The Life Hid With Christ in God is Like Chocolate Cake

I wrote this devotional after reading Chapter 16.

I made a chocolate cake yesterday. The rich, sweet scent of the chocolate still lingers in the air this afternoon, enough so that both family members and visitors have commented on the chocolately aroma. When my niece came bounding in, she stopped and asked if she could have some chocolate cake, "pretty, please."
I teasingly asked her how she knew I had been baking if she couldn't even see the cake.

"Oh, that's easy. It smells like chocolate in here, the kitchen is warm, and your floors are clean. You always mop after you bake."

The tell-tale sweet aroma of chocolate.....the warmth of the kitchen.....the clean floors......signs and clues of a chocolate cake that couldn't be seen.

After I have encountered others in my daily walk living the life hid with Christ in God, how do they know of my devotion to Our Heavenly Father? What type of spiritual aroma do I leave in my wake? What signs and clues of my love for Christ, Christ alone, can be discovered by observing my daily life? How would another know?

According to Hannah Whitall Smith, there are characteristics shared by those striving to live the life hid with Christ in God. A reading through these gives a glimpse of the person God is molding me to be. May I continue to be pliable in His hands, so He can snuff out those aromas that aren't pleasing to Him, and may His aroma linger everywhere I pass, for I am but a vessel.

-meekness and quietness of spirit

-submissive acceptance of the will of God

-sweetness under provocation

-calmness in the midst of turmoil

-yielding to the wishes of others

-insensitivity to slights and affronts

-absence of worry

-laying aside of thoughts of self

-dress and live in simple, healthful ways

-renounce self-indulgent habits

-welfare of God's creatures becomes the absorbing delight of the soul

-the voice is dedicated to Him, singing His praises

-the purse is placed at His disposal

-the pen is dedicated to write for Him

-the lips to speak for Him

-hands and feet to do His bidding.

Oh, may I grow to be more and more Christ-like each and every day!