Give us today our daily bread

There is something extraordinarily soothing and therapeutic about baking one's own bread...
I have recently discovered a really easy recipe which yields the most delicious, light and 'more-ish' bread, and with which the kids like to join me in mixing, kneeding, and crafting all sorts of interesting shapes for baking.
But bread baking can be a frustrating and sometimes tedious process too. The mixing is messy, sticky, and ugly. The kneeding is exhausting - a bit like an intensive specialised work-out for the biceps - but essential for the dough to take shape, and to soften, and crucial for all those incredibly basic ingredients to come together. And then, there's the wait, the PROVING... And after the wait, more waiting...But the longer the wait, the bigger the dough...the lighter the consistency...the better the result.
And then, eventually, after molding the dough into whatever shape takes your fancy, the baking can begin. But you have to get the heat just right though - not too hot, but hot enough - before that tempting, enticing, delicious aroma starts to ooze out of the oven, and spread throughout the whole house...into every room, and even into the neighbourhood. Hmmmmmm......
Now finally, the comfort eating can begin!! It is a good reward, to reap the fruit of one's labours! It makes the abundant spreading of real butter on the still warm, soft, delicious bread completely and utterly justifiable.

This whole bread-making process is wonderful at a deeper level too, for it is a helpful analogy of what Christian living can sometimes be like...But there are so many parallels to draw out here that I'm not sure where to begin!! So, I guess I'll let you read between the lines of this little 'parable' for yourselves. And if you take nothing else from this, learn to WAIT on Him: for "those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength"...