Whoever coined the phrase, “Don’t cry over spilled milk,” must have had a housekeeper. It wasn’t even 9:00 a.m. this morning when milk had spilled three times. It’s always nice when they break a dish while they’re at it, too. My 12-piece place setting is down to seven in the small plate section. But I’m a trooper: I won’t cry about the milk.

I’ll whine about the dishes instead.

So imagine my dismay upon opening my email this morning and reading these words by Elisabeth Elliot, “Life is likely to continue to hold many forms of torture and dismay …for all who refuse to receive with thanksgiving instead of complaint the place in life God has chosen for them. The torture is self-inflicted, for God has not rejected their prayers. He knows better than any of us do what furthers our salvation. Our true happiness is to be realized precisely through his refusals, which are always mercies. His choice is flawlessly contrived to give the deepest kind of joy as soon as it is embraced.”

If spilled milk was the worst of my lot, I’d say that I got a pretty good deal. But spilled milk isn’t the worst of it. From spilled milk to facing death, we all experience those things that we long for but are never received, those things that we shrink from but are never taken away, and those things that we don’t fully embrace because we don’t know how.

And so I ask myself this, “What does one do about spilled milk?” And the answer is obvious: embrace it. But how? We will not be satisfied if we stop short by taking the simple advice to not cry over it. However, I have a choice to give thanks for it, and so, I thank Him that He sends His mercy through such common, ordinary things. Another messenger of grace is another glass of spilled milk. He will send his mercy when we ask.

So, I’ve got a game plan for the next glass of spilled milk, which according to the numbers– should be happening in the next nine minutes. But what about those breaking dishes?

Plastic, my friends.

I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy.
Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
Psalm 116:1-2