I made my first truly homemade key lime pie today. Not the kind that comes in a box and you assemble it together, but instead the from scratch, every single aspect of its deliciousness, kind of pie. One of my kids has been begging for a key lime pie and the other day I bought a bunch of limes on clearance at the grocery store so I looked up a recipe, and I was surprised at how uncomplicated it sounded. Graham cracker crust, sweetened condensed milk, sour cream, some lime zest and 1 cup of juice from freshly squeezed limes. Easy, right? Mixing the first two ingredients together was painless enough and then I began cutting and squeezing the pile of limes in front of me. After dissecting a few of them, I was surprised to discover what little amount of juice each lime actually possessed. After about the 7thlime or so, and having only about half a cup of juice at this point, my hands started to ache from all of the squeezing. I wasn’t aware that in order to make a key lime pie from freshly squeezed limes you needed about 500 limes or so! As I’m squeezing, and aching, and now stinging from the juice getting under my nail beds, I thought, this is a lot of work, way too much work for one stinkin pie! In the middle of that thought, my conversation with God last night popped into my head as well. Lately, I’ve been telling Him that 7 kids is a lot of work for one woman and that I should be given some leniency in the whole training up my children part of the deal. I mean, did He think I was Wonder Woman or something? I just didn’t feel like it would be fair for Him to hold me to the same sort of accountability standards as mothers who have only 2 or 3 kids. The diligence of consistently training them, showing them, guiding them, setting a good example for them, and being patient with them – that was where I thought He could maybe cut me a break occasionally, especially with the patient part of it all which lately has not always been entirely Galatians 5:22 like. I feel like I’ve been squeezed about as dry as can be with this fruit, a bit like these limes if I do say so myself. Each child deserves my patience, each child needs my patience, but my goodness, 7 under 10 – it would try Mother Teresa’s patience on certain days I do believe. They still like me and want my attention and that can be emotionally, physically, and spiritually draining at times as they all tell me anything about everything just about all day long. I’ve been told to cherish these moments because a day is coming, very, very soon, where they won’t necessarily want to talk to me so much anymore, and I’m aware that the days are coming when they start to pull away to discover their independence apart from me. But right now, in these times, I’m struggling to find the balance between enjoying these precious moments and in not feeling like some worn out, squeezed to death gigantic pile of limes. And then another thought dawned on me, this used up pile of limes made a beautiful, whole, incredibly tasty pie. Lord, I’ll keep giving you my entirely squeezed up moments as long as you promise to continue making a beautiful, delectable, mouth – watering pie out of them every time. “And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns” Philippians 1:6.
Just Keep Livin!!