We have all had that moment. You try and try to open a jar. Some jar’s are just stubborn.

You twist with all your might. You soak the jar in hot water. You beat it against the counter (does that even work?). You use a rubber glove. Despite your best efforts, the Jar is stuck.

Grrr.

Maybe your in the middle of a recipe, and you’ve been humming along, and this moment of frustration just brings everything to a halt.

You sheepishly hand it over to the next person who walks into the kitchen, and…

>POP<

It’s open. Isn’t it frustrating when you have worked SO hard, and someone else swoops in and gets the glorious moment?

“I opened it!” Your jar opener announces.

“Hmm…well I loosened it for you, I guess.”

That happen the other day to me. I have said something to my husband in love and grace over and over and over to him. Probably to the point of annoyance. Probably to the point that he has tuned me out.

And someone else swoops in, says the same thing, and he comes home saying “WOW you’ll never believe what someone told me today and it made total sense!”

>POP<

Aww SERIOUSLY?   #*&*&^%^%$#%*)!

I mean… “Oh really honey? Wow isn’t that so true and revealing?!”

Hmmm isn’t is just like a woman to say “I told you so!” And I probably say it too many times. Seriously though, I was kind of frustrated. And yet the more I thought about it, I realized he probably just needed to hear it in a fresh way for it to really sink in.

The POINT here however is not that I was so amazingly right. Loosening the jar can be a tiring process! Sometimes it can take a while. But don’t we all “take a while” when we are learning something new about ourselves?

Aren’t we glad that the God of the universe has patience with us even when it takes us a long time to grasp a new concept?

Some of us are Jar looseners. Some of us are Jar poppers. And some of us are helpless Jars in desperate need of opening.

Whoever we are in the story, we all have an important part! And God, the more superior lid persuader, has a precious plan in sight!

So take heart you Jar looseners! Never tire in speaking truth and love into the lives of the people around you. You may never even witness the Jar open, so to speak. However, your encouragement spoken with grace and kindness, might just be the very thing that causes that precious lid to POP open in someone’s life!