New Things

When it comes to lunches, my kids are pretty predictable. Olivia wants peanut butter and jelly or honey most of the time. Every now and then she’ll go for a cheese sandwich or cheese and crackers. Angela and Steven alternate between the PB&J and cheese, and Angela has recently decided that she does like lunchmeat with her cheese after all! Their side items are typically yogurt, applesauce, or fruit. Occasionally they’ll request a few chips or goldfish, but mostly they’re content with the fruit and yogurt. Works for me!

Occasionally, though, I’ll suggest they try something different. Maybe some tuna fish one day; maybe a leftover that they really liked first time around; perhaps some mansaf (traditional Jordanian dish) that I have frozen for those days when I’m just craving it. I offer soup on cold days, salad on warm days. Every now and then the suggestions are met with reserved agreement, but typically the ideas are completely rejected. They just don’t want to try anything new. They like their old stand-bys – the familiar.

There are days, though, when they aren’t given the choice. Mean ole Mommy just goes in and fixes lunch, and they can take it or leave it. Today was one of those days. Just to show you how rare those instances are I’ll share with you Olivia’s response. “Mommy,” she said, “is the peanut butter all gone?” I assured her that the peanut butter was not all gone, but that I had prepared something new for them to try. It was nothing bizarre. It was a chicken sandwich. On our way home from being out of town all weekend, we had stopped and grabbed one of those rotisserie chickens from Wal-Mart to have for supper. The leftovers make incredibly yummy sandwiches. I had one yesterday, and I really wanted to share that yumminess with my kids today! It was simply chicken, cheese, and a touch of mayo (something else they’ve never tried!) on a slice of bread.

Angela devoured the sandwich with gusto, but Olivia was much more hesitant. That was interesting to me because Angie is the child who does not like change in life, but Olivia is the one who loves adventure. I guess food is different! I don’t know. All I know is that it got me to thinking about my life!

When was the last time you tried something you didn’t think you’d like? When was the last time you took that plunge just for the sake of it? When I was a child growing up in Jordan, I was certain that I didn’t like hummus. Hummus is a dip made from chic peas, and it’s everywhere in Jordan! For years I wouldn’t touch it! Then one day, for whatever reason, I decided to dip just a tip of my soft, hot Arabic bread into the dip. Guess what? I loved it! Suddenly I regretted the many years I’d refused to eat it – the many years I’d missed out on that incredible dip! I didn’t have that much time left in Jordan – how could I have wasted all that time? Now I miss it. I can get it here, but it’s not the same without that authentic Arabic bread, nor is the store-bought stuff nearly as good as the freshly made hummus from road-side stands and markets in Jordan.
Often there are things put in front of us that are new and different. Someone else has tried it and found it to be incredible, but we tend to be hesitant. “I know it’s good for you,” we find ourselves saying, “but I’m not sure it’s such a great fit for me!” We know ourselves, and we know what’s good and not good for ourselves, right? Could it be possible that we don’t always know? Could there be a chance that there are certain things that come our way that we’d love if we’d just try them?

My family is on the brink of the unknown. We are likely to move soon. We are probably going to have to sell a house for the first time ever. We will be in a ministry position we’ve never been in before. How many new opportunities will face us? Will we shy away from them simply because we have in our heads they won’t work for us? Or will we prayerfully dive in and be willing to try? I know sometimes the fit will be good and sometimes it won’t, but I still pray we’ll do the latter. And I trust that God will put a stop in our hearts those times when we shouldn’t step in.

I can only imagine the “hummus” we’ll miss if we don’t try!