Picking up the Pieces
“Do as much as you can, but never more than you should”
Mrs. T.
In the summer when the days were excessively hot, my mother liked to have a cold lunch with a selection of deli meats and cheeses. These meals were always very casual-bread still in its package, crackers in the box, condiments in the jars, etc.
One particular time when I was clearing the table, I tried to take all the condiments back to the fridge in one trip. On the very top of the pile was a large, just opened jar of French’s mustard. I was in the middle of the kitchen when the mustard jar fell to the floor. Mustard and pieces of glass went every where.
At some point in our lives we all find ourselves in a situation where we have a mess to clean up. It may be our mess, and we will simply roll up our sleeves and get to work. If the mess belongs to a friend or a loved one, our immediate thoughts are to do everything possible to pick up the pieces and put everything back together. But we can’t. If we do all the work, lessons will not be learned.
Mother helped me pick up the broken glass and get the floor clean enough to be able to walk on. After that, she stopped. I scrubbed the cabinets, the fridge, the stove, and mopped the floor. Took me all afternoon to get everything clean.
A valuable lesson was learned that day.
Blessings and love,
Mrs. T-Sipper 1972
“Do as much as you can, but never more than you should”
Mrs. T.
In the summer when the days were excessively hot, my mother liked to have a cold lunch with a selection of deli meats and cheeses. These meals were always very casual-bread still in its package, crackers in the box, condiments in the jars, etc.
One particular time when I was clearing the table, I tried to take all the condiments back to the fridge in one trip. On the very top of the pile was a large, just opened jar of French’s mustard. I was in the middle of the kitchen when the mustard jar fell to the floor. Mustard and pieces of glass went every where.
At some point in our lives we all find ourselves in a situation where we have a mess to clean up. It may be our mess, and we will simply roll up our sleeves and get to work. If the mess belongs to a friend or a loved one, our immediate thoughts are to do everything possible to pick up the pieces and put everything back together. But we can’t. If we do all the work, lessons will not be learned.
Mother helped me pick up the broken glass and get the floor clean enough to be able to walk on. After that, she stopped. I scrubbed the cabinets, the fridge, the stove, and mopped the floor. Took me all afternoon to get everything clean.
A valuable lesson was learned that day.
Blessings and love,
Mrs. T-Sipper 1972
