When I was a young girl, my mom, after an especially long day at work, would sometimes make a ‘breakfast’ meal for supper. I remember one time in particular.
On that evening, my mom silently and apologetically placed a plate of eggs and sausage, and extremely burned biscuits in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if either of my brothers or my sister noticed. All my dad did was to reach for a biscuit, smile at my mom, and ask me, “How was your day at kindergarten?”
I don’t remember what I told him about school, but I do remember watching him smear butter and grape jelly on that ugly burned biscuit. He ate every bite of that thing. He didn’t make a face nor did he utter a word about it.
When I left the table, I heard my mom apologize to my dad for burning the biscuits. I’ll never forget what he said, “Honey, I love burned biscuits every now and then.
Later that night, I went to kiss Daddy good night. I asked him, “Do you really like burned biscuits?”
He looked tenderly at me and simply said, “Your mom put in a hard day at work, and she’s real tired. And besides, a little burned biscuit never hurt anyone.”
As I’ve grown older, I often thought about that evening meal. Life is full of imperfect things and imperfect people. I know I easily fit into the latter group. But I’m learning over the years that it is good not to dwell on each other’s burned biscuits; but rather to see something good in that person; to accept each others faults without notice, and do notice their good traits. And that is one of the most basic and important keys to creating a healthy, growing, and lasting relationship. This is true not only of husband-wife relationships, but parent-child, friendship, neighbor or work relationships as well.
We all need to learn to take the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of relationships and lay them at the feet of Jesus, because He is the only One who can make a relationship where burned biscuits aren’t going to be a deal breaker.
Love covers a multitude of imperfections in committed relationships. As Jesus said, “Love one another as I have loved you.” So pass me a biscuit, please, and yes, the burned one will do just fine.
Don’t put the key to your happiness in someone else’s pocket – keep it in your own.