Life lessons found in unlikely places!

We wonder, where have you found wisdom for living a good life? We were looking through some family church cookbooks from several generations ago. These cookbooks were from country churches in Belmond, IA, Wanamingo, MN and a church in Mesa, AZ. We not only found some interesting recipes, we also found tips to help keep the household running smoothly and life lessons that can contribute to a recipe for a good life.

First, let’s look at the recipes for food and what’s happened over the years. Of course, there are the beloved recipes passed down to us. These will always be favorites and will stand the test of time and remain the same from generation to generation. The pages that hold these recipes are tattered and spattered from many uses. Then there are also recipes like the banana bread recipe that called for a half cup of lard and one cup of sugar. Wow! That literally sounds like a killer! We noticed how things have changed toward better recipes that promote health. The banana bread recipes of today have typically been updated to reflect healthier choices.

Besides variety in recipes for food, these cookbooks also contained some simple tips to have a good household that runs smoothly. A 1951 cookbook suggested that you can sharpen dull scissors by cutting through rough sandpaper. We tried it on an old, dull scissors that we had in the “junk drawer” and it worked quite well. It certainly is an inexpensive method to have sharper scissors.

Another tip suggested that when you are boiling eggs, add a tablespoon of salt to the water and the shells will come off easily. We haven’t tried this yet, but we realize it could save us a lot of time. Here’s a tip that we will not use. In this outdated tip, they suggested that to keep sandwiches from drying out, wrap them in wax paper and seal the edges of the wax paper with a hot iron. To us, that sounds like a lot of work and quite a mess! Aren’t we glad that we now have plastic wrap and sandwich bags instead? You probably agree that some things we take for gnted make life so much easier.

Finally, we also recognized that in each of the old cookbooks they had some timeless life lessons that could be sifted together in a recipe for a good life. Here are a few of the life lessons they included:

• Know that a bad habit is like a soft bed – easy to get into, but hard to get out of.
• Having a sense of humor is like having a needle and thread, it will patch up so many things.
• It has been said that you’ll find the city of happiness is in the state of mind.
• Try to make one person happy each day, even if it’s yourself.
• We know that success comes in cans and that failure comes in can’ts.
• Remember that today is the tomorrow we worried about yesterday.

Yes, the old cookbooks were an unlikely place to find life lessons, but we learned a lot. Notice how when you have recipes for delicious food, tips for a well-run household and timeless life lessons, you have the ingredients for a good life. Recipes may change, household tips may change, but good life lessons never become outdated.

How about you? What recipes do you already have for good food, a good household and a good life?

Here are some thoughts: Where can you gain some more valuable life lessons that may be hiding in unexpected places? Ask some senior citizens to share valuable lessons they’ve learned or look at your old cookbooks, letters or journals from the past. As you explore you might find some very interesting recipes for a good life. Our contact information is below and we would enjoy hearing from you. Let us know what life lessons you’ve learned and what new ones you find.

Chanhassen residents Doug and Lynn Nodland are Success Coaches and owners of The Balance Center. They can be contacted at WeCare@SharingLifesLessons.com

© Doug and Lynn Nodland 2018 Articles and videos may be shared in their entirety with attribution.