Dry Rye

"Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. "  Matthew 17:20.

 

My mom and dad could be a reality tv show.  The title would be simply “The Rick and Sharon Show”.  They would entertain America with all of the unusual things that happen to them and the laughter would roar as everyone witnessed their hilarious interactions with each other.  Some of the things that happen to them I’ve never heard happen to anyone else.  They are really comical as a pair, but they are also equally funny individually too.  Today, in honor of my mom's birthday, I want to share a quick story about her.  For some reason, my mom never seems to get quite what she ordered in a restaurant. Maybe you've had a similar experience...

In 1998, my mom, dad, and I traveled to Vermont together for my cousin’s wedding.  My older brother, Brian, couldn’t make the trip with us, so he made me promise to write down all of the funny things that mom did or said so that he wouldn’t miss anything.  Let’s just say, I had a whole notebook full of stories by the time the 3 day trip was over.  One of the stories that I wrote is an example of something that would only happen to my mom.  She and I were sitting at breakfast at a quaint little Vermont hotel.  Along with eggs and fruit, she orders “dry toast” with the expectation of getting a nice wheat toast with no butter.  The server misunderstood her and brought her “rye toast with butter on it.”  My mom told the server, “Um, I ordered “'dry toast'”.  The server takes it back and then brings her “dry rye”!  Wrong again.  She really didn’t care for rye bread, but she didn’t want to hurt the server’s feelings or embarras me anymore by sending it back again, so she just ate it.  As it turned out, my mom actually liked the dry rye!  Plus, we both got such a good laugh out of it, especially when we got to share the story with my brother when we got home. 

~This is one of many Sharon stories that I have.  She was hoping for dry toast but instead got rye toast with butter.  In her second attempt to get her order right, she still ended up with the rye toast only this time without butter--the dry rye.  It was not at all what she ordered, and it got me thinking about how many times in our lives where we pray to God to give us exactly what we “order” and how often it seems that He rarely gets our “order” right.  Even though we are so specific and ask for dry toast, He may know that we need rye bread somewhere in our diet, so that’s exactly what He's going to put on our plate.  No matter how many times we send it back, we are still going to get the rye bread.  It can be so frustrating not to get what we ordered in a restaurant, but it’s even more confusing not to get what we “order” from God.  And this can really test our faith in Him, can’t it?  But, we can choose to spend our time being so upset about what we didn’t get and getting angry at God and questioning why He would give the dry rye to us, or, like my mom, we can make the best out of what we did get.  What will you do with your dry rye?

~This week, I pray for a renewed faith in what God is serving you.  I pray that you will trust that God knows exactly what you need exactly when you need it.  I pray that even if you don’t understand why He gave you the dry rye, that you will trust that He knows what He is doing and wouldn’t give you the dry rye if it weren’t exactly what He wanted you to have.  And even though it was not at all what you ordered, He will use it to nourish your body and strengthen your soul.   So, accept the dry rye.  Be thankful for the dry rye.  And don’t be surprised that you may actually start to enjoy the taste of the dry rye more than you expected. 

Happy Birthday, Mom!  Thanks for always teaching me to enjoy the dry rye in life.  You always make the best out of and have faith in every situation, and I love and respect that about you.  I love you!