Living Life in Layers

In case you were wondering, I haven’t given up on my Kraft Recipe project. I’ve actually tried 3 or 4 since my last recipe post. I just haven’t had time to type them up for you!

I’m making time today, though. I really liked this one! It’s called the Layered Summer Salad. It was my contribution to Thanksgiving Dinner at my aunt and uncle’s home. But we were celebrating in Southern California where it’s always Summer, so it was totally appropriate. Of course, if we’d been celebrating in Upstate New York, I still would have served my Summer salad for Thanksgiving. I’ve been known to wear white shoes after Labor Day, too.

Here is the recipe, slightly modified:

Layered Summer Salad

4 cups torn romaine lettuce
1 ½ cups shredded mild Cheddar cheese, divided
1 can sliced olives
1 small red onion, sliced and separated into rings
2 chopped tomatoes
1 thawed, 10oz. package of frozen peas
½ cup Miracle Whip
½ cup sour cream
4 tsp dried basil
4 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled

Layer lettuce, 1 cup of cheese, olives, onions, tomatoes and peas in a 3 quart bowl.

Mix Miracle Whip, sour cream, and basil; spread over salad, completely covering the top.

Top with remaining cheese and bacon. Refrigerate for 5 hours. Serve.

This layered salad made me think of military life. My thoughts would also apply to ministry life or to the life of anyone else who moves often. In some ways, these thoughts apply to everyone, though, as we all face changes in our circumstances from time to time. But I’ll share my thoughts from the perspective of a military wife, and you can apply them to your life as you’d like.

For me, each new location is like a layer of the salad. I’m tempted to leave some layers out. Sometimes when a husband gives his wife the news about their next assignment, the conversation goes a bit like this:

“Guess where we’re going, Honey? You’re going to love it!”
“You’re going where?”
“I said, ‘We,’ Honey.”
“Sounds like a deployment to me. Have fun, Darling! The kids and I will be here when you get back.”

Take a lesson from Jonah, friends. Save yourself some grief. Just get on the right boat.

When I made the Layered Salad, I was tempted to leave the onions out. (And I did leave the mushrooms from the original recipe out, but only because my mom and son wouldn’t have let me participate in Thanksgiving if I’d included them. I didn’t fly all the way to California to miss out on my turkey dinner because of a few mushrooms!)

But back to the onions and the layers of our lives—

Some layers we’d like to skip, but these are essential to the overall mix. We have to keep the big picture in mind.

Other layers (and locations) are more like the olives and the cheese. We’re tempted to add double of these! But then they’d overpower all the other ingredients. Each layer is perfectly balanced to create a salad with a flavor all its own. The layers of our lives work the same way. We may want to rush through or skip a season, but God leads us through in the perfect time. We may long to linger somewhere, yet be called to move on quickly. Again, we trust we’re moving in God’s perfect time. It’s the overall work that matters. God is mixing it just right.

Father, thank You for Your faithful work in our lives. Whether we’re moving or changing jobs, adding children to our families or sending them off on their own—whatever the circumstances of the defined layers of our lives, help us to trust You, our Sovereign, loving God. Amen.


For more thoughts on moving often or adapting to changing circumstances, please visit my other blog: Home Is Where God Sends You. (Just click on the words to go there.)