Crunchy Rice, Anyone?

Have you ever followed the instructions on a shampoo bottle? Has anyone (in normal circumstances) actually rinsed and repeated? It doesn’t tell you how many times to do that. You could actually do that forever, if you follow the bottle literally. Rinse and repeat ad nauseam. How long have you ever actually left conditioner on your hair? 

Sometimes instructions are more like suggestions (hello recipes, I’m looking at you), but not when it comes to cooking rice, or to the Bible. 

If you’ve ever cooked rice, you know there are instructions on the bag or box. For me recently, it was sushi rice from a small container. I was watching it cook through the pot lid (thank you glass lids!) and it looked like all the water was absorbed, and that the rice was actually browning around the edges. But I couldn’t really tell without taking the lid off. 

The problem was, there were still twelve minutes left according to the instructions! If I had been by myself, I would have at least opened the lid and stirred it. I probably would have turned the heat off, too. 

My youngest daughter was with me and said “Mom, just follow the instructions.” 

But I didn’t want to! I really wanted to check on that rice, because I thought it was going to be ruined. But at her urging I left it alone, got busy doing something else, and let it cook. And boy am I glad I did! It was perfect! What I thought was browning was actually shadow. If I had turned the heat off, the rice would not have cooked all the way, and our sushi would’ve been a crunchy, unpleasant mess. 

God has instructions He’s given us in the Bible that are for our good. Many times they are to keep us from trouble and hurt. If we follow them things go a lot smoother in our lives, and we avoid a lot of needless suffering and confusion. 

I know all this, and yet sometimes I come to the instructions God gives me in the Bible with a rice-cooking attitude. I think I know better, so instead of following His Word, I do things my way, interfere in His plans, and make a crunchy, unpleasant mess out of it. And it usually ruins things for someone else too (like crunchy rice in your sushi for dinner.)

Lord help me to follow your Word and not do things my way, even when I REALLY want to lift the lid and stir the rice.

Proverbs 5:11 And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, (12) And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; (13) And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!

Psalm 25:4-5 Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths. (5) Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.