Day 52

© 2009 Carrie Morris

Yesterday I learned how to bottle apple pie filling. I went to my little sister's house because she is a bottling queen and she helped me through the process. Okay, basically, she did almost all of it. I helped where I could but she has it down to such a science, she was done with a lot of it before I realized what was happening. She's done this many times before.

I was intrigued with the process. We take a perfectly good apple, skin it, cut it, core it and throw it in some brine water. Make some yummy sauce out of sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and other stuff to add to the apples in the jars. Put them both together and then steam them to seal the lids. After a couple hours, voila! I get 24 jars of homemade yumminess to put in my food storage. We made those "perfectly good apples" even better!

The process reminded me of what I've learned about trials. I might think I'm "perfectly good" the way I am. When along comes a trial that feels like it's going to rip me apart emotionally. Sometimes the trial is a long trial and I might feel like I've been put aside and forgotten in the brine water. But that's not true. The rest of the process to make me a better person is happening, even though I might not be aware of it. Pretty soon, I'm introduced to the "other ingredients" and when put together, I turn out better than I was to begin with. I'm more versatile and mature. The trial might be hard and feel like I'm in the Refiner's fire, but I need to remember that being there is just making me more like Him and is sealing my testimony of Him.