A lesson by any other name wouldn't smell as sweet

Last Thursday, Sarah went to her Ladies’ Bible Study and left me in charge of our three oldest kids (mwahahahahaha---eeek!!) Ahem, anyway. She had very kindly started dinner and all that was left for me to do was make the rice stuff. Since it was a nice day, Carlos and Jeremiah played outside with the occasional checking in with me to see how everything was going. Mainly, it was Carlos since he is very much a people person and doesn’t like playing outside by himself – even though Jeremiah was out there with him. But I digress.

So I’m stirring the rice and adding the mixture when Carlos sticks his head in the door to “check in.” He wrinkles up his nose and asks “What’s that smell? It doesn’t smell good. I think we should throw the rice away!” Okay, lesson time.

I attempt to explain that just because something smells bad doesn’t mean you should throw it away. “Sometimes, something may smell good and taste awful and sometimes something may smell awful and taste good. We’ll just have to wait and find out.” Carlos didn’t seem too thrilled with the idea and after a little more complaining and some instructing on my part, he went outside to enjoy the fresh air.

Fast forward a few minutes. Dinner is ready and dished up. We’ve thanked God for the food and are now digging in. Carlos is eyeing his “stinky” rice suspiciously and finally puts some in his mouth. The expression on his face when he tasted it was quite funny. He was expecting the “not good smelling rice” to be “not good tasting rice.” But much to his surprise, Carlos found the rice to be quite tasty! He immediately exclaimed, “Wow, Papa! You were right! It does taste good. All that whining was for nothing!”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. Carlos gets an A+ in this lesson.