"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."