OH!!!! I’m not sure I really want to write this post – but the thought has been on my mind for a couple days and today, when I opened the frig and smelled that ‘I need to be cleaned’ smell I laughed inside. And when my husband said ‘Oh, and if you’ll clean the refrigerator today it would be good because garbage day is tomorrow.’ I kind of cringed . . . I prefer to get the frig cleaned before he recognizes it needs cleaning. But the moldy cucumber in the produce box could be seen and I suppose it was the combined scents of a slimy slice of deli sliced turkey and a little dab of leftover baked ham that had the familiar ‘it’s getting old sheen’ that had made our noses wrinkle this morning when we opened the door for our glasses of juice – cranberry for me and orange for him. He’s on what I call an ‘inconvenient fast.’
Inconvenient because we don’t share regular mealtimes together – but that’s another story feeding into this one because what’s left in the refrigerator right now speaks to me about more than this inconvenience of not eating meals together. We are each on our Lenten journey and while it isn’t drawing us closer to one another, perhaps we are each being drawn closer to God.
So if refrigerators could talk mine would ask – “Why did you buy so much lettuce, such a big head of broccoli and such a big onion? And why did you buy that cucumber and those two peppers when you know you don’t digest them?” And I would say – “I bought it for my husband before I knew he was going to be fasting.” And now I’m asking myself “Why didn’t you find someone to give them or take it to the food pantry, instead of throwing it away?” Aaaarrggghhhh – a good thought a little too late . . .
I hate throwing food away – I remember my father telling us at meal time that we should clean our plates because children in other countries were starving. And yes, I did ask my father one day how my stomach being too full could help someone somewhere else to not starve. He said it couldn’t so maybe I should think about them before I put the food on my plate. And I still wondered how that would help those other kids. That was then, and tonight I think . . . If my refrigerator could talk it might say something like this – ‘Don’t you realize there are families whose refrigerator drawers and shelves are almost bare?’ And I would have to say ‘Yes, indeed I do and this is what I’m going to have to do. Buy less for my husband and me and give more to them.’
If refrigerators could talk during the season of lent they might give us some common sense and lead to some changed lives . . . .
. . . give us this day our daily bread . . .
Interesting that cleaning my refrigerator led me to thinking about The Lord’s Prayer . . .
I am more aware now, that if I can use more restraint at the grocery store when shopping for my husband and I, I will reduce the amount of guilty stress I feel by ‘wasting food.’
I am also more aware that when I use more restraint at the grocery store when shopping for us, I will be able to help reduce the stress level of a family in need who is praying ‘give us this day our daily bread’ with true sincerity and hope.
Praying Our Way Through Stress 