Making the Best of a Sticky Situation

Please welcome Guest Barista, Amy Stavnes to the Internet Cafe!

It happened around 12 o'clock today...my moment of grumbling. Prior to that I was nursing the baby and my oldest children said they were hungry. Seeing that it was going to be awhile before they got to eat, my seven year old daughter offered to make lunch. I agreed and she happily skipped off to prepare a gourmet lunch of peanut butter and jelly roll-up tortillas.

As they sat down and began eating I heard silly jokes and contagious laughter, my baby girl became curious and quickly finished eating. She and I went to the kitchen to check on the two happy diners. It was then that my moment of grumbling arrived, as I walked by the kitchen table I felt it on my bare feet.

I not only felt it, I was stuck to the floor!


It didn't take long to realize that I was standing in a glob of grape jelly. I placed the baby in her walker and grumbled to myself as I left a trail of sticky foot prints all over the floor. Grabbing a wet rag I began to clean the floors and my sticky feet all the while growing increasingly agitated.

It was in that moment that I stepped back and took a look around...what did I have to be grumbling about?

I am blessed to have three beautiful healthy children...one of whom just made her and her brother lunch while I tended to the baby. So, what if I had to clean a little mess up off the floor...at least my children had food to eat and we have a house with a floor to clean. In that moment I stopped and said a prayer, for forgiveness from my grumbling and a BIG prayer of thanks to God for all of the beautiful blessings in my life, especially grape jelly on the floor.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

It is HIS will for us to give thanks in all circumstances….so whether it is that we have sticky grape jelly on the floor, up all night with a child having nightmares, late to work because of the pokey driver in front of us…we are to give thanks.

Thanks for having a home with floors that get sticky, thanks for the blessing of a child that finds comfort in your embrace during a night of bad dreams, thanks for having a car to drive to the blessing of your job…whatever the situation, look for the praise and find thanks for God in all situations.

Colossians 2:6-7

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Amy is a Southern girl (okay woman) who loves the Lord. She is married to the man of her dreams . Together they have been blessed with three amazing children. God has just blessed them by placing a child in their hearts and they have begun a journey of adopting from Ethiopia. Their life is filled with family activities and a desire to raise our children as strong Christians. Visit Amy at Filled With Praise