Works for Me Wednesday- Cooking on Vacation

"Gasp....NO...not on my vacation!" Well, Meal planning on vacation "works for me". I know I have lost a few of you already, but stick with me on this one. You might find out that it works for you as well. This past week, Nathan and I had the privilege of taking a vacation to Kentucky. The vacation was very inexpensive for us to say the least (mostly because our lodging was free of charge), but also because we didn't plan to eat out every meal. I assure you that there are many benefits to meal planning, even on vacation! Now, I realize that you are not able to cook meals on every vacation and it is fun to eat "local" food in new places (we planned for that as well). As always, I am not talking about always and never, I am talking about a balance. I encourage you to look at the possibility of meal planning (whether it is 2 or most of your meals) for your future vacations, it works for me!

Benefits:
#1- It saves you and your family money. Eating out almost always cost more than making a simple meal. Notice I said simple. If you plan to make something elaborate, you may want to assess the cost. I have found that some things are more cost effective to eat out. If you spend less money on your vacations, you will be able to take MORE vacations in the future. The way I look at it, you get more bang for your buck. It works better for me to cook on several vacations than to eat out on one vacation :).
#2- Your family will learn to enjoy your cooking, regardless of location. They will continue to crave your home-cooking instead of someone else's good cooking.
#3- You learn to enjoy cooking meals away from home. For me, it is all about the heart in which you do it with. If I'm excited to save my family money and cook them healthy and simple meals away from home, then it seems like less of a chore.

Why we don't want to:
I can only speak for myself on this topic, but for me, it has a lot to do with self-entitlement. This week, I read a fellow blogger's post on self-entitlement( http://likeawarmcupofcoffee.blogspot.com/) and I was reminded that "what I think I deserve" is at the root of most of my discontent and prideful moments.

* In her words, self-entitlement is the attitude that lurks just under my skin, ready to emerge whenever I’ve worked hard and think I deserve some sort of a pay-back. Also, when I imagine that people are deliberately disregarding my time or work. Also, when I self-righteously call myself a “servant”, but expect to be treated like a “queen”. I would add that it is the long list of things that I believe I deserve- whether that is a break from serving others, a night out, or to be treated better or to be appreciated more by a certain person. It is the little voice inside our heads that tells us that we have RIGHTS!

* I agree with her when she says that I am entitled to 2 stunning rights:
1- To love the Lord our God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.
2- To love my neighbor as myself- which includes our family. (Of course, these basically open a glorious storeroom of rights to me: the rights to serve others, love others, and to enjoy peace, kindness, and gladness to my heart’s content.)

Beyond that, though, I have no self-entitlements. None. I am not entitled to sulk, complain, demand, destroy, or resent. GULP... dropping my self-entitlements is going to be an ongoing process.

For me, this means that if cooking on vacation will benefit my family, then I will do it willingly, knowing that it is just one of the many ways that I can be of service to them. If I am tired and feel that I deserve to be served and taken care of and yet I continue to serve my family, then I am thankful that God is giving me the strength to do so because I know I can't do it on my own merit.

The more self-entitlement I allow myself to feel, the less joyful I am about being a servant. I suppose much like anything else I want to change, it will take practice to end these self serving thoughts.

Practice with me this week:
#1- Write down your most common self-entitlement beliefs and make a plan to combat them.
#2- Commit to do one task each day that goes against one of your most common self-entitlement beliefs.
#3- Continue to ask for transformation of the heart. I don't know about you but I can't will myself into dropping my self-entitlements (or anything for that matter).

Learning...
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. (Phil. 2:3)

For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. (James 3:16)

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:1-2)