It all started one morning when I was reading a particularly stirring verse in Isaiah. About half way through I spotted a nugget. Not of wisdom. But a literal nugget made of chicken. Yes, there it sat on the end table in my living room.
Right then and there I decided to do a little test. I left it just to see how long it would take for another human in my home to notice it and recognize where this day-old, unrefrigerated nugget of pieces and parts belonged. The poor little nugget sat hour after hour right in the middle of my den. It sat right beside Brooke playing with her cyber pets on Webkins. It sat through Ashley's cartoon fest. It sat while
Not a soul noticed the nugget except me! So, I devised part two of my plan. I asked the kids to come and sit on the couch so I could take their picture. I purposely posed them right with the nugget. Look at my evidence people - just look!
To your left you'll see Ashley chatting away while the little nugget is close enough to hear every detail!
And then here is my little Brooke Caroline. But do you notice the little detail about her photo? The nugget has been moved! Moved I tell you!!! Someone flicked it just a few inches but never bothered to pick it up. Are you feeling my pain? It has been eight hours since the nugget was first discovered by moi!
So what is one to do with such pieces and parts that have been on display like this all day? Sometimes she gets all in a huff and demands to know who did this and why is it that no one but her EEEEVER picks up things like this … blah, blah, blah.
But on this day she remembered her resolution for this year: No more hissy fits!
So, through a nugget of chicken, she sees God’s nugget of wisdom. She decides to end her experiment and simply pick it up herself.
She then puts on her rose colored glasses that will surely transport her to places more tropical - where they don't even serve little deep fried poultry parts – and without having a hissy fit, she purses her lips into a most sincere smile and simply throws the nugget away. But not without taking a photo of the event so that her friends who have surely found nuggets in and around and tucked under and stuck to things, can relate and maybe even smile.
So that brings me to revisit my New Year’s resolution and examine how I’m doing. In the past, I have been known to throw a hissy fit, or two … or 200. But this year I have really made an effort to see the evidence of life in these kinds of mishaps. Yes, my children need to be more responsible. And yes, I am teaching them. But sometimes I simply need to get over things like this without the drama and fit-throwing.
I think my study of Isaiah is really helping that. "Forget the former things (like daily hissy fits); do not dwell on the past (even when it smells like day-old chicken.) See (Look for God in every situation and if you have cool glasses like these that my dentist let me pick from the prize box last week, they will surely help), I am doing a new thing! (God's abundance and my feelings of frustration are a perfect match.) Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? (God is available moment by moment with perfectly designed wisdom and perspectives for my every toil and trial.) I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland." (Boy does that perfectly describe my soul when it gets all busy and dried up - kind of like that nugget.) Isaiah 43:18-19, NIV.
