It was a normal evening, and I had no idea what was about to happen. My daughter was playing on the floor in the living room and I was helping my wife get dinner on the table. I had just put a bake potato on a plate when suddenly it happened.
A bake potato hit me in the chest and exploded everywhere. I looked up and there was my wife trying hard not to laugh. It seems she reached into the oven to get another bake potato and didn’t realize there was a hole in her oven mitt. As searing heat hit her fingers, she instinctively let go of the potato…in my direction. (At least that was her story.)
At first, I was stunned. Then, when I saw her trying to stifle a laugh, I knew exactly what I had to do. I threw one at her. It too exploded when it hit her, and then it was game on. When the dust cleared (and the potatoes settled) there we were…potatoes everywhere, laughing ourselves silly and our daughter trying to figure out what just happened.
The milage we have gotten from that memory far out weighs the time it took to clean up the mess. Besides the smile it brings to my face, here are some other things I got from the great potato fight…
- You can be rocking along in life and something normal can blowup on you.
- In that moment, you have a choice as to how you will respond.
- How you respond will determine how you remember it.
- How you remember it will determine its legacy.
You will have things hit you in life. It may not be a potato. It may be a root canal. A flat tire. A sudden change of schedule. A bad transmission. No clean underwear. Whatever it may be, remember it is not as important as what you make of it.
So go ahead. Throw the potato! Do it! Just do it in love.
Weigh in. Share a good “potato moment” in your life or marriage.
Copyright © 2014 Bret Legg