Cashew Butter and Life Lessons

Have you ever made your own peanut butter or almond butter?

We eat enough of the stuff in our house that we should probably buy stock in Jiff (only we typically don't use that brand).

I saw a friend post on Facebook how she had made her own peanut butter.  She assured everyone it was SUPER easy.

1. Dump the nuts in the food processor.
2. Blend, for quite awhile.
3. Stir
4. Enjoy

Seemed simple enough.
And might possibly save me some money too, since we buy the all natural brands.

I successfully made some almond butter a bit back, so thought I would get adventurous and try my hand at CASHEW BUTTER today.   Cashews were on sale at Sprouts, so I certainly saved A LOT of money.

And it was indeed as simple as simple can be.
Granted, you do have to stop the food processor and stir the cashew mix every now and then.
You need some patience too, as it does take a bit for the cashews to go from a ground up floury mixture to a creamy butter like we are used to buying in a jar in the store.

20 minutes later, however, I have a nice sized tupperware container of fresh cashew butter.

As I was spooning it out of the food processor, a thought it me:

What if I had given up when it seemed that I was only going to have cashew crumbs instead of my desired cashew butter?

What if I had deemed my attempt a failure and thrown it out?

I would have wasted money AND missed out on some delicious cashew butter that will make MANY tasty snacks this week.

How often do we do the same thing in life?!
We get impatient.
We throw in the towel too easily.
We don't see immediate results or instant success, and we call it a failure.
We walk away disappointed, heads hung in shame and frustration.

BUT, what if we would stand our ground, hold firm, give it some time, stir things up a bit, and WAIT to see what happens?!!

What if we were willing to use some elbow grease?
What if we were okay with putting in some hard work to see the results we want?
What if we realized that success was right around the corner?

BUT, all too often we turn around before we get there.
This is incredibly sad to me.
So, I am here to challenge us to start living differently.
To be in it for the long haul.
To understand some parts of life are not a sprint, but a marathon, and that crossing the finish line is going to feel oh so good.
To give others a chance to prove their ideas really do work.
To give ourselves a chance to see our talents and abilities paying off in our own lives too.

What do you say?
Are you up for it?
I know I am!
Because I know the rewards will be worth any sweat, blood, tears, or anything else it takes to reach the goals I have set for myself.  Dreams are worth going after, and the bigger the dream the better, as long as you remember it might take some time - and effort - to become a reality!