Saturday, March 26, 2011

A Pan of Unfortunate Brownies

I should start by saying I've got two young children.  I was asked to bake either pies or brownies for our church's Baked Steak Supper.  Naturally all I could visualize was my children digging in to 4 pies when I wasn't looking, so I opted to do a pan of brownies.  

One pan of chocolate brownies
could be easily managed...
 

Well, as it turns out, there are 2 nice-sized holes on one side of my brownie pan, where each child took their sample.  As I looked upon this for the first moment, I felt anger boil up inside.  "I needed those for today!" I blurted out.  I stopped to think.  Always a good idea.

Good sense makes one slow to anger,
and it is his glory to overlook an offense.


~ Proverbs 19:11 ~

How silly to get so upset over a pan of brownies.  Anger is a healthy emotion and needs to be expressed, but not at the expense of my children.  So, I apologized to them, and we cleaned up the crumbs together.  They looked up at me like two sad little puppy dogs and said, "We're sorry, mom."  After hugs and a few kisses they both jumped up to play, as if nothing ever happened.

Be kind to one another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another,
as God in Christ forgave you.


~ Ephesians 4:32 ~

I'm thankful for life's little lessons, whether they be learned through a time out, a meaningful verse... or even a pan of unfortunate brownies.


3 comments:

  1. Megan-
    Great story! And I like your line, "I stopped to think. Always a good idea," which made me laugh, but also nod in agreement. Parenting is about looking at the big picture, not getting wrapped up in the crisis of the moment. But rather stepping back (bird's eye view) and seeing what really matters. Often it's not what would anger us. But instead we see the damage we could do to our beautiful children. And then we realize the brownies, (or whatever- fill in the blank) are not what's important.
    Wonderful post!
    -Ella

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you Ella! So often I find myself thinking back to this post, this day, when the brownies were ruined. I actually handled the situation well. I remind myself of that in the (daily!) moments when I feel like a failure at parenting. It's great when you can take your own advice and make it work for you!! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love that you have the kind of heart that finds wisdom in a(n empty) pan of brownies :)

    ReplyDelete

“Kind words can be short and easy to speak,
but their echoes are truly endless.”

~ Mother Teresa