Baking Bread and Raising Kids

Here is a funny thought I had this week. I'm not sure how to write it without rambling though, sorry! Here goes...

The other night I made 2 loaves of bread in the bread machine, put them both in the loaf pans, covered them with a towel, and put them in the refrigerator to rise overnight. Because of space, one had to go in the garage refrigerator the other in the house. In the morning I pulled them out to bake them. The one that had been rising in the house was beautiful with a full round top but the one from the garage had fallen and was lumpy. I have no idea why. I thought there must be a lesson in this somewhere and asked the Lord where to put it.

Later in the morning I overheard a conversation that #1 and #3 were having in the kitchen. They were talking about a friend of ours.....we'll call him Frank for privacy reasons. It went something like this:

"Frank is really a good boy with a soft heart but he just has a bad family situation. I bet if he were in different circumstances, with better opportunities, he'd do really well. "

I thought about how that related to my bread. If the lumpy loaf had been in the house, would it have done well? I don't know. If you take a sweet-hearted kid and place him in a destructive family with harsh influences will it harden him? If you take a boy that is easily angered, and place him in a loving family full of encouragement will it soften him?

Well I think the answer would be "yes" in both cases. Here's another thought: I've been baking bread for a few years now and sometimes, for no reason that I know, the bread does not turn out right even though I use the exact same recipe, same oven, same cooking time, same everything. I wonder if that is like having a family of 3 children where 2 of them grow up to be responsible adults who love the Lord and the other one is the "black sheep".

I know there is no sure formula in raising kids except to seek the Lord. Maybe I should say the same thing about my bread.