There are no mysteries to a PB&J sandwich. Everyone knows what’s inside and how to make one. Everyone can afford eat it. It is portable and practical yet precise. You can buy it in the freezer section at the grocery store, or really dig in and make the whole thing from scratch. The callouses from cracking the nuts and crunching them into a ‘butter’, the wait it takes to get a rise in your flour dough and the skill to knead it, the stains on your hands from the berries you grew and picked.
The bread is baked, the peanuts are smooth, the berries have been jammed - at this point assembly is easy, the pattern is always the same. There might be 100 ways to skin a cat, but making a sandwich is pretty straightforward. You can sink your teeth in if you are hungry now, or make two and pack it for a friend. No matter how you slice it, this humble gem gets the job done - so you can continue to do yours. When we serve the basics to others, the basics end up serving us. And whether you go on to learn to make a fancier meal is up to you, but if we never learn what it takes to make a PB&J we won’t be able to carry on very far.
To put this in horse training terms we also have three main elements. The bread is our ‘fellowship’ foundation with the horse. If they don’t trust us, or rely on us to communicate the education they need, there isn’t much to hold the rest of the meal together. The nut butter is the hard work. There is nothing about horses that doesn’t take strength, resiliency and consistency - the endurance we gain from the frustrating parts of our journey is what sustains us in the long run. The jelly is of course the fruit of when partnership and hard work pay off, the balance of flavor and texture is what makes it so distinct. At the end of the day when you ‘explain’ what is in the sandwich nothing can really disguise hard work. There isn’t anything difficult to pronounce, no artificial or finicky ingredients. You know exactly how you got to where you are and how to make the same sandwich again and again.
The same goes for fellowship with people. The bread is what we consume most of and share the most with each other.The bread is the foundation and sustainer! God’s love and grace and truth is enough to make a meal out of, so we should feed ourselves mostly with that. The peanut butter is the effort we put into our calling, our purpose and relationships. There isn’t much proof of hard work if you don’t have at least some callouses to show for it - this translates to our learning experiences. And the jelly is the fruits of our works and the gifts God gives us to share.
These characteristics we develop and habits we practice like patience, kindness, joy and faithfulness is what propels us forward! They allow us to operate as God intended - just like Him! In order to go anywhere we’ve gotta start, and start with simplicity! We lose people when we confuse people. Keeping things simple and sharing our journey with others is what helps other people find their dream! Because you look and act like the Creator who gave it to you.
Our slogan, an appetite for transformation has dynamic meaning. We have to get the basics down first, no matter how bland they may seem.Transforming is sometimes a process of weaving the basics together with the process of refinement. When you work for something and see what goes into the process of making it a product, suddenly the product becomes a lot more appetizing than if someone handed it to you. The concept is also true of when you become sick of practicing the basics. If you want something fancier, want to go faster and further, then you must master the basics first. You can to have stability to hold the sandwich together, and when the pantry is bare, you have to be able to rely on something you know will get you by. Lastly, sometimes we can be burdened by the weight of standards, perfection and performance. Forming an appetite for the truth of what really matters in our training journey is what will keep us fed and satisfied.
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