Best Designed Plans

Do you ever have those days were you have “a plan”?  A real plan.  One that looks great on paper.  You know the kind that seems like a no-brainer to a big win.  Those feel good even before you get going.

Do you ever make this plan and it is not “fact-checked” against reality?  I do that sometimes.  Plans created in a vacuum.  Guess that things made in a vacuum do… they SUCK! (Get it?  Ha!)

When I go about planning and doing without looking at the whole picture things fall short and I get disappointed in myself in the outcomes.  Take today for example.  I need to get across town (not Liberty… I need to go to the far off state of Kansas) and I thought bing, bam, boom – – in and out and all will be great.

So, I load my toddler up and head to the Wild Wild West of Kansas at 11am.  Ten minutes into our journey he isn’t babbling and singing along with me anymore.  I glance back and he is OUT!  That good kind of slumped over sleep with his head bobbing back and forth.

So I caught the next exit back to Liberty and in 7 minutes I was able to get him in his bed for a real nap.

Plans averted for a real rest and a chance for me to get things done at home. (and to blog!)

Here is what I had overlooked and should have added to our reality equation:

• He had major playtime last night during our small group for church = tired
• He got me up at 5:15 am and was wide awake = tired
• He had already been up 6 hours = tired
• He had just eaten the biggest banana ever personally purchased = full

And if I had been aware instead of focused on the desired outcome I would have never even attempted to go.

Ah to be human and get so much practise in readjusting after erring.  I do appreciate the “oops” moments because next time I will refine my thinking and I hope I will be able to miss this rookie mistake.

This is a small example but I bet each of us could pick a bigger example in our lives were we need to step back and see all the pieces to the puzzle.

Think it out without being in a vacuum.

(SIDE NOTE: We are outta here… he napped almost 2 hours and has woke up happy… Kansas here we come!!)

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Grain of Salt… or a Salt Lick?

How do you react to life, new information, or problems?

DEEP QUESTION right?

Who stops to think about how they weigh out what percentage they believe in something that they learn, hear, witness or be part of?  I waiver between taking “things” with a grain of salt to the extreme of taking “things” with a salt lick.

Some history because I got curious… where does that saying come from?

Wikipedia states that a grain of salt means to accept it but to maintain a degree of skeptism about its truth.  And that it goes back to 77 AD.  Food wasn’t always prepared to the USDA/USFDA standards… mainly because it was forever ago.  So salt was added to help food be “safer”.

My only interation/memory of an actual salt block was grocery shopping in the little town of Smithville, MO.  Weekly I would head to the store with my Mom and we would spend quality time at Big V. (V = Value)  I can clearly remember the entire layout of that little store and the faces that would greet me in my cute long pigtails. (mainly Ms. Velma) I can even remember where we would place the green 7-Up bottles for deposit.  We were “green” before green was something to strive for.

Anyway… I remember wandering off from my Mom while she was in the produce section.  I would be on my own.  Don’t panic… small town, late 70’s… early 80’s.  The employess always knew who was in the store because they really knew them.  I was allowed to wander.  And I admittedly would touch everything.  (sorry Mom)  In the baking aisle I took  my biggest liberties.  There on the bottom shelf on the left side was the biggest blocks of salt I had ever seen.  They probably weighed more than me.  (see picture below)

50 lbs of Moton’s salt.  Right at my pip-squeak level.  I didn’t know what they could even be used for but they intrigued me.  I can see myself back in that store right now.  I see this little girl with freckles looking up and down the empty aisle to see who was near.  And if the coast was clear, I would lick my finger and rub it on the block and then lick my finger again.  I KNOW THAT IS SOOO GROSS NOW and then.  But it was such a daring move for this type A, first born, rule follower.   (talk about full disclosure… I don’t even know if my Mom knows I did this regularly)

But when I think of how I react to life, problems or news I clearly see the difference between a fine grain of salt which is insigificant and an entire Morton’s 50 lb salt block.

I try to reframe things with a small grain of salt.  Or at least a salt shaker so that I can be adaptable, flexible and not continuously disappointed.

BUT those salt lick block moments happen.  50 lbs dropped out of no where and landing firmly on me with an incredible amount of power.  We all have to chip away at the block to get back to a grain.

This made me curious about the number of times salt is mentioned in the Bible.  In the King James Version it is mentioned 40 times.  Not an insignificant grain is it?

I find clarity in this verse and I hope it helps you measure out your reactions:

Let your converstaions be always full of grace, seasoned with salt so that you may know how to answer everyone.  Colossians 4:6 KJV.

I promise that it has been almost 30 years since my last salt tasting in Big-V.  🙂  And that I don’t do it now at Hy-vee!!