[First, a funny but true story…]
SCENE:
Dinner Time
Fellows House
——————————-
My 9 year old daughter sits down with her obligatory vegetables.
(Yeah, we’re the wing-nut parents trying to get our kids to eat broccoli, hoping the word “medley” will appeal to their senses and make them think it’ll be sweet like pie….
– Nope. No luck in that department. I’ll let ya know if we have a breakthrough though.)
Let me back up for just a sec –
⏪️ ⏪️ ⏪️
Last week, I gave my kids each a serving of veggies from one of those microwavable steamer mixes (you know the kind?).
This particular medley had broccoli, carrots, peas, and water chestnuts.
Like a good mom, I sat with my kids and told them all the amazing benefits of what they were about to eat, and -like a good Jesus girl- I gave glory to God for all the amazing stuff He packs into the food that’s divinely designed to be best for our bodies. ;)
(Honestly -this was my attempt to negotiate with my kids -)
[ JUST EAT THE STINKIN’ VEGETABLES, KID! ]
The real question was:
What will my daughter do when it comes to this water chestnut thing….?
—-
It took a second before anything happened…
Then, with a swift swing of her hand, she stabbed her fork in and picked it up to inspect it.
She studied the thing as if she were the TSA having a second attempt at the Underwear Bomber….
and then – with a look of skepticism in her eyes – she finally decided to see what it was about…
“Mmm!” she said, much to my surprise.
(I held it together, though, and played it cool- like I knew all along that she was destined to love it.)
“Yeah, I know…” I said nonchalantly, as she ate the rest of her veggies with no rebuttal.
- Case closed: Grace likes water chestnuts.
—— ⏩️ Fast forward to this week ⏩️ ——
Being the good mom that I am, I knew we had a winner in the veggie-medley of last week, so I whipped one up real quick with a touch of the “Cook 4 Minutes” microwave button.
I placed the God-given medley before my children at dinner and depended on this to be a winning mix, just like it was last week.
——
Grace: “What is this white thing?”
Me: “That’s a water chestnut.”
Grace: “ew… I don’t like those.”
Me: “….well, that’s kinda funny because you loved ’em last week…”
Grace: “Well, I hate ’em this week!”
😤😤😤😤😤😤😤😤
MY HOW QUICKLY THINGS CAN CHANGE!
Ok, this is a funny little (VERY REAL) story, but there’s a reason why I share it with you:
Unlike our kids, you and I have the adult-advantage of being able to look back over the course of our life and remember so many things that just always “were”. Things that were a constant thread in our lives; things that didn’t change about us from week-to-week.
In all that remembering, we can learn so much about ourselves.
✧ We might recall that we loved certain kinds of books or television shows, and to this day, we still love those things.
✧ We might remember that we used to hate it when we saw kids get picked on, and it lit a holy fire in us to fight for justice.
✧ We might remember how we used to love it when school was starting and we had that excitement and eagerness to get into the classroom and learn.
—-
We know that we went through phases of different likes and dislikes.
And we can see it all clearly now, this side of childhood.
But the real beauty is when we can look back over the course of our life and see the things that, no matter how young or old – no matter the season of life – we had some things that always remained true for us.
—-
For me, it has always been true that I love to learn.
I’ve always been curious and asked lots of questions and wanted to get to the deeper things in life.
I’ve always felt compelled to speak up, to encourage, to empower…
I’ve always wanted things to be s.i.m.p.l.e. ; extra fluff & stuff just for show has never been appealing to me.
I’ve always chosen hope over hate or despair.
Those things didn’t change from one week to the next (like my daughter’s love/hate of veggies).
They’ve always been in me.
The point I want to draw out of all this for you today is this:
If you’ve been wondering what you should “do” with your life, or what your dreams should be, or what your highest hopes and goals should be – I’d challenge you to look back over your life and find some of those things that have always been for you.
Connect some dots.
Find the constants.
After doing that, although you may not have a clearly defined answer to your deepest existential questions, what you WILL have is a sense of direction.
You’ll have confidence in knowing who you’ve always been, deep down in your core.
And you’ll be emboldened to ensure – from here on out- you are living in line with who you truly are…
Who you’ve always been.
