Peanut Brittle-Making at Silver Dollar City (What it Taught Me)

I admit it. I’m a Pollyanna of sorts (by others’ definitions).

I prefer to see the glass half-full instead of half-empty.

If life rains on my parade, I’ll open an umbrella.

Something not going my way? I’ll chalk it up to a lesson learned.

Am I hopelessly happy when tough times come? Not really. But I know, too, that even in darkness, there’s always light.

When we face extreme adversity, it definitely has a way of putting everything else into proper perspective. For some, those hardships come by way of death, divorce, job loss, illness, family struggles, and the muck and mire of the unexpected.

 

 

During these milestones, daily living can sometimes drag us down into vats of despair. We wonder how on earth, things will ever be made right again. Our minds start to trick us, and wallowing in the negative becomes the easy route—our comfort zone.

Recently we spent the day at Silver Dollar City, a family owned, Christian-oriented amusement park in the Branson, Missouri area.

While there we ventured inside Brown’s Candy Shop and watched some lovely ladies make peanut brittle.

First they added all the necessary ingredients into a large vat. Then they took turns stirring as the concoction began to get hotter and hotter to the point of bubbling.

 

 

As the heat rose, the liquid grew thick.

It was difficult to stir the dense substance that would eventually become peanut brittle.

Big wooden spoons were used to stir and turn the mouth-watering treat.

One of the women was very animated in her description of the candy-making process and kept the crowd of onlookers amused with her jolly demeanor.

It was hot, hard, backbreaking work, but as the two women joined forces, I saw how their job was made easier just by working together.

Of course, as they labored, I also thought of how God uses the heat to refine us.

 

During intense times of testing, it’s never fun, and rarely can we envision a sweet outcome. Just when we think we’re about to climb out of the fire, often it just gets hotter.

Years ago, I experienced such a time. The outlook seemed bleak. The situation appeared hopeless. To say it was a difficult period would be whitewashing it. It was more than difficult. It was literally walking through the valley of the shadow of death.

Finding one shred of positivity was often a stretch, but still, I had hope. Some days, it might have just been a glimmer, but I held on to the fact that if I could just make it through the fire, God would somehow bring about good because His word promised that.

Our family’s victory didn’t come in the way we imagined or anticipated, and  it certainly didn’t happen overnight. 

No, our time in the “cooking vat” took years.

We simmered in the heat for a good, long while as our Heavenly Father melted us, molded us, and refined us until His will within us was accomplished.

 

This experience taught me:

 

• God didn’t promise that life would be good, fair, or kind. (He does assure us, however, that He will be with us every step of the way during the refinement process.)

 

• Giving thanks for even the smallest of blessings not only brings glory to God, but demonstrates our faith in action. He delights in hearing our words of thanks and affirmations of praise.

 

• To be in tune to those who are hurting is to allow the Holy Spirit to work through us for someone else’s benefit other than our own. When folks are going through tough times, they don’t want moral platitudes. They need the real deal: our undivided attention. Our time.

 

• Savor the precious moments. Bask in them. File them away like golden treasures so when tough times call again, our faith will be renewed.

 

• Study God’s word and memorize scripture. God’s word is true and unchanging—the only thing in this life that is. We’ll make mistakes and miss the mark a thousand times, but for every time we do, our Heavenly Father will pick us right back up again. And those are sometimes the best lessons learned.

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PLEASE SHARE THE LOVE

What does peanut brittle have to do with faith?

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A lesson in refinement. What  making peanut brittle taught me about faith.

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Sometimes, victory comes by way of the fire.  What we can learn as we simmer in the vat.

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MORE ENCOURAGEMENT

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Have you been through a period of “refinement”? How has it changed your perspective?

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Much Love and Many Blessings,