Occasionally we all have bad days, but once in a while we experience a doozy. The planets misalign and everything seems to come together all wrong. Wednesday was one of those days. I won't go into all the details but I did want to share one experience from the day.
After feeling unproductive and frustrated all day Wednesday I decided to make a nice dinner for my family. I marinated some wild salmon fillets and steamed some asparagus in honor of spring's arrival. Unfortunately, as I was taking the salmon out of the oven, the pan burned me through the hot pad and I dropped it onto the floor where my perfectly cooked, beautiful salmon all splatted into a messy heap. I was so sad at the moment that I didn't even have it in me to cry. I wanted to cry. I felt like crying, but I just couldn't even muster the energy. Since I had nothing else to cook and had already called the boys to the table I just quickly scooped the salmon off the floor and onto the serving plate. It definitely was not a beautiful presentation but it didn't taste bad at all. Later that evening I still felt saddened and frustrated by the incident. To add injury to insult my thumb still smarted from where I had burned it on the pan.
The next day I was talking to my sister on the phone and I told her all about my bad day the day before. I expressed to her that I felt like the whole day had been a waste. I felt that nothing good had come of it and I wished I could just erase it. In her loving, sisterly way she gently told me that I was looking at it wrong.
"Jill," she said "you are looking at this from the world's perspective. Heavenly Father judges our intents, our efforts and our actions, not the end result." He knows I wanted to do something nice for my family. He knows what my thoughts and intents were and it doesn't matter that things didn't turn out exactly how I had planned. I still fed my family with love in my heart and with a desire to serve them. I really feel like Heavenly Father accepted my offering, imperfect though it was, because it was offered in the right spirit. The world might look at me and think my efforts were a failure but I know that Heavenly Father loves us for the good we try to do even if our results aren't always what we want them to be.
We can't be perfect (at least not in the way the world defines perfect). That is His job and our imperfections help us to turn to Him and become closer to Him. I still feel a little emotional when I think about the salmon but it is for a different reason now. I'm so grateful for the lesson I learned through dropping dinner on the floor.
7 comments:
Amen and amen.
Sounds like Wednesday's bedtime story should have been Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.
Isn't it great when those we love help us find the good in the bad and take away our hurt?
Oh, I can empathize. I'm sorry about the dinner. I remember having a similar experience a few years ago... I wish it wasn't so hard to learn some of these lessons. {{{HUGS}}}
I am always surprised and the huge differences when I look at things how the world views it and how I really should view it with the big picture in mind. Even when it is hard I'm grateful for the insight after it's over. Glad you made it through, and thanks for sharing!
Thanks so much for sharing. I know I fall into the trap of 'not being perfect' much too often, and reading your post has just reminded me where I need to keep my focus.
I love reading your blog -- you're so real and down to earth. You're awesome!
Taste wise, it was the best salmon I've had in about 10 years.
And I've had salmon from some pretty expensive restaurants in the past ten years too!
Just what I needed to hear today Jill. I almost started crying just reading the post because I've had those same exact feelings. You have such a way with words-hope you are having a great day today!
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