The Great Breakfast Sausage Incident of 2023

Exactly one nanosecond after I clinked the white Corelle plates down on the counter in front of my two teenage boys I heard...

"Miles!!!!!"

My younger son had taken one look at his own plate and one glance at his older brother's before he'd quickly determined that life (or rather, Mom) had dealt him a cruel hand. Why? Because he had only received ONE sausage patty, and his brother had received TWO. Oh, the agony.

Never mind the fact that the sausage patty packaging states that the serving size is ONE or that Mom was only having ONE or that his brother is an entire foot taller and exercises 400% more than him.

Suddenly, my judgment of my younger son's knee-jerk reaction to the "injustice" in his little world made a u-turn like a boomerang and smacked me right in the heart. Didn't I, too, sometimes have similar issues with the metaphorical "breakfast offerings" in my life? Who, ME?

I mean, God, look at her life and how she gets to look like that. She lost TWO pounds, and I only lost ONE! Or why am I not good at juggling three kids and a full-time job but she can has no problem corralling six kids, two dogs, a horse, a parrot, and an organic farm?! Seemingly seamlessly others around me get a fair shake while I'm stuck with a "meal" that's less than satisfying than everyone else's?

And, folks, I'm obviously not a teen. I'm well beyond double that. Yet, here I am acting like I have the maturity of a sophomore. Still!

For the love... you would think that I'd have been over this "life's unfair" bit by now, but the truth is we all struggle with this lie from the enemy. We always have, and we always will. Eve was the first in line to "bite that apple," pardon the pun.

"Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” 

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirablefor gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves." Genesis 3:1-7

Did you catch that? Subtle little lie that it was... look at verse 5. In other words, the devil was saying, "God's holding out on you, man! He just doesn't want you to have what HE has." And so it began...

Many believe that we are all born "good." But, the Holy Scriptures tell a different story. We are all born sinners under the curse of sin because Adam and Eve decided that they needed to have what was "fair." They bought into the devil's lie.

So it is with us to this day. We buy into the enemy's lies that God is holding back and not giving us what we deserve. He's not giving us our fair shake, our fair share, the goods, the good stuff...whatever that may be in your life.

Here's the TRUTH:

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1:17 NIV

"Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him." Isaiah 30:18 ESV

In other words, God does not give bad gifts. He doesn't hold out on us, and He's definitely not unfair. He is the absolute epitome of justice because He is holy, so everything He does must be fair. Otherwise, He wouldn't be holy (i.e. perfect). 

“The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he." Deuteronomy 32:4 ESV

In fact, further truth from scripture reveals that if we belong to Him as sons and daughters, He longs to give us good gifts.

"Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those how ask him!" Matthew 7:9-11 NIV

Does that mean that we always get what we want? No. Perish the thought! I am thankful I can look back on a few occasions in my life where I am now thankful that He did not let me have my way. I bet your kids could say the same about you. Even if it meant that it would make them happy to stick their tiny toddler fingers into a light socket, would you let them for the sake of very fleeting happiness or a feeling that you were being fair? Of course not!

Can God love us AND withhold that which we think is good for us so that we either circumvent some unforeseeable outcome or so that we might enjoy an even greater blessing that He has planned and we can't even imagine or conceive? YES. Absolutely. He doesn't hold out on us, but He does withhold for His good purposes, for the love of us, and for His good, pleasing, perfect, just, holy and upright will.

I pray that next time I decide that life is somehow "unfair" (and there will be a next time), I'll look back on "The Great Breakfast Sausage Incident of 2023" and remember that God's not trying to short me on fleeting pleasures and wants to give me all things good, in His good timing, in His perfect will and in a much prettier package than frozen breakfast meat.