My parents raised me as a vegetarian and as an adult I chose to continue eating fruits and veggies.  My husband has never been as thrilled as I am about consuming fresh carrot juice, but recently he has adopted the paleo diet for health reasons.  Certainly his  choice is healthier than his usual diet of a coke and a candy bar, but he still avoids greens at every opportunity.

I appreciate my husband enjoying life without stomach pain so I have picked up some paleo cook books and searched the internet for a few basic meat recipes without grains or sugar that also taste good.  My recipe repertoire is increasing, but for the most part I like to keep it simple.  He prefers simplicity as well, since he is a picky eater.  Several times I bought turkey burgers at the local health food store and tossed them in the frying pan, but he didn’t much care for them.  Recently I discovered why they were not a favorite.  Brett prefers his meat well done so being a novice at cooking meat I stab at the burger so I can see the middle of it.  In the process of stabbing it all the juices run out, creating a dry burger.  But, since I didn’t eat the burgers I didn’t know what was wrong with them.

Recently I decided to cook a chuck roast we had bought at a local farmers market and I found a recipe online with good reviews.  I love reading reviews and enjoyed reading through the comments left by others who had tried the recipe.  One reviewer commented that they had seared the roast on both sides to seal in the juices and therefore ended up with a tender juicy chuck roast.

A few days later I decided to cook more turkey burgers because their preparation is so simple.  I put them in the hot pan and after a few minutes flipped them over.  I hovered over the pan and watched them puff up.  After a few more minutes  I took the spatula and stabbed at the middle of a turkey burger to see if it was done on the inside.  I watched as the juices came pouring out.  I recalled the review about the chuck roast and it dawned on me that I was creating a dry burger rather than a tender one and maybe that is why Brett didn’t like them so well.  I continued to gently check the same stabbed burger and avoided stabbing the other burgers in the pan, until I was convinced they were well done.  I served my new version of turkey burgers and  Brett agreed they they were now on the, ‘let’s have them again’ list.

I can apply this story to my relationships with other people.  If I verbally stab someone I can’t expect to have a tender relationship with them.  Our relationship will become like the stabbed turkey burgers, tough and dried up.

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.  Ephesians 4:29