The Tale of the Deviled Eggs

As you may have read in my last post, my Grandpa turned 90 this past Friday.  Yesterday, his beloved wife, my Grandma, would have been 85.  In honor of her birthday, I decided to re-post a blog I wrote a few years ago.  I give you...The Tale of the Deviled Eggs.

I detest deviled eggs. I've never liked deviled eggs, and I don't think I will ever like deviled eggs. To me, they are a repulsive fare that I don't ever care to even try (no offense to all of you who make deviled eggs...I'm sure they are delicious to the many people who seem to love them).  However, in spite of my aversion, it was because of some deviled eggs that I learned a valuable lesson.

One day when I was small, I was going to ride to church with my Grandma Lillian and Grandpa Dallas Jacobs. I guess we were having some sort of pot luck at church that night, because Grandma had made some...you guessed it...deviled eggs, and had set them in the floorboard of the back seat of her car. Before I got into the car, she kindly reminded me to be careful not to smash the eggs in the floorboard. However, I, being very young (yeah, we'll blame it on that), stepped on the eggs anyway. They must have been covered with plastic wrap or something, because the eggs were pretty much ruined.

You can imagine the frustration that Grandma must have felt with me. But do you know what she did? She didn't yell. She didn't fuss. She didn't show any anger. She got out of the car, took the container of eggs and threw the whole thing up in the air while letting out a gleeful, "Wheeeeeeee!"

True story.

That's what I call making the best out of a "bad" situation. I need to remember that on days when twice I open the refrigerator and an open glass of unfinished milk falls out onto the floor.  I need to remember that when I walk into the bathroom and there is water all over the place because Evan has been "fishing" in the sink.  I need to remember that when my young resident cowboys decide to have a "gunfight" on top of my "I just folded those!" pile of clothes.  I need to remember that when I am simply inconvenienced, or when I have been lightly offended by a friend's harsh words.  I need to remember that when I am simply at my wit's end!

Certainly some things are deserving of our anger, but there are other instances (perhaps like the ones mentioned above) which may seem deserving of our anger, but in reality would be better off being overlooked and handled in a gentle manner.  

In short, I learned from that story, that yes, some things are worth getting angry over, but other things can be just as easily tossed aside...or up in the air!

Proverbs 19:11

A man's discretion makes him slow to anger,

and it is his glory to overlook a transgression.