Another Week On My Own

Several weeks ago, The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage informed me she would be in St. Augustine with our daughter and granddaughter for spring break.

As always, I really didn’t properly process this information. I get so busy with other things that there are some things I can’t process.

It was a Monday, and as I was drinking my morning coffee, the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage came into my office and said, “Well, I guess the girls and I will be leaving for the week. I hope you have a good week.”

I put my coffee cup down, looked at her, and said, “What are you talking about? Where are you going?”

“Don’t you remember weeks ago I told you that our daughter, granddaughter and I will be going to St. Augustine for the spring break?”

I was stunned and said, “I guess I forgot.”

She looked at me and smiled. As she was going out the front door, she said, “Try to behave yourself this week, and most importantly of all, do not get any apple fritters. Remember our agreement?”

Then she opened the door and said, “Your dinners and suppers are in the refrigerator. Try not to make a mess.” Then she closed the door.

It took me a few minutes to process this whole idea, and I’m sure she told me about it, and was helping me prepare for this week. There are times I get so busy with a project that I don’t hear what’s going on around me. I may not be at my computer, but I’m still writing in my head and thinking about my project.

I may know what’s happening around me, but I’m not processing it as I should.

Sitting back in my chair, I thought about the week before me. The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage will be in St. Augustine, and I will be here managing every moment of every day. That doesn’t happen often, and I wasn’t sure where to begin.

I went back to my office and worked until lunchtime. Usually, at lunchtime, The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage has my lunch all prepared for me. All I have to do is sit down and eat it. That has been my schedule since I said, “I do.”

I walked into the kitchen, and there is nothing. I almost call out for my wife, but then I remember that she isn’t here. I am in charge of my week.

I was beginning to feel rather happy. I have the whole week to do whatever I want, which rarely happens.

Opening the refrigerator, I saw that she had prepared a whole week’s worth of eating. There were dishes and bowls in the refrigerator, and all of them had tags telling me what they were. That was rather convenient for me, and I appreciated it very much.

As I was planning my apple fritter, I remembered that in the Publix store where I usually get them, all the workers know my wife, and she knows them. I remember one time when she was away, I got an apple fritter.

When she came home and went to Publix to buy groceries, everybody told her I had bought an apple fritter. By the time my wife got home from shopping, she knew I had bought an apple fritter behind her back. How can you buy something behind her back when everybody knows her?

I had to put a plan together, which was to go across town to a Publix that she had never been to.

I got in my vehicle to drive across town to acquire several apple fritters for the week. As I began my journey, I just couldn’t help but chuckle and smile. I can’t remember the last time I had an apple fritter, and I was surely looking forward to this one.

As I was driving, I was listening to some preacher on a radio station. I was listening as I was driving, still very happy inside. Unfortunately for me, his sermon that day was on lying.

I enjoyed his sermon, and as I was driving into the Publix parking lot, I began to think about it. What is a lie?

I knew I could go into that store, buy as many apple fritters as I wanted, and then take them home. I knew I could put this together so that The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage would never know about it.

Then, a thought burned into my head. Am I cheating on The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage?

Halfway from my vehicle to the store, I stopped. Is it worth lying?

I’m unsure what was happening in my heart, but I stopped, turned around, returned to my vehicle, and went home. Not all the apple fritters in the world are worth lying to The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage.

Driving home, I remembered a hymn that had the phrase, “Yield not to temptation, for yielding is sin.” I can’t stop the temptation, but I can refuse to yield to it.

I also thought of a Bible verse. “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Temptations will come, but I do not have to yield.