My father used to tell me anything worth doing was worth doing right the first time. If you have time to do it the second time, you have time to do it right the first time.
The reason I have been thinking about this is I’m sitting here indulging in the delicate aroma floating in from the kitchen where the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage has begun her ritual of roasting the Thanksgiving turkey.
In our home, it begins about the middle of October when my wife says rather pensively, “Let’s see. Thanksgiving is about five weeks away. Should we have a turkey this year?”
I can never tell if this is a real question, a rhetorical question or if she is trying to set me up for something. Believe me; I’ve been set up so many times I have a hard time lying down.
You can do so many things with turkey. There is roast turkey, sliced turkey sandwiches, turkey salad and turkey soup just to name a few.
The only problem at our house is, the turkey rarely survives the first day, which is a tribute, not so much to our consumption as a family as to the genius of the family chef.
This expertise in the direction of the Thanksgiving roast turkey did not come without cost. It took years for my wife to master the art of roasting a turkey. Unfortunately, much of this practice was on Yours Truly. She has been roasting me for years and still complains that I’m not quite done yet. That really burns me up.
Only last week she complained I was a little hard on the outside and rather soft on the inside. I was tempted to shift the blame on her but when it comes to this area; I am more of a lame duck than a finely roasted turkey.
While I was enjoying the aroma of the turkey roasting in the kitchen, I came up with several suggestions along these lines.
First, I need to find things that are worth doing in the first place. How much time I have wasted on things not really worth my time or effort is beyond my computation. Like my wife, I need to be a little more picky about the things I choose to do. Not everything is worth my time.
Second, those things worth doing certainly deserve my best efforts. If I have to redo something, it means I’m not putting my best effort into the project. And at my age, I don’t have time to waste on things that are not worth my best effort.
Third, there is no finer satisfaction than a job well done.
I never understood that until recently. In the middle of our Thanksgiving dinner when everybody is enjoying the food and complementing the chef, my wife is sitting in her chair smiling. I never really knew why until now.
This must be how our heavenly Father felt with Jesus at his baptism. “And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased. (Luke 3:22).”
The best way to celebrate Thanksgiving is to recognize the wonderful work God has done for our salvation, which did not come without the ultimate cost, the sacrifice of His Son. This was done once and for all.
Dr. James L. Snyder
Ocala, Florida
Dr. James L. Snyder is pastor of the Family of God Fellowship in Ocala, Fla. where he lives with his wife. Call him at (352) 216-3025 or email jamessnyder2@att.net. The church website is www.whatafellowship.com.