Lemon and Blueberry cake

The girls' grandparents bought them some fruit the other day, including blueberries so we thought we'd make this really easy cake.

 

The girls love baking and i'm trying to teach them how to prepare, read recipes, follow instructions and of course tidy up afterwards!!

Today I also taught them how to serve guests and share with others. Granny and Grandad happened to drop by and therefore joined us for tea and cake. The remainder of the cake was shared with our neighbours and an uncle they went to visit later in the afternoon.

Serving others is something which I really want to improve on both in myself and the children.

Society today is very individualistic, we are encouraged to just look out for ourselves and our needs above others. Even when others are involved, there are too many ulterior motives which get in the way.  We are surrounded by an attitude of just helping others when it suits us, when we feel like it, when it's convenient for us rather than when it is actually needed.

Then there's the whole 'scratch my back and i'll scratch yours' mentality where serving others is like an exchange for some benefit which may come to us, whether that be in terms of material goods, brownie points or something else.

The Prophet Muhammad (saw) was sent as a mercy to mankind.  Within his example we have many examples of how the Prophet served others, whether it be sharing food with them, visiting the sick, helping them in their time of need, advising them, consoling them, praying for them, removing from them the harm of tyranny and oppression etc.  All purely for the pleasure of Allah and no other purpose.

Imam Ghazali (may God be pleased with him), specified three levels of helping others: not being a source of harm to others, forgiving them their faults and the third level is being of service to them.

In the coming weeks I am going to be looking into ways of building this in the children and also refining this within myself.  I am going to be exploring things we can get involved in and make a regular habit of such actions so that serving others becomes a norm rather than an exception.

In the meantime I think there'll definitely be more cakes and baked goodies to go around....