EASY AS PIE

"thank you for the birds that sing,

thank you, God, for everything."

There's much in the Bible about little children. Much about their leading adults. Much about their faith.

I didn't go to kindergarten. I went to a private school just around the corner from where I lived. I went half a day. When we ate our milk and cookies, we always said the little prayer I started today's entry with. But is it a little prayer?

The last line,"thank you, God, for everything," is huge. In context, it might be about creation. If I recall, the sky and the moon were also mentioned in the little prayer. And that concept, which easy as pie, has passed so many by in today's secular, humanist society.

But the part that I struggle with is thanking God for everything. Not that I have trouble giving Him thanks for the wonderful things in my life. I do that often. But everything? Even the really unpleasant things? Although we're told to give thanks a la Job for all things, not just the good, well, it's difficult. At least for me.

In our Tuesday morning Bible study, we are looking at Patrick Morley's The Man in the Mirror. He simplified yesterday's lesson by saying the only way to be truly happy is to be happy in Jesus. Of course I continued the hymn in my head with "is to trust and obey". Again, pretty basic. Easy as pie.

Well, it should be. But see, we live in the flesh. And sometimes that makes the pie an upside down cake.