Learning to be me: "That tea is too sweet"

Learning to be me: "That tea is too sweet":               On my days off I enjoy taking my daughter's to school. It's always an adventure of some sort and today was certainly n...

"That tea is too sweet"

              On my days off I enjoy taking my daughter's to school. It's always an adventure of some sort and today was certainly not any different. The girls love for me to stop by Mcdonalds and get a large tea that they can carry to school with them and then we stopped so that Ash could run into the convenient store and get gum. Haley and I were having a conversation when suddenly I turned and knocked the full large sweet tea that Ash had set on the middle console without my knowledge and it turned upside down right in the middle of my pocketbook . The whole sweet tea !!! Haley said mom get the stuff out quick, but I only thought that tea is too sweet , surely everything is sticky and stuck together so there was no use trying to clean in out in the car. I wanted so badly to be mad at Ash. She put that tea there dangit! She could've told me , but  because  I only had one morning off this week. I couldn't bear the thought of turning my few minutes with them into a fight about stupid sweet tea. So I just closed my eyes for a moment and prayed for God to help me control my tongue and the incident was not mentioned again.

          After arriving home and carrying my drenched purse into the house. I got a towel and dumped the contents of my sticky sweet purse onto it. It didn't take very long at all for me to realize that most of the contents just needed to be tossed away. That tea was too sweet ! Trying to clean and dry everything would just be too much trouble and that's when it hit me. How often do we feel that way about situations in our lives? I mean think about going into a restaurant and ordering tea, sometimes it is so sweet it makes your teeth ache just to take a drink of it, most of us would either push it out of our way or trade it for something that we can be assured will have to taste better than the tea with way too much sugar. Isn't that how we view things sometimes? How many friendships have failed because the situation was just to sticky to try and clean up. It was easier to toss it away. How many marriages end because" the tea was too sweet  " and trading it for something else just seemed to make more sense at the time? How many times have what should have been a fun family outing turned into a heated debate or flat out ruined day because of a silly sticky argument probably about nothing, but we toss what was meant to be a wonderful memory out the door because we let anger and hurt and pride come together in such a sticky mess that we don't think the situation can be reversed. I could've ruined a 15 minute car ride and probably mine and the girl's entire day, but because of God's grace and His love for me I was able to control that anger. I have to admit it wasn't easy but boy was it worth it to see the relief in Ashley's face when she realized I wasn't mad.

          We tend to just give up on things so easily. We think that it is easier to give up on people rather than try and fix the situation or problem. I have wondered sometimes what would happen if we always talked to God about our situation before we made a choice how to handle it. I know that God has the perfect recipe for making the tea less sweet without having to toss the whole glass out. I think sometimes if we 're more slow to anger and we put more thought before we allow our tongue to possibly ruin the taste of something that matters.

 Proverbs 14:29 ~"Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding,
but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly."


 James 1:19~ "Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry."

Duck Feet

           When I was a little girl, probably around 6 or 7 I used to spend a lot of time with my aunt Toonie. She didn’t have any kids of her own so she loved having her nieces over anytime. Sometimes she would come get us in the summer and keep us for what seemed like days. She had this huge yard so we spent a lot of time helping her water her plants or picking weeds or just running and playing. One of my most vivid memories of my time with her was around Easter time and we had been decorating her yard and after we were up on the porch rinsing our feet before we went inside and I began to point and laugh at my Aunt Toonie's feet. Soon all my cousin's joined in and we were pointing laughing and calling her duck feet. We even made up a song about her duck feet. For the rest of the day we would sing "duck feet duck feet Toonie has big ole duck feet quack quack quack." Toonie laughed with us about it and even chased us down and tickled us. She never got angry or demanded us to stop .

               This morning as I stepped out of the bath and looked down as I was drying my feet I started to hear a familiar song in my head in my own child like voice singing "duck feet duck feet Heidi has duck feet quack quack quack." Instantly, I was hurt! I have over the years developed the wide Hamrick feet with stubby toes known as Duck Feet. I wanted to burst into tears and then I wanted to slap myself for even thinking that stupid little song that I made up over 25 years ago.

             My first thought was to call my Aunt Toonie and apologize to her for making fun of her , but then I realized it was 5:30 in the morning and she would probably kill me Ha! but I felt so bad for that full day of what must have been torture for her. She never showed anger, she never told us to stop, she just took it and took it and took it for an entire day. I just thought why in the world did she let us treat her that way. She was so good to us and she loved us so much. Wow she loved us so much so she never stopped the mocking , the humiliation that she must've felt . And then it hit me!

JESUS LOVES US SO MUCH THAT HE DIDN'T STOP IT EITHER!

 Matt 27:27 Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. 28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. 30 They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. 31 After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

Jesus suffered so much physical pain. The crown of thorns, the nails driven into his hands and feet, being hung on a wooden cross, the beatings. But in addition, the amount of emotional pain must've been unbearable too. I mean sometimes we get hurt an offended when someone looks at us funny or says something that we deem inappropriate but WOW Jesus was constantly being mocked spit at made fun of stared at by crowds and crowds of people all the while enduring the most unimaginable torture ever. and he never said stop! He never showed anger! I know I have asked why more than one time. But the answer is really simple. LOVE ! HE TRULY LOVED US !

        We use the term love so loosely in this generation, but real true love is the love of Jesus. The love God has for his children. And what has taken me over 25 years to understand myself is that when we hurt someone's feeling on purpose because Jesus loves us so much is that we are hurting Him too. So today be intentional with your words. God's greatest command was LOVE . Love God and Love People!! How often do we take that command so lightly. 

 Have a very Happy Easter!!!

Jesus said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:34-35 NIV)

John 15:131”Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

Jeremiah 31:3” The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness”

1 John 4:16”And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.”