Hahahaha! Here’s me laughing at myself. Hahahaha!
The last year or so, we’ve been working with Jed on the meaning of ‘fair.’ When things don’t go his way, he wants to yell, “It’s not fair!” at us and then storm off. Well, my usual reaction is, “You want fair?” For instance, he doesn’t get what he wants for lunch. “That’s not fair!” “Okay, Mister, you want fair? You don’t get lunch. Lots of kids have one, two, or maybe even no meals a day and you get 3 meals plus snacks. I’ll give you fair!” Yep, that’s typical, frustrated, preachy me.
Well, God gave me some of my own back. I decided to pout about my isolation. And God answered. Every Friday we get together with some friends for dinner and pray together. They met at our house this week. The next night, we invited over some teenage boys to play games while their parents had a date. Then, we had some friends invite us to a park for a picnic. Woohoo! Out and about with friends! I packed up some sandwiches, got the kids excited, and put on my going-out clothes. About the time we were going to leave, I got a text from a local friend who lives across town. We met during the flood and I’d wanted to see her, but hadn’t been able to meet up with her yet. She was on my street looking for my house. Right then. You’ve got to be kidding me!
So, we called our picnic buddies and told them we couldn’t come because we had guests. Could they come over for dinner instead? Yes. Then, we bustled around trying to make part of our house acceptable for receiving guests. It was my house-helper’s day off, so things were more scattered and dirty than usual with the weekend festivities. We got things together, I went to find them, and Chris made chai and ordered take-out food from a local restaurant. Chris making chai and serving food is pretty strange in this culture. Usually when we visit families we rarely see the women. They are in the kitchen making the chai and food. But, when I have guests, Chris helps by watching the kids and making a snack so I can chat with them. This really amazes our friends, but we feel that it’s okay to not follow the culture in this. It’s good for people to see a husband who thinks of his wife and family and isn’t afraid of the kitchen. Okay, back to the story.
It as great to reconnect with this friend and we hope to have dinner at their house soon. So, after those girls had tea, chatted, played with the kids, had lunch, chatted, played with the kids some more, they headed home. Then, our picnic buddies came for dinner. We had a wonderful time eating together, having dessert and even playing some music together. So, this morning I woke up expecting to spend an hour or so in quiet prayer upstairs, resetting myself before Chris left for work. Cue God’s joke. Up walk 10 men who are visiting from another area. They heard that we open our attic room up two mornings a week for anyone who wants to pray. This was the first time someone took us up on it. So, chai again. Plus, Chris started to make oatmeal for them all, burned it, and had to make another batch. We got breakfast in them all, sent them all out to build shelters for flood victims, and collapsed into bean bags asking God for the energy to start our day. It was around 8:30 AM.
Now, after a bit of a rant about being isolated, I had hosted 5 groups totaling 35 people in 3 days. Hahahaha! So, maybe I don’t need to go anywhere. I just need to pout a bit and God will say, “Okay, you want fair?” Well played, Lord, well played.
The last year or so, we’ve been working with Jed on the meaning of ‘fair.’ When things don’t go his way, he wants to yell, “It’s not fair!” at us and then storm off. Well, my usual reaction is, “You want fair?” For instance, he doesn’t get what he wants for lunch. “That’s not fair!” “Okay, Mister, you want fair? You don’t get lunch. Lots of kids have one, two, or maybe even no meals a day and you get 3 meals plus snacks. I’ll give you fair!” Yep, that’s typical, frustrated, preachy me.
Well, God gave me some of my own back. I decided to pout about my isolation. And God answered. Every Friday we get together with some friends for dinner and pray together. They met at our house this week. The next night, we invited over some teenage boys to play games while their parents had a date. Then, we had some friends invite us to a park for a picnic. Woohoo! Out and about with friends! I packed up some sandwiches, got the kids excited, and put on my going-out clothes. About the time we were going to leave, I got a text from a local friend who lives across town. We met during the flood and I’d wanted to see her, but hadn’t been able to meet up with her yet. She was on my street looking for my house. Right then. You’ve got to be kidding me!
So, we called our picnic buddies and told them we couldn’t come because we had guests. Could they come over for dinner instead? Yes. Then, we bustled around trying to make part of our house acceptable for receiving guests. It was my house-helper’s day off, so things were more scattered and dirty than usual with the weekend festivities. We got things together, I went to find them, and Chris made chai and ordered take-out food from a local restaurant. Chris making chai and serving food is pretty strange in this culture. Usually when we visit families we rarely see the women. They are in the kitchen making the chai and food. But, when I have guests, Chris helps by watching the kids and making a snack so I can chat with them. This really amazes our friends, but we feel that it’s okay to not follow the culture in this. It’s good for people to see a husband who thinks of his wife and family and isn’t afraid of the kitchen. Okay, back to the story.
It as great to reconnect with this friend and we hope to have dinner at their house soon. So, after those girls had tea, chatted, played with the kids, had lunch, chatted, played with the kids some more, they headed home. Then, our picnic buddies came for dinner. We had a wonderful time eating together, having dessert and even playing some music together. So, this morning I woke up expecting to spend an hour or so in quiet prayer upstairs, resetting myself before Chris left for work. Cue God’s joke. Up walk 10 men who are visiting from another area. They heard that we open our attic room up two mornings a week for anyone who wants to pray. This was the first time someone took us up on it. So, chai again. Plus, Chris started to make oatmeal for them all, burned it, and had to make another batch. We got breakfast in them all, sent them all out to build shelters for flood victims, and collapsed into bean bags asking God for the energy to start our day. It was around 8:30 AM.
Now, after a bit of a rant about being isolated, I had hosted 5 groups totaling 35 people in 3 days. Hahahaha! So, maybe I don’t need to go anywhere. I just need to pout a bit and God will say, “Okay, you want fair?” Well played, Lord, well played.
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