Too Much!

"For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks." Lu 6:45

Cake #1

Have you ever taken on a bit to much?  I did that night. Here's the lead up.

  

A woman had asked me to make a cake for a birthday party she was giving. She   asked to have it by Friday night, for a party Saturday morning. A sweet little 6" round white with raspberry filling decorated with pink curly-cues.   I have done many a cake- most for my little boys... none with pink and none like this.

Zach, my youngest was asking to have someone come over. 

 "Okay not a problem." 

       Five!......Five friends! Okay, I reasoned, they'll be fine... that's okay. 

              I can handle the cake and the boys.  

However, wanting to make the most of this opportunity, I invited my niece, Paige, to come over- she interested in decorating cakes.  ..."In fact," I thought "I should also ask another girl named Paige. She's the same age and also interested in cake decorating- We could have a fun girls night!"  

"He who guards his lips guards his life, but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin "Prov 13:3

I did just that.  I baked them cakes along with mine.-I'll teach them a little about cake decorating... 

Oh, I did. Just not quite the lessons I had planned.

     Instead of the 101s of cake fruit filled fondant covered cakes- we learned that...

          When everything that can go wrong does- it is possible to hold one's tongue!

He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity." Prov 21:23

As soon as the hot pink frosting hit the fondant, I knew it was wrong.  The pink- too pink. I looked at the cake. And I looked at the clock. Time was closing in. I tried to press on. More PINK. TOO PINK!  The girls just began to watch as became panicked.  You see- the bright pink could not be undone unless I remove all the frosting and start again. The very thing I knew I had to do. My head began to pound. "You have over-committed and you're not going to be able to do this," pounded in my head. 

I tore off the old fondant with the hot pink frosting intact. (For those of you who have never worked with fondant frosting- it's a bit like playdough in texture. Errors are very difficult to fix)  Apologizing I pleaded, "I'm sorry, I'[m going to need the last of that fondant to re-cover the cake. I can't use the old stuff."  This evening wasn't going as I planned, or hoped. I wanted to teach them about cake decorating and yet, I had to fix this cake!  They stared as I went to cover the cake once again. And then it happened. The cake which had been a seemless cylinder with raspberry filling hidden within- slid...  it wasn't good. Migraine.

Somewhere between a plead and a statement came out "No!"

"Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips." Psalm 141:3

Now, there have been far too many times I did not guard my lips.

But this time I did.  

"Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin." Prov. 13:3

"Ladies," I said "this just goes to prove that if someones says that 'they just couldn't hold their tongue' when something went wrong- this proves them wrong. I just did."

As I sought to control of the cake and my emotions I was quite aware this was a moment in the grind of life- that expose the truth of our hearts.  As my niece would say, I was freaking out. Panic set in- everything with this cake that could go wrong- did. I could react (out of emotion) or I could respond (based on what I know) and two young women were watching.  I pressed on.  

New fondant. .....    

                            Tick-Tock. 

      Lighter pink frosting...             

                                  Tick-Tock

           Curly-cues...

                                       Tick-Tock...

                    

As I delivered the cake, I knew it wasn't right. The migraine was fading everything to black. It would have to do.

Cake #2

5:10am I never wake up that early on a Saturday. But I did. The migraine was gone. "Make a new cake" echoed in my head. Fighting the urge, I laid there thinking all the reasons the cake was good enough... but I couldn't shake it. "Make a new cake."

In the quietness of the morning, Kent off to work and the 5 extra boys asleep in the basement, I began again. By 8:30 the cake was done.  I rang the doorbell.  "It wasn't right." I simply said. Although she said the 1st was lovely, I heard it in her voice. "It is perfect." she said.

Sometimes the lessons we set out to teach are not those that come to pass. I'm quite confident that my niece and Paige learned things last night- but not what I had planned.  They both know I love Jesus; my hope is that one lesson they learned was- "Yes, like everyone she freaks out; however, in her freak out- she still honors God." Christ followers struggle just like everyone else- but they don't just react; they respond because of who their God is.  Maybe others God had lessons for them... but lessons for me as well.

Yes, God uses the grind of life- it's challenges- to show us our true hearts and in within those freak out moments; we can display the hugeness of who God is.