The Missing Ingredient

When Claire McGarry helps her daughter understand what baking powder does, she makes a direct correlation to prayer.

My twelve-year-old daughter, Jocelyn, has been bitten by the baking bug. Unfortunately, she’s learned the hard way that when she omits baking powder, her cookies, cakes, or muffins come out flat. When she asked what baking powder does exactly, I turned to Google to help me explain that, like yeast, baking powder is a complete leavener. It has both sodium bicarbonate (the base agent) and the acidic ingredient that activates the sodium bicarbonate. It’s also a double-acting leavener with two separate reactions: one when it’s mixed with liquid at room temperature, the other when the mixture is heated in the oven.

“The Kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.” (Matthew 13:33)

Explaining that to Jocelyn had this passage from Matthew resonating with me. As a worker in God’s kingdom, my role is to help His kingdom expand. I can’t do that if I neglect to add the baking powder of prayer to all that I do. When I do things on my own, without mixing in His blessing and guidance, my endeavors fall flat.

Working from my own will, there’s no grace to activate my efforts so they grow and succeed. Worse yet, when the heat’s turned up and problems abound, not only is there no second phase of expansion, but I wilt under the pressure.

Click to tweet:
As a worker in God’s Kingdom, I have to add the baking powder of prayer to all that I do so His grace makes it expand. #CatholicMom

I think it’s important that Jocelyn experienced that omitting baking powder wastes ingredients, time, and effort. I’m learning that omitting Jesus wastes materials, time, and effort too.

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