“As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” I Peter 4:10 Learning to eat again… Ever find yourself doing something and wonder why you are doing it? As a result of Tom’s brain surgery and the location of the tumor, Tom has become weak on one side of his body—his left hand, his left leg, and when he was in the rehab hospital, we eventually discovered that he had difficulty swallowing his food. Right after his surgery when he was in the hospital, the doctor said that he had some pneumonia, so he had been given breathing treatments for several days, but what was eventually discovered after we went to a rehab hospital was that he actually had dysphasia, (not pneumonia): he was aspirating when he ate—food going down into his lungs every time that he ate, all because of the weakness on the left side of his body. Once this was discovered, the rehab doctor ordered a huge change in his menu; his whole diet was changed to thickened liquids and soft foods, so that his food didn’t end up in his lungs. Everything had to be soft or thickened. All liquids, even water had to be thickened. Who ever heard of thickening water? This, of course, meant that I would have to make many adjustments for his diet when we went home; of besides the thickening of foods, he couldn’t eat anything with a skin or texture on it also. It was just a little breakfast sausage… It was a sunny late June morning when he told me that he would like some sausages with his scrambled eggs. Since I had become the “food police,” I was always pushing for him to eat protein, especially eggs and meat for breakfast. So, I went to the refrigerator and got out these small breakfast sausages that he had always loved to eat for breakfast; then I remembered that he couldn’t or wouldn’t eat the skin of the sausage, so I got out the potato peeler and began trying to peel this less than half-inch in diameter sausage with the potato peeler. As I tried to peel, I found that it was very difficult to peel (even hold it) and still have much meat left for him to eat. 11 As I worked and worked on that sausage, suddenly, the tears began to trickle down my check, and I thought to myself— “I can’t believe it, but my life has come down to peeling a sausage!” It may sound a little funny to say that now, but at the time, it sure wasn’t funny. Having a pity party… OK, I was feeling sorry for myself, and I was frustrated with this tedious task, but I know now in my head that I was being a servant and caring for one of God’s children, my “Sweet Honey” as I called him. Serving others may take various forms—even peeling sausages! But it is still ministering and doing God’s work. God didn’t promise that it would be easy; He just promised that he would give us strength and grace. And believe me, peeling sausages literally required grace and humility. So “peel away” and do what must you must do when it is needed
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