One Bad Egg

            For the past two years or more, I have had the same breakfast almost every morning—two fried eggs and Ezekiel bread or English muffin with honey and cinnamon.  An even more delicious addition has been a supply each week of farm-fresh eggs from a family at our church. Nothing like cage-free eggs and at no cost at all, either. They have just decided to give of their abundance and it has been such a blessing. I have been ever grateful for this non-stop supply of  fresh, wholesome eggs.

            One morning, I was fixing my breakfast, as usual, and I thought I noticed an odd odor. I thought to myself that perhaps these eggs were older than I had realized. When I sat down and took my first bite, I knew right away something was wrong, but I went ahead and ate several more bites before I realized I was eating a bad egg.

            I don’t blame my graciously generous friend, of course. It could happen easily to include an egg that had sat out too long. From the outside, it would be impossible to tell the difference.  About six hours later, I knew that I had made a terrible mistake. I am very grateful for my colloidal silver that I always have on hand, so this story doesn’t have too horrible of an ending. I definitely needed this amazing germ-killer, for sure!

            What has happened since, however, is that now – every egg I crack into my pan is suspect. I am sniffing, and wondering if there might be another bad egg. I am now overly cautious because of one misstep. The part that is most puzzling is that I have eagerly gobbled up hundreds of these eggs over the past year or so without a single thought of concern. And now, after this one incident with one bad egg, I am changed. I am no longer carefree in my preparations, but diligently inspecting, testing, sniffing, praying with concern, and even expecting that maybe I will find another bad egg.

            This led me to think about the other “bad eggs” in my life. An unthinking, unkind word from someone, and now I measure all things said against my own beliefs about my self-worth. An act of selfishness that put me in state of confusion, and now I see that I often seem to expect selfishness from others. A loss suffered that has kept me from opening freely.  There are more bad eggs, but they are few and far between. I realize that I have had many more healthy, delicious and wholesome “eggs” in my life, and yet it is so easy to focus on the few bad ones.

            Stephen Covey said that for every withdrawal from someone’s emotional bank account, there needs to be seven to ten deposits made. I think with my bad egg experience, I am seeing that sometimes it takes even more. 

            What “bad eggs” have you allowed to overshadow the blessings in your life? I am asking the Holy Spirit to reveal to me where I might be limiting the goodness of God because of those few and far between “bad eggs.”  I don’t want those limiting negatives to ever outweigh the abundant blessings in my life. Won’t you join me?