Your Best Story Happened 10 Minutes Ago: Weird But Good!

My school lunch making days are numbered. Our “baby” is a junior in high school which means she will be a senior next year which means she’ll be flying the coup like tomorrow. Bittersweet at its finest folks. Making lunches for our three children has always been important to me. I know it’s not a priority for everyone and that’s okay, but it is for me. I used to make them all a good breakfast too but my Anna stopped me from that when she started liking sleep more than food.

At the She Speaks conference I attended last year, I heard Liz Curtis Higgs say, “Your best story will happen in the next 10 minutes.” She encouraged us storytellers to be looking for the story we need to tell. So as I stared at my blank screen most of this morning I kept thinking about what story just happened that I could write about. I didn’t sleep well. I got out of bed. Drank coffee. The dogs ate and proceeded with their morning ritual of licking themselves and smacking (it’s a good thing they’re cute). My husband left for work. I thought about how I should vacuum before I sit down to work. But I didn’t. I chatted with a friend via Facebook. We discussed writing goals and prayer requests for the day. My last message to her was, “So I’ve got to go figure out how to make a lunch for Anna without bread. Hope you have a great day!”

I pulled up the “add post” page on my site and stared. And stared. And stared. I had nothing. A zillions words floating around in my head, which is my life, but none coming out.

Then it hit me.

I made a lunch for my daughter. This is a great story!

Follow along…

So it was a few  more than “10 minute’s” ago but this morning I pondered how in the world would I make a lunch for my kiddo with no bread. It was raining. I wasn’t going to the store. My husband stopped yesterday and we both knew we needed bread and neither of us remembered. I perused the pantry and saw some dried soups that she doesn’t like and a box of mac n cheese. The mac n cheese might work but I really didn’t feel like going through that process and wasn’t sure I’d have enough time to make it. I decided to use my bread. “My” bread is gluten free. It’s good but she’s not a fan. If she knew I was using it she’d turn up her nose at it and plan to stop at the store on the way to school to grab something. Except I knew it was raining so she wouldn’t want to stop. I think I can pull this off! “My” bread is delicious when toasted so I made her a grilled cheese with an apple, some ranch Doritos and a couple of her Girl Scout cookies. I wrapped up her sandwich in a paper towel and put it in the Ziploc hoping she wouldn’t notice the bread and she’d be hungry enough by lunch to be okay with eating dirt if that’s what I’d sent. Which, btw, I would never do!

She bee bops downstairs (okay, yes, bee bop is an exaggeration because NO teenager EVER bee bops in the morning before school), starts putting her lunch in her backpack, inspecting each item as it goes in the appropriate zipper pouch. I watch from the corner of my eye as I check email on my laptop.

She exclaims, “Great lunch, Mom!! I’m excited!”

Wow! I thought to myself but I calmly said. “I’m not sure if your grilled cheese will be soggy or not. I hope it’s okay.”

She said, “It’s okay if it is, it’ll still be good.”

Well okay, then…

I texted her and asked her how her lunch was.

As I thought about “My Last 10 Minutes” story, it prompted me to explore what God might be “putting in my lunch”. What has He packed for me that He knows will be good but that I might turn my nose up to if He revealed it in advance. My daughter said her bread was “weird but good!”. Notice the “!”. There have been a few things in my life that I could easily say, “Well, God, that was weird but it was good!” He knows what He’s doing. He’s not trying to figure out what he’s going to do because He would never run out of “good” bread to begin with.

What has God “put in your lunch” that seemed weird to you but turned out to be good? Care to share?

Share in the comments or over on the EPFH Facebook page if that’s easier for you.

~Andrea

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11