By Dr. James L. Snyder
Somebody came up with the idea that you cannot have your cake and eat it too. I am not sure where that came from, and I am not exactly sure what it means. If I cannot eat my cake, whose cake can I eat?
I think it all depends on how you present “the cake” in question.
One of the things most important and strongly supervised in our home by the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage has to do with the presence of such food items as cake. At times, I think she is overly obsessed with some diet phenomenon.
I, on the other hand, am rather open to the delicacies of such dietary niceties as cakes.
Like I said, there is a way to get around everything. My problem is, how can I have my cake and eat it too?
Recently my wife took a week’s vacation to New York to visit her relatives. While she was away for that week, I was in charge of our little homestead. Whatever happened, happened because I did it. Whatever didn’t happen, didn’t happen because I didn’t do it.
I have a simple rule in life. Do what you like and have fun doing it. My wife’s rule in life is, do exactly what I tell you and do it now! When she is not present in the home, especially for a weeklong duration, I am the one supervising the rules. And so, during that week my rules ruled. I will not say I had fun during that week, because I would not want that kind of information to be leaked to certain people.
All during the week, I ate every kind of delicacy I could wrap my lips around. Not one shred of salad could be found in the house during the whole week. Salads were outlawed, desserts were in order.
On the day my wife was scheduled to return from her New York trip, I had to go to school and pick up one of my granddaughters. She was sick and nobody else was available but Yours Truly.
When I picked her up she did not look quite as sick as I would have figured, but who am I to question the wisdom of a schoolteacher. We spent the entire afternoon eating lunch at McDonald’s, shopping at the Dollar Tree and just having a rip snorting time of our life. If this is sick, may I be sick every day of my life.
As a supposedly sick seven-year-old, her energy ran her grandpa firmly into the ground. I am not sure I ever had that much energy. It was great to spend an afternoon with one of my granddaughters. Usually this is the privilege of grandma and so I felt honored to take her place for one afternoon.
Towards the end of the afternoon my granddaughter said, “When will grandma get home?”
I calculated it and responded by telling her that according to the schedule she should be getting home around 6 o’clock. As that information saturated her little brain she then said, “Well, can we have a surprise party for grandma?”
Off to the store we went. Things needed for purchasing to put together the surprise welcome home party for grandma. There were cards to purchase. I say cards because she could not choose between two cards and so we decided, or rather I should say, she decided to get both of them. Women start early in life, don’t they.
There were ribbons to buy and then she saw a nice bouquet of roses. We bought the roses.
All this time I was thinking about a special project I had in mind. That special project took the form of a special welcome home cake. I took my granddaughter over to the case where all of the cakes were displayed and invited her to pick out one that suited her. As far as I am concerned, a cake is a cake and my favorite cake is the one I am eating at the time.
She picked out a beautiful cake and we went to the checkout counter and paid for our wonderful purchases. Now it was home to set up our little welcome home party for grandma.
My granddaughter spent quite a bit of time drawing pictures on the inside of the cards while I paid special attention to how to display the cake. I was sure that grandma, who usually does not approve of cake coming into our home, would not disapprove of this cake if we presented it right.
When grandma walked in the door, we yelled “Surprise” and boy was she surprised.
Then came the time for us to present the cake and eat it as well. Whoever says you can’t have your cake and eat it too needs to sit down and talk with me. I have found a wonderful way of having my cake and eating it too without the sneering disapproval of You Know Who.
I like what the Bible says. “There has 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 KJV).
God always provides the cake and then invites us to eat it with Him.
Rev. James L. Snyder is pastor of the Family of God Fellowship, PO Box 831313, Ocala, FL 34483. He lives with his wife, Martha, in Silver Springs Shores. Call him at 1-866-552-2543 or e-mail jamessnyder2@att.net. His web site is www.jamessnyderministries.com.
