Multitude Mondays: Why Every Mom Needs Sticky Kitchen Chairs

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Before Rob graduated from his medical residency, we were given the opportunity to attend an etiquette dinner, a six course meal complete with instruction on how to handle all the details of formal dining. 

We joked that his program director didn’t want his reputation tarnished by unmannerly alumni, but we gladly welcomed a free meal and a night out with friends. 

The next morning at the breakfast table, three-year-old Lizzy asked what we had learned at our manners school. 

I explained a few rules of etiquette in simple terms…

Don’t eat off of someone else’s plate. 
Don’t play drums with your silverware. 
Always put your napkin on your lap. 

Suddenly Lizzy started bouncing up and down in her chair. Her face brightened as she concocted her own idea.  

“Mommy, Mommy, I bet I know something you learned!”

With a touch of curiosity, I asked, “What do you think we learned about eating politely, Lizzy?”

Our can’t-sit-still-for-a-minute-daughter straightened her shoulders and replied in all seriousness, “I think your teacher told you to never ever, ever, EVER hang upside down from your chair until you have finished eating.” 

I tried to disguise my giggles, then glanced at my empty cereal bowl and attempted to perform a backbend off of my chair so my little girl would know for sure that I had finished eating breakfast.

Hindsight now reveals that my daughter’s epiphany is easier said than done.

 I’ve yet to train a child to sit politely through an entire meal. 

I’m still waiting for some wise mother to invent a  gluteus glue that will hold my youngsters in place until their dinner plates are emptied and their faces are primly dabbed with those napkins on their laps (or on the floor!). 

One would think that a decade of stickiness on my kitchen chairs would be an adequate adhesive for resident bums, but somehow only my dinner guests seem to notice that splat of  congealed maple syrup beneath their backsides when they sit down at our table. 

I guess my children have developed an immunity to day-old goo. 

To be honest, while staying at the dinner table is the desirable etiquette, I am more interested in raising children who will stay at God’s table ’til the very end.

‘Cause the truth is, even perfect etiquette can’t save us from feeling flipped upside down when life doesn’t go as planned. 

Unexpected challenges,
broken dreams, 
and detours–those are the courses we all want to skip. 

And it’s then that we must make a decision.

We can abandon our spot at the table or stick to our chairs like day-old macaroni and cheese. 

I used to prefer to swing from my seat and hide beneath the table when life dished out the unexpected. 

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But lately I’m learning that sticky faith is better than dining-room acrobatics. 

And I’m praying that my will children discover that, too.

So today,  I’m choosing to stay at the table even though the course being served is difficult to swallow. 

And I’m choosing to believe that even when I don’t like what’s on the menu,  God’s faithfulness will still satisfy my hungry soul.

The rest of the world may assume I’m still sitting at this crazy table of life because of my admirable etiquette.

 But the truth is, I’m just holding out for the final course.

‘Cause  I’ve heard that my Host has a penchant for sweet endings!



The Overflow: “On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine— the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations;  he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth. The LORD has spoken.  In that day they will say, “Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the LORD, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.” 
                                                                   –Isaiah 25:6-7

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How about you, friends? What’s holding you at the table these days? 

Counting all things as grace.. even the sticky stuff!

1393. Spaghetti sauce splattered on the stove—
proof that we have enough food to feed five hungry kids

1394. A phone call from a crying friend—the gift of sharing life, the good AND the bad.

1395. Cheerios strewn beneath Maggie’s chair. “Mommy, I love to eat with my sisters before the bus comes.”

1396. Prickly burrs on tennis shoes by the door– remnants of a nature walk.

1397. Muddy toes scrubbed clean.

1398. Frog catching with cousins at the pond

1399. Josh fishing as the sun sets. 

1400. Maggie pedaling her “new” pink trike with rusty wheels and a rhythmic squeak

Linking again in community with Ann and these lovely grace seekers:  l.l. for on, in, and around mondays, laura for playdates with god, ruth at the better mom, and jen for soli deo gloria