God nudges me often about things in my life that don’t line up with His spirit. He’s used many things to teach me. Recently, it was a spoon.
Almost every night, after the youngest children are in their rooms, I pour a cup of decaf to unwind. I add the sweetener and cream, stir, set the spoon in the sink, and amble back to my chair to settle into my spot and exhale for a bit.
Well, that’s what I used to do.
My husband loves a clean sink. It drives him nuts when a person (read: me) won’t crack open the dishwasher and insert the dish. But for me, I am just done by that time of night. I think, it’ll be there the next time we need to load some stuff. It’s one spoon.
He sees the spoon in the freshly tidied sink and it looks like anarchy to him. He expressed this to me. Possibly more than once.
One night, I poured my coffee. I added the sugar and the cream. I had the spoon in my hand and looked at it. His words went through my head.
I thought about it. And then I laid the spoon, ever so gently, in. the. sink.
It’s been an incredibly long day, I thought. Who cares about a spoon? If it’s so all-fire important to him, let him move the spoon.
How dumb. And, how selfish.
That one simple act erupted into a disproportionate disagreement.
It wasn’t about the spoon. It was about pride.
As a busy mom, sometimes I’m tempted to feel “entitled” to this or that. Sometimes I resent the service having a family requires. Those feelings come when I am focusing on me, instead of on Jesus.
The Bible reads, “Value others above yourselves” (Philippians 2:3b, NIV).
God, give me grace to love others as you have loved us. Help me to act in love, from a spirit of humility. Help me to both literally and figuratively put the spoon in the dishwasher, even when I don’t feel like it.
“Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”
– Philippians 2:1-4, NIV
Suzy Stjernstrom
South Central
Inspirational