Grits

There are handful of mornings I stand at the counter and make savory, hot grits.  I am not fond of grits but my husband and my sons are wild about them.  Lest you be impressed at my culinary ability, making grits involves boiling water and opening packets.  If I am in a gourmet mood, I add fresh garlic and cheese and voila,  grits!

My sons and husband are always complimentary and always grateful and always, or almost always, they retell the tale of the best grits they ever had, aka, not mine.

It was a trip to Florida on my eldest son’s sixteenth birthday.  The boys took a trip, a “coming of age”, birthday trip and they landed at a place serving, as they tell it, “the best shrimp and grits on the planet.”  I have heard this story almost as many times as I have made grits.  You can tell their mouths water, their minds sling back and they tell us girls, “that was a meal that stuck to your ribs.”

Odd this saying, odd this pleasure.  We strive in life for things that satisfy, that stick with us, that fill in us a place that is empty.  For some, it’s shrimp and grits.

I get up some mornings with the overwhelming pressure of the day ahead.  I mentally jog through my day thinking of what the kids will need before school, what papers, what folders or what breakfast they might want, what meetings I might have scheduled and then what the evening might hold.

As I have gotten older, I have learned this moment is exactly when I need to pause.   I try and silence my mind for a few minutes and ask God what I need to pray for.  I believe with my whole heart there are people and situations for which the Holy Spirit appoints us to pray.  The list is never too long but it is an uncanny thing how a shift in focus changes our vision.

I sift through the miraculous nature of it all and change my posture from pressure to a position of prayer.  He gives us grits, things that stick to our ribs and adhere to our hearts.  They are ours. 

The list changes, the needs, the wants, the hopes. 

The faithfulness never changes. He didn’t have to wake up.  He was there waiting.  He had sent an invitation waiting for us to show up.

When we speak, He knows, when we ask, He is already answering.  We wonder about His will and then we realize we are fulfilling it by asking.

Amazing really this conversation.  We present what we do not know to the All-knowing.  It is the keys to the prison of worry, self-doubt and self-focus.

We give up to Him those things we cannot carry.  He gives back to us the freedom to carry on.

“Always be joyful.  Never stop praying.  
Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s 
will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” 

1 Thessalonians. 5:16-18