Chocolate Cake or Celery?

I am a person who is uncomfortable with new things, new places, new people. But I am growing out of it, too. I am finding ways to cope through my shyness and insecurity. I can take a deep Yoga breath. I can slow down and close my eyes for a minute. I can find another person who's confident and latch on. I can hang back and observe for a while. I can find someone else who looks uncomfortable, too, and we can either be bouyed by the sameness of our feelings or we can be braver and tackle this "thing" together.

Not that I was all that scared to go this weekend to Ladies' Day in Midway! But I always try to imagine what an event will be like, and I am usually not close to being right. I have done things like this before, so I already had an idea of what to expect. And I knew the ladies from Cavitt who were going with me, so I knew I would have people to talk to.

All this to say that I imagine things one way, and then it turns out wonderful in other ways I couldn't have expected!

First the lesson. I think there were several points that hit me, and maybe they will be beneficial to you as well. The speaker was Robin Williamson, from Huntsville, who is a Mom to two teens, and a second grade teacher in a private Christian school. The title of her talk was "Chocolate Cake or Celery?"

• Matthew 6:19-24 The eye is the lamp. Your eye determins how you view things---as cake or celery. And he didn't mention your "eyes" but instead one eye. You can only focus on one thing---like God OR Money. Like the Positive OR the negative.
• I like God's mercy when it's on me, but I say "it's not fair" when he gives it to others. Mercy is undeserved favor. This went along with the story in Matthew 20:1-16. Who am I to question when God gives people favor?
• Are God's ways "celery" to me? Do I look at Bible reading or fasting or praying or giving mercy as celery? But God's ways are really "chocolate cake" and good.
• Here's a big one: Joy follows suffering. The suffering I do as a parent, will bring joy to me and the world as I train the kids to be good people. Ah! This was so encouraging to me. I figured I was just doing parenting wrong if I had the suffering feeling. I figured I was not supposed to suffer. But this lady has what she called two strong-willed kids, and here at 17 years old for her son, her suffering was really paying off. He was really a joy. She said she thought she had 2 strong willed kids. I think I do too! But we see this order of things in God's world all the time: suffering through pregnancy and childbirth to get the joy of the baby. Suffering through learning the times tables will bring you the joy of easier Math problems. Suffering through the planting and harvesting of food brings you the joy of the eating of it. We coddle the children so much, they never have to suffer. They should get to suffer through things, so they may have the full joy of the work. This was a good thing for me to think about.
• The point of the celery and cake illustration was to get to look at God's word for the chocolate cake the it is.
• I ought to be adjusting my seeing to the Word of God, not adjusting the Word to fit my outlook. We ought to be looking at the Word as a whole, a story that goes together and points to Jesus. We ought NOT to be singling out scripture and hanging all our hopes on the one interpretation of something. Always in context.
• Psalm 19:7-11 talks about how God's Word is perfect. I like the different attributes it talks about there: perfect, gives strength, trusted, makes people wise, right, gives joy, shines, gives light to minds, pure, lasts forever, true, more priceless then gold, sweeter than honey, rewarding when obeyed.

So the ladies' day was chocolate cake. The singing was heavenly sounding, with only female voices. The lunch---served by their husbands there---was delicious, and we did get some chocolate cake to eat for dessert. I wish I had brought my camera because they had icing celery on the cake! Cute! The ride over and back was a chocolte cake conversation, and I was glad to get to know some ladies better. The church building itself was a treat to be in. Two of our Cavitt group got door prizes---that's the icing on the cake! I enjoyed seeing the Hull's new car, adn the joy thier son had in showing it off Just a fun day. We vowed we'd try to get out to some more Ladies' Days around the area!