The Recipe for Life
Does anyone still keep a cookbook and or a recipe box? I do. With Google we can look up a “ba –jillion” variations in a second but it is impersonal. My box is a form of heirloom. 
It is filled with scraps cut from magazines, hand copied family favorites and shared recipes from friends. I also have handwritten recipes from my mother and mother-in-law. No big family secrets; favorites yes! I keep these for their handwriting because it brings memories.
God’s Word holds the recipe for life. Hand written by many authors over centuries it contains history, stories, encouragement and wisdom passed down through the ages. Within its pages are “recipes” for every issue we face and my Bible favorites are well marked.
The basic rules for successful and civilized living are found in the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20. But the Bible is alive and gives very practical advice such as:
Friends and Neighbors – get along
You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. Lev 19:18
Do not forsake your friend and your father’s friend, and do not go to your brother’s house in the day of your calamity. Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother who is far away. Prov 27:10
Live in harmony with one another. Romans 12:16
Loneliness – never alone
Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? Psalms 139:7
I am with you always, to the end of the age. Matt 28:20
Marriage – committment
Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and 
female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” Matt 19:4-6
Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your life Eccl 9:9
Parenting – responsibility
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. Prov 22:6
The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart. Prov 29: 15 &17
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother” —4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Eph 6:1-4
Peace vs. Worry
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. John 14:27
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Phil 4:5-7
Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Matt 6:25-26
Speech – wisdom for today
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. James 1:19,20
Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble. Prov 21:23
A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. 2 The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly. Prov 15:1-2
Of course there are many more “recipes for life” within the Bible’s pages. I encourage you to look them up for yourself. If you do, life will be more savory and satisfying!
