and safe there. We always left dinner with full bellies and happy hearts.

As I got older and became an adult myself, I tried to make smaller versions of Nana’s Sunday dinners. I got the sauce recipe from Dad and like a good Italian seasoned to taste. Often I would get very close to making a dinner like her’s but it was never quite right. There finally came a point when I realized what I was doing wrong. I was trying to recapture a taste when what I really wanted to do was recapture a feeling. It wasn’t just the delicious food that made those dinners so wonderful, it was also the feeling of love that was there. Nana always put her love into her cooking and always put her love into her life. Since then I have tried my best to do the same. No matter what I am cooking or what I am doing, I always try to season it with Love.

God Loves us all so much and He wants us to share our love as well. God wants us to put our love into our cooking, our days, and our lives. Each day here can be a banquet of Love if we make it. Each day here can be a feast of Joy when we share it. The choice is ours. May you always choose wisely then and season each day of your life with Love.