When You're Given a Plate of Purple Cabbage

Just because someone cooks a dish of purple cabbage

and sets it on the table,

does that mean you have to eat it?

 In our family, we are allowed to dislike certain foods, but we are not allowed to say rude things about things we don't like at the table. With some exceptions, everyone must eat at least a bite or so. 

Although we may politely ask for just a little, and may ask for other food we prefer, we must eat what is put on the table without complaining.

The uncomplaining spirit in which the five American cousins accepted plain, strange food in Africa was one thing that was specifically appreciated by the team leaders.

It's good missionary training to expect children to learn to eat what is put in front of them. They may actually discover they like purple cabbage.

Then they can eat rice with meat and coconut and bananas in Africa without complaining.

It's just plain good training--minus missionary if that bugs a person.

So when purple cabbage was gotten out of the frig yesterday in an effort to use up things that were just sitting in the frig,

we got to see what sauteed purple cabbage was like.

Actually, it ended up so good that even Danny took a heap on his plate and ate it with a big grin!

 But sometimes cabbage really can be bitter.

Maybe it is old. Maybe it grew in poor soil. And I have thrown away regular cabbage before, it tasted so bad.

 Just because someone puts bad cabbage in front of you doesn't mean you have to eat it.

You don't have to swallow whole everything that people say to you.

 Actually, maybe nothing is exactly wrong with it.

It just doesn't fit you and your circumstances.

So if the cabbage isn't good, you don't have to eat it.

And if the shoe doesn't fit, you don't have to wear it.

And if the cardboard is just so much more junk from somebody else's issues, it's okay to not keep it for yourself, but get rid of it.

You can dump the bitter cabbage in the garbage.

 You can just toss all that cardboard into the wood stove and burn it all up.

There are just some times, you have to admit, that it is more beneficial to yourself and everybody else around you, to just let some things roll off your own two shoulders.

 There are some burdens too heavy for two shoulders.
There are some things that, whether meant for you or not, don't have to be taken personally.
What the other person says and decides is about them, not about you.
Sometimes shoes simply don't fit.

And even if they do, it's your choice whether you wear them or not.

Hannah even got to choose which color her second wrist cast could be.

And she chose red this time instead of blue.

 She chose a cheerful color instead of a blue one--even though it was a big disappointment that she had to keep a cast on for two more weeks.

And if, despite that we don't go dancing, we want to choose pink slippers just long enough to skip and kick up our heels a bit for sheer joy,

why not?

We don't have to be overwhelmed with what life hands us, what people say to us and think about us, and what the cook puts on our plate.

We don't have to let the enemy come in and steal our joy.
It's up to you about the purple cabbage.