Open Wide Your Mouth

A Hearty Appetite for Blessings

"I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt.  Open wide your mouth and I will fill it."  Psalm 81:10

When it comes to toddlers there are two basic categories, your non-eaters and your eager-eaters.  My grandson, Aidan, clearly is an eager-eater.  There are no mealtime battles when this boy is at the table.  No sir.  He knows that when a spoon approaches it's delivering something good, so instinctively his little mouth flies open, and I mean wide open.  I don't know how he does it, but it's as if his jaw almost unhinges, you know, sort of like in those National Geographic videos where a snake is preparing to swallow a whole pig.

I think God wants me to be that way when it comes to His blessings.  The bible is chock full of stuff He's willing to do for me, like comfort me when I'm sad or lonely, give me courage in the face of challenges, silence my critics, point me in the right direction - pretty much your standard boiler plate miraculous signs and wonders - and all I have to do is let Him.  But am I willing to do it?  No.  I am, in the toddler sense, a non-eater.  God comes at me with a great big spoon filled with all kinds of wonderful goodies, and what's my reaction?  My head instantly jerks back, my teeth snap together, and my lips fuse into a single impenetrable force field.  "None of that for me!" I tell Him.  "I've never tried it before.  I might not like it.  Offer it to somebody else."  So He does.  Next thing I know, all around me folks are smacking and slurping and making those oh-so-delicious yummy sounds as they savor every rich, scrumptious morsel.  And here I sit.  My mouth is watering but my stomach is empty and not surprisingly I'm still hungry.

Case in point, a while back I was asked to lead a group of younger moms in a workshop on parenting teenagers.  Without even praying about it I said no.  It wasn't that I was too busy.  I simply couldn't come up with a single thing that I felt would be worthy enough to offer these women.  In other words, I came down with a severe case of Moses-itis, as is "I think you've got the wrong guy.  You'd better go with somebody else."  So God, being the gracious Gentleman that He is, accepted my decline and picked another lady, one of my good friends actually, who had no more "credentials" than I did, but she had the one thing I lacked - a hearty appetite for God's blessings.  Do you know that to this day people are still talking about that weekend retreat?  Apparently it was 48 hours of nonstop laughter, sharing, eating, and bonding.  And where was I?  At home.  Safe, yes, but woefully undernourished.

Psalm 34:8 says, "Taste and see that the Lord is good."   I don't know about you but I'm tired of turning up my nose and being afraid to try something new.  I'm missing out on far too much by being finicky.  From now on I'm taking my cue from Aidan.  The next time that spoon comes my way, I'm going to open wide my mouth and let God fill it!  Bon appetit!