The Tea Pot Incident

 

I thought I would let you all have a good laugh at my expense. First, let me tell you that I love hot tea. I am Norwegian and I always grew up drinking hot tea. I don't drink enough so I have certain things I drink every day so I stay hydrated. It's a bit of a routine. The bad part of this story is that I got dehydrated and had heat exhaustion with sickness. The funny part you will see.

We have a nice little tea pot on the stove here and we had been happily making hot tea for weeks. Then one day a woman came to stay and she took our tea pot to her room and didn't bring it back. I asked her to bring it back and she ignored me. My husband asked and she acted incensed and told him she would when she was done with it. What was she doing with my tea pot in her room?? Well, it all became a big joke because people had witnessed this. I was getting texts and reports about her whereabouts. People were offering to break in her room and get it for me. Then on the fifth day she was here I got up at four a.m. and had a five hour quiet time with the Lord. 

First I open my Journible and begin to write from the book of Proverbs,

"Men do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry."

..but Abba, my tea pot.

I opened up my Bible to an old prayer request sheet from a Bible study in April. By my name it read,

"to show grace to the ungracious."

I head on over to a book I am reading about prayer and there was a poem about tea in it. There was a poem about tea in my prayer book. 

A Prayer About A Hot Spot

by Jill Briscoe

Am I like a tea bag

waiting to know,

what flavor I am 

when in hot H₂O?

Am I like a tea bag

soggy and wet?

Am I asking the Lord

just how hot it can get?

I want to be able

to give out for sure

a fragrant aroma

that makes folks want more.

But that means hot water

that hurts my deep pride,

that cleans out my life

till I'm tired inside,

of a fragrance-less life

that knows not how to sing―

So dip me in water,

but keep hold of the string!

Amen.

The joke does not end there. You see, I was calling the tea pot thief "Angela Lansbury" (the voice of the tea pot in Beauty and the Beast). That day a counselor here at camp handed my daughter a toy. Guess what it was.

I get it, Lord. I am not entitled to the tea pot.

*yes. We got the tea pot back when she left. She hid it behind all the pots and pans.