I have been thinking, recently, about some of our family traditions and their origins.  I have a particular one that I know I am responsible for, but I was not entirely sure how it morphed into what it is today.

Every Saturday morning (after Parkrun) I cook a full breakfast for the family.  We have bacon, scrambled eggs, toast, hash browns, mushrooms, baked beans … the works.  I don’t recall deciding one day that this was what I was intending to do, but I kind of remember how it started.

About 18 years ago, as my older 2 children would only be with us every 2^nd weekend, I remember thinking I should do something special for the weekends we were all together, and so every Saturday morning on those weekends I would cook breakfast. 

It started out as being bacon and eggs on toast, or pancakes, or French toast, or some other recipe I discovered or had suggested to me.  So on one week we would have a special Saturday breakfast, and the other, when there was only 3 of us at home, we would choose from our regular breakfast options.

After a couple of years of this practice I asked my youngest cherub what he would like for breakfast on a non-access Saturday morning and he looked at me puzzled.  He said, “It’s Saturday, mum.  We have special breakfast on Saturday.”  And so ‘special’ breakfast every Saturday morning was born. 

I am still mystified as to how all the extras made it onto the plate each week.  When I asked the question of my family if they recalled how this phenomenon evolved they interpreted it as a forum to make suggestions about what else I could add to our cooked breakfast menu such as spinach, tomato and sausages!

If you had suggested I cook a full breakfast for up to 5 people when this tradition first began I would have been overwhelmed and certainly ended up with more culinary disasters than successes.  This would have led to an abandonment of the whole practice quicker than you could set the table!

What I believe happened is that the extent of the menu grew as my experience increased. Starting with the basics I would then add 1 extra item. This built my confidence and therefore allowed me to try adding another thing extra over time and so on and so on.

This is true in so much of life.  When faced with the initial challenge you can easily feel overwhelmed at the prospect but if you ease yourself into the process it won’t take long before you will be able to do what you were first fearful of.

I was wondering if there were any verses in the bible that might help in this area and I found these two from Hebrews chapter 10 verses 35-36. “So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.”

So what is the lesson to learn from this reflection?  You might be facing something that feels too big to tackle, but instead of feeling overwhelmed and unwilling to try it, do something towards it and wait for the confidence to grow.  Take a baby step and who knows, before too long you might be able to do what you were first apprehensive about, and then even more!

As for me, we might try adding some roasted tomato to our Saturday breakfast this week! What will you try?

Be blessed.