The Temperature Was Just Right 1/14/2021

 Good Morning,

I greeted this day with prayer and some very hot Door County Creme Coffee and now it is time for me to write.

Proverbs 9:9 Give instruction to a wise man and he will be wiser, teach a righteous man and he will increase in learning. 

Proverbs 26:11 As a dog returns to his own vomit, So a fool repeats his folly. 

In my opening statement I said that my coffee was very hot. It was the kind of hot that when you put the mug near your mouth the heat/steam from the mug fogs up your glasses. That was exactly what was happening to me.  I like my coffee super hot and I also enjoy the warmth of the mug on my hands. The heat soothes some of the arthritis in my hands. So for me the temperature of the coffee was just right.

There was one thing though that could have been a little dangerous with that plan. I poured the coffee and headed upstairs to the den to pray and then write. While on about the fourth step up the stairs I decided to take a sip of my coffee. My glasses fogged up and going ahead had to wait until the glasses cleared which was only a few seconds. The coffee mug in my hand was just a little too hot to hold on to. I needed to get moving so I could set the hot mug down. Everything worked out just fine. No spills occurred and neither dog was scalded and my feet did not get a hot bath. We made it just fine but a little smarter for tomorrow. 

At one point in my morning ritual I could not see where I was going very well. Our two dogs are always following us (me) around and I couldn't see where they were. So I just stopped and didn't go any further until the momentary self induced blindness was over. The mug I used has a very meager handle and it won't be used when a trip upstairs is needed. We have others with more substantial handles. My hand was burning.

I didn't like the experience this morning, but it taught me a lesson. For a few seconds I was kind of stranded in the "what do I do now" mode.  So it was a small mistake, but my point for today is this. We all make small mistakes or big ones. But with every mistake there is a lesson to be learned. That mug is confined to the kitchen and won't be traveling with me. This is a simple example of how surviving a mistake should be handled. Learn from our mistakes, admit the mistake and put a plan in place so as not to do it again. I used this as an example not to shame myself or beat myself up. Think about this. When you share a secret with someone and they repeat it to others, forgive them, but I wouldn't share a secret with them again. If you run out of fuel in your vehicle and you passed several fuel stops and had to walk back in the cold for a gallon or a few liters of gas, will you ignore the fuel gauge again? Or will you keep a reasonable amount of fuel in the tank and fill up before you get too low? 

I could make a list of mistakes we all make and even though we get through the consequences we don't heed the lesson learned and go ahead and repeat the mistake.

So what did you learn lately and are you doing it again? 

Food for thought.

Marty