Chocolate Chips and Lessons From the Ordinary
Chocolate Chips have their very own holiday! Who knew that May 15 was National Chocolate Chip day? Carole shares some lessons she learned.
What lessons can we learn from other holidays? Share your comment below or contact us at HopeStreamRadio.
Ordinary Lessons From Chocolate Chips
Puzzles and I are not close friends but I do enjoy seeing the finished product. Life can be puzzling at times and I must admit I don’t really like these times any more than sitting to put a puzzle together. Patience is a lesson I need to continually learn.
As I thought about what to share, I decided to check out some of the crazy celebration days that I might find in May. Who knew that May 15 was National Chocolate Chip Day? I sure didn’t and I wondered why anyone would think we needed to celebrate the chocolate chip. I mean I love chocolate and I totally get having a handful of chocolate chips as a comfort snack or to use them in baking to make something ooey gooey good. But to celebrate them. . . . . I am not so sure I am into that.
Yet it made me think that sometimes God uses very ordinary things to remind me of a something or teach me a lesson. I look at some of my collections of things that often overwhelm me and make me think I need to do some serious decluttering. Yet sometimes those items remind me of a truth from God’s Word.
Ornamental China Shoes
One day, a few years ago, I sat looking at some of these objects and one little pair of ornamental china shoes caught my eye. They had belonged to my grandmother who gave them to me when she moved to a smaller apartment. One is perfect, just the way it looked originally back in the late 1940’s when she received them as a gift from her daughters. The other is marred by cracks and the brown of the glue where my grandmother glued broken pieces back together and set the pair back on the shelf.
My grandfather had broken the one when he tried to dress my doll in some finery. Grandma loved us both so much she just fixed the damage the best she could. I heard the story all my life and needed the pair to stay together when she told me it might be time for the mended one to be thrown in the garbage. I knew I had to have both of them. After all it was what made the story come to life.
God Reminded Me of Love
But that day God reminded me of love. My grandmother loved me and grandpa and those little shoes given to her by her daughters so she fixed them. She treasured even the broken one because of the story that went with it.
But even more God reminded me of how much he loves me – all of us and longs for us to give him all our broken pieces. He will mend them and treasure each one of us. He knows all about the cracks, the mends, the restoration and yet he chooses to see us as the unbroken shoe because of the blood of Jesus.
God used this ordinary object, a simple little ornamental pair of china shoes I had seen all my life, to remind me of how much he loves me. Then just a little while ago he also used this same little pair of shoes to tell me that once he mends the broken pieces, fixes the mess, he doesn’t sit me on the shelf and forget about me. He has a plan for my life and wants me to listen to his voice and follow the purpose he has for me. I may not understand the way but I need to trust and obey his voice.
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Lessons From a Wooden Plaque
Another ordinary object hangs on my wall above my desk. It is a wooden plaque. The cut slab from the tree trunk has a sticker rose on it and pasta alphabet letters with the verse He Will Not fail thee. CHR 28:20 – I would have to look it up to see exactly where the verse is located because part of the numbers are missing. It no longer shows if it first or second Chronicles and the verse number is a maybe. But the important part is the words – He Will Not Fail Thee.
I made the plaque for my grandfather when I was about seven. He treasured it because I gave it to him and yet he did not have long to enjoy it since a year later he died. My grandmother kept it hanging in her home until she passed away over thirty years later. Now it hangs in my home. The story reminds me of a grandfather’s love for me that he would treasure a simple gift I made and how my grandmother never took it down. But more than that it reminds me that no matter what happens – someone dies too young, is very ill, we have financial setbacks, upheavals and twists and turns in life or good things too – we can know that God never fails. He never changes. He continues to love us and wait for us to come to him and have a relationship with him.
God is Putting Together our Life’s Puzzle
There are stories and lessons in the everyday objects that remind us that God is putting together the pieces of our lives when we surrender the broken pieces to him. They may remind us of a verse to tell us one more time of his love and how he never fails.
I have begun to write some of these lessons from the ordinary objects I find around my house, whether they are a family piece or just everyday items. This helps me remember what God whispered to me in a way I never expected. Story helps us understand the points, gives us a visual reminder of truth God wants us to grasp. I use them as anecdotes when I speak. I include them in family stories. They become part of the puzzle pieces of my life.
What everyday objects has God used to remind you of something special or a lesson he needed you to hear and understand in a new way? Share them with someone else.
Carol Harrison
Listen to Carol’s program Puzzle Pieces Of Life.
Carol Harrison B.Ed is a speaker and published author with one book, Amee’s Story and stories in twelve anthologies. She is passionate about helping people of all ages and ability levels find their voice and reach their fullest potential.
She knows, through personal experience that some of life’s experiences are tougher than others. She encourages people that even in the twists and turns of life God’s amazing grace provides hope. She lives in Saskatoon, SK with her husband Brian. They have four adult children and a dozen grandchildren.
Visit Carol’s website carolscorner.ca
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Images Credits
Chocolate Chip Cookies – rawpixel
Porcelain Shoe – kasiaczernik
Grandfather and Child – StockSnap
Old Tools – Free-Photos
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