Distracted

Distracted

I want you to do whatever will help you serve the Lord best, with as few distractions as possible.

1 Corinthians 7:35

My younger son is always telling me to get off Facebook. But I am a multitasker, and one evening I was cooking for seven people and playing on Facebook at the same time. Before dinner I was chatting on Facebook, while the food was cooking I was chatting, and after dinner I was chatting.

While I was doing the dishes, I put a wet pot on a hot burner to dry—a trick for drying pots and pans my mother-in-law had taught me. This particular night I forgot to turn off the burner. My mind was on Facebook and getting back to interacting with my friends.

Several minutes passed, and when I realized the burner was still on, I immediately turned it off. I moved the pot, but I did not place it on a cool burner. Rather, I set it directly on the glass of the countertop range and went back to my computer. Boom! A shotgun-type sound exploded in the kitchen!

The family ran in to see what had happened. The heat from the burner and the pot had spiked the temperature in the glass to explosive levels. Some of the glass flew across the room. No one was hurt, thankfully, but a thirty-seven-year-old woman who is proficient in the kitchen had managed to blow up a stovetop.

I received many disparaging looks and comments from my children and husband. All I could do was smile sweetly and explain that I was chatting. It was an expensive chat. The stove still works, but there is no glass.

My younger son is always telling me to get off Facebook. Imagine!

—Heather Lawley

Father, please keep us close to what is important in our personal lives and help us not to be distracted by things that can hinder us. Amen.