Sitcom

Picture courtesy of C. Berti, 2020.

At this point in my life, I love to bake and hate to cook. This doesn't bode well for my waistline. It means I eat my baking and I let my vegetable-avoiding, butter-loving husband cook most nights.

As I baked this morning, the words for a blog I've been longing to write began to form inside of me.

***

My mom often says, "Every family is dysfunctional to some degree."

That truth resonates with peace as dysfunction swirls around me.

Enter Schitt's Creek. If there is hope for the Rose family, there has to be hope for mine. The perfect imperfections of the characters are what make a person fall in love with them and invest in them throughout the series.

Segue to The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. A mom trying to make it as a comic in a man's world in the 1960s. An underdog father, trying to raise their kids while piloting a business with his "wife" on tour. I am thankful to the "Joel Maisels" of the world who have helped make it acceptable for fathers to cook and raise children as much as I am thankful for the "Midge Maisels" who have paved a path for working women.

The Maisel children are rarely with their parents. It begs the question...who is raising these children?

I often feel like that with my own children.

If David and Alexis can turn out okay, then so can the Maisel children, and so can mine.

Until that time, Midge Maisel has taught me the F-word and humour helps a lot.

***

I look up to my Father in heaven who is watching my sitcom unfold. As I curse under my breath, He hears a prayer from my heart. Whatever our struggle, He desires honesty. I know He is looking forward to the next season of episodes because He is invested in me and rooting for me.

***

Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here’s what you do: Live well, live wisely, live humbly. It’s the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts. Mean-spirited ambition isn’t wisdom. Boasting that you are wise isn’t wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourselves sound wise isn’t wisdom. It’s the furthest thing from wisdom—it’s animal cunning, devilish conniving. Whenever you’re trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others’ throats.

Real wisdom, God’s wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor.

James 3:13-18 (The Message)