Eat Your Peas!

“And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher” Isaiah 30:20.

One of my favorite stories my husband Bruce tells is when he was a little boy around the dinner table. His parents were adamant about everything on his plate being eaten. He absolutely detested peas and still does. One night at dinner he kept pushing them around his plate, and finally was told that he couldn’t get up from the table until he had eaten his peas. One pea after another he placed under the rim of the plate on the table until there was a circle of peas hidden under his plate. No doubt the peas were discovered and he was busted for his unwillingness. Eating those peas seemed inevitable.

God has given me many things on my plate over the course of my adult life that I have been forced to digest. One dish was the heartbreaking journey of watching a child go through drug addiction. Another plate was filled with terminal illnesses for my loved ones. Slice upon slice of adversity was served through my daily caregiving of my father-in-law where my attitude seemed less than lovely. But, the same God who allowed these things into my life served up fresh comfort...daily food from His word. As things in life tasted horrific God taught me that I had many side dishes from which to feast. I have such a large serving of people in my life who love me. I have the comfort food of the Bible and the knowledge that I can take any portion of any circumstance to Him. “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of hosts” Jeremiah 15:16.

God has taught me so much in those adversities and has stretched my faith beyond anything I could have ever dreamed. An enlarged faith is an essential ingredient in viewing life through the eyes of joy and hope no matter what is happening. I praise God every day for the painful things He has allowed in my life for they have been the greatest teachers that have yielded sustaining faith.

Don’t hide your adversities under your plate but go ahead and digest them for they will produce a healthy spiritual life.