I am sitting in my kitchen scouring my refrigerator. My daughters are hungry, but I am not even sure I have anything to feed them. We have just returned from almost a full month away. The milk was bad, the cereal was stale, there was no orange juice. What will I feed them?
There were, miraculously, five perfectly good eggs in the back left corner of the refrigerator. We had brought half a loaf of bread home from the lake. “Alright girls, who wants eggs and toast.”
It was agreed that we would have eggs and toast only if the toast was slathered in butter. I popped the bread into the toaster and started cracking the eggs. I stared at the to do list my husband and I had made the previous day. Unpack the bags, fix the crack in the windshield, pick up the mail, go grocery shopping. Then there is everything that needs done before school starts. There is just so much to do.
I needed to get breakfast on the table right this second. Not because the girls were starving, they were already happily munching on their buttered toast, but because there was just so much to do. My house was a mess, I had a meeting to go to, school started for teachers the next day. I needed to shop and clean and organize and launder. I needed to do all of those things yesterday.
As I began hurriedly cracking the eggs into the frying pan, I head a little voice at my elbow. “Can I help?” “Yeah! Me too! We want to do it.” There wasn’t time. Didn’t my girls know I had a chore list to tackle? Didn’t they notice we could not sit on the coach in the living room because of all the stuff?
I sighed and let them each crack an egg. I watched as they clapped and told each other good job. Then I did something radical. Rebellious even. I turned the burner on to low. Eggs taste better when cooked slowly and carefully, but who has the time? I usually cook them on high. Instead I decided that the time I have and the things I get to would have to be enough. Because I am enough. And I cooked my eggs on low, because food is meant to taste good and this life is meant for enjoying.
Abby Norman 
Now I get it š Love this! Indeed, it does feel like rebellion to take the time to cook the eggs right when there is so much else to do. Yesterday, my rebellion was to use the $100 my parents gave me to help pay for gas on a trip they were going to take with me but then backed out — to take that and go out for both lunch AND dinner with my family, so I could finish a 540-page book instead. It was a good decision (and a great book).
great choices š
YES! Love it.
PERFECT. Good for you, Abby. You get it.
Loved this. I have all the same things to do before school starts….a basement to straighten, bags to unpack, blasted “summer packets” to find. Through my clinched teeth tonight, we rebelled by jumping on the trampoline and wrestling in the hammock. I’m glad we did. Thanks for this reminder.
Oh! That sounds lovely! Cheering you on!
I recently learned that the number one mental health issue for this generation is no longer depression but anxiety. Don’t worry about what you will wear (lilies of the field) or what you will eat (sparrows) but seek first the Kingdom of God. Rebellion is not listening to the anxious voices of this world but listening to the word of God and trusting him.
Oh Abby how lucky you are– not just to have this beautiful storybook family, or this happy time, but to be cognizant of it while it is happening! How great is that! Thanks for making me smile with this piece.
Oh man. Such a good reminder! Love it, Abby.