When your Husband tries to Escape with Penelope
Seated five shelves up, in my dark brown kitchen cabinet, is a large orange bowl. It's a pretty 6.5 litre salad bowl by the Italian brand Omada Designs, and I love it, a little bit too much.
For this post, let's call it Penelope. The day I bought Penelope, I snatched it off the shelf and wouldn't let go, it was the last piece at the store and I couldn't quite explain why I was drawn to it.
I usually reserve Penelope for days that I need to mix dough or days that I'm really in my culinary-beast Martha Stewart zone! In summary, this is my favorite kitchen bowl, so you could imagine my astonishment one day, when I saw Ed suspiciously holding my precious orange Penelope! First, he doesn't bake. Second, he was at least 10 feet out of the kitchen with my bowl in hand with a very determined look on his face! Third, he had mentioned an hour before, that he had some "home-improvement" activities he needed to get to! So like someone negotiating with a hostage-taker, i asked him carefully, 'What are you doing, babe?', I took a slow step towards him.
'I need a bowl', he responds and explains his project, which was to occur completely outdoors and involved every type of ingredient possible but kitchen ingredients.
Only heaven could sufficiently describe my distress to you. Lol. Penelope balanced precariously in the crook of his left arm, pleading with me to rescue it.
He had to be kidding! Anyway, we negotiated and he eventually picked out another bowl, which was previously a pedicure bowl and then we both went out to his home improvement project thing, to which i made zero contributions. Hehe.
You know, I never fully understood what happened that day until recently- whatever inherent value you develop in yourself is exactly commensurate with the situations you will find yourself in. I would never in a million years have let him take my bowl out to do anything other than kitchen-related activities. I was determined to wrestle it out of his hands, even. Lol. The inherent value i saw in Penelope made me insist that she remained indoors for "clean" use and not dirt.
Imagine we were all bowls? What type of bowl would you be? I'd like to be a gold dish.......wait, NO...... a ROSE gold dish with strong but delicate handles and intricate designs on my base, and I'd like to get polished every night!
“Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable.
Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.
”
Every time I see the orange bowl, I remind myself that I have to rid myself of all those things stated in 2 Timothy, chapter 2, that are tagged as dishonorable, so I can be used by God for honorable things and so I don't end up being used for common tasks like feeding the dog or cleaning the toilet bowl or be that bathroom bucket with the white soap marks!
I'd rather be a fancy bowl that sits pretty high up the household duties but I have to constantly and consciously keep me clean; my thoughts, my heart, my motives. Clean. Always.
Might I mention that Ed has attempted to escape with Penelope twice. Lol.
What type of vessel would you like to be? You know God fights for you all the time, like I fought for Penelope, right?
