Think

Since September, 2005, when we got a bread machine, we’ve enjoyed
baking our own wonderfully fragrant whole wheat bread. They looked just like
store-bought, except where the stirring paddle tore the bottom. Not such a big
deal, really, the slices in the middle of the loaf just had a V-shaped piece
missing, but still.

The process takes two hours and twenty-five minutes. At one
hour and thirty minutes, after the mixing and a few minutes of rising, the stirrer
briefly shapes the loaf. At that point, its work is done.

Last Tuesday, my husband, hearing the eight-second burst of
activity, reached in, lifted the dough, and removed the paddle. What a
brilliant idea! I’d often heard the noise but it never occurred to me to remove
it. The three sixteenths inch shaft leaves a tiny hole. Thinking of that
solution took us three years.

Why do we tolerate minor irritations that could easily be solved
if we’d just stop and think? We usually look for God’s solutions for the bigger
trials, but maybe we let the faucet drip rather than figuring out how to
replace the washer. Or we keep tripping over the table in the hallway rather
than thinking about how to reorganize the furniture.

Maybe you’re completely on top of the irritating details of
your life, but for the rest of us, sometimes we just need to stop and think. God’s
solutions for the small irritants may be staring us in the face, waiting for us
to stop long enough to see them. They may be as obvious as removing the paddle
when its work is done.

Father, help us think. Open our eyes to your solutions, not
just for the big trials, but also for the small annoyances.