Using the Pretty Spoons

I love yard sales.  I love them because you can get good deals, but also because you can find old stuff.  I like old stuff.  Anything that looks old or smells old.  Old books, old photographs, old textiles, old furniture.  But it also has to be a good deal, i.e. cheap.  Because of my affinity for yard sales I end up with lots of mismatched items, especially in the kitchen.  You could say my design sense is “eclectic”.  I love that my silverware is mismatched, that I don’t have more than three of the same kind of mug, that all seven dessert plates are different.

The house at Caroga Lake has mismatched silverware.  If it was my turn to set the table for dinner I would make sure each place had a different fork, knife and spoon.  The plates were old, the cups mismatched and it was all beautiful.  I do this at home too.  If I set the table, I make sure the fork and knife are different.  Just because I can.

Pete had a set of silverware before we got married.  So we didn’t register for any.  My sister gave me silverware for my wedding shower anyway.  Place-settings for 4, from Goodwill, each knife, fork and spoon were different.  She knows me so well.  So I have a lot of ‘teaspoons’ and I have my favorites.  I call them the ‘pretty spoons’.  For a while I only used the pretty spoons if I was eating something.  If I needed a spoon to stir milk into my tea (which is multiple times a day) I would pass over the pretty spoons and use a ‘regular’ spoon.

Until I asked myself why.  Why not use the ‘pretty spoons’ whenever you can?  Why save them for special occasions?  Jesus saved us to ‘life abundantly’.  (I realize I’m talking about spoons but go along with me here.)  He wants us to enjoy life, to live life; not just muddle through with ‘regular’ spoons but to use the ‘pretty spoons’.  Everyday is a special occasion because He has made our lives new.

I have pretty forks too.