Can you Handle the Heat?

Warm sudsy water is one of my favorite things. Placing my hands into the water to wash dishes just feels right.  I know it isn't glamorous or even popular but I would rather wash dishes than put them away. maybe it's the warmth of the water, or the accomplishment of making clean what once was a gooey mess. All I know is that dirty dishes beckon me to clean them and I comply.

After a morning or preparing Paleo delights of zucchini muffins, baked balsamic chicken and zucchini sweet potato meatball bake, the clean up began. One by one the food encrusted pans entered into their bath and the process began. After a few minutes of sudsy sensational cleaning only 2 remained; 

The large glass measuring cup went into the water and then the glass. To my surprise, upon reaching into the sink I felt not two objects, but one. The glass had  fallen into the measuring cup and then became wedged into it.

 I wish you could have seen my face. I am sure that I made the "what just happened?" face! The glass was not budging, and honestly I was a little scared that I might break both of them!  

 Googling why this happened unveiled some interesting facts.                  

• Glass expands or breaks when heated. 
• If glass is slowly heated it will slowly expand, if suddenly heated up from a cold state it will shatter or break
• Pyrex is made to withstand shattering due to excessive heat

I emptied the water out of the duo and set them on the counter. The suggestion on Google was to add lukewarm water into the drinking glass 

causing the glass to shrink back to its original size. Within moments the drinking glass was freed from the measuring bowl! 

What I Learned

When our lives heat up, meaning that they are filled with tough situations we have an opportunity to expand and grow. In the midst of difficult days we may feel as though we will break, but I believe that we can grow and change because of these times. 

God's plan is to refine us

See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. Isaiah 48:10

To help us mature

Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:4

To change us to be a reflection of Christ

Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. Ephesians 4:15

If you are feeling as though you are at your breaking point, cling to the one who made you and knows you best. He alone can bring you through.