“Hot…hot…hot…Oh my God…Oh my God…oh my GOD!”  These are the words that I thought but couldn’t even utter as I scrambled in my kitchen to find something cool to drink.   In fact, for more than a few minutes I couldn’t even talk because the pain was so intense.    The scalding heat from the dime sized piece of piping hot Italian turkey sausage traveled down my throat, down my esophagus and into my stomach.  

The unbelievably hot August heat kept me from cooking heavy meals for a few days.  Even with air conditioning, it’s no fun cooking when it’s 108 degrees outside.     I was excited because I was cooking a warm meal and I’d experimented with my usual turkey spaghetti meat sauce recipe by adding sweet Italian turkey sausage.    After watching and smelling the spaghetti simmer for about 40 minutes, I was ready to eat!      

However, excitement quickly turned to horror as I placed a small amount of the spaghetti in a spoon to as my Daddy jokingly says when he taste tests foods, “get the poison off of it.”   I blew on it for what I thought was long enough (about 20 seconds.     Was I wrong.

At first, the heat shocked my tongue.    By the time I realized how hot it was, it was too late!    I couldn’t spit it out but now had to deal with the consequences.   I had to swallow it.    After I gulped cup after cup of cool water, I prayed that my throat wouldn’t close up,  block my breathing and kill my during my sleep (I’m so paranoid about that happening).      I continued to drink water for the rest of the night.   My throat was starting to feel scratchy but I could still swallow without much pain.

But the next day, my throat was so sore and irritated that it hurt to even swallow water.     Later that day, I went to my doctor who recommended that I eat soft and cold foods for a few days.    I left the doctor’s office with my suggested diet:  ice cream and pudding.    Maybe I could use my healing time as a time of fasting and not eat at all…just drink water.    I quickly changed my mind on that one.  Not being able to eat what I wanted was better than not eating at all.  Honestly, after two days I was tired of eating pudding.   The only good thing about eating all that pudding was that it was on sale.   But after four days of eating pudding, drinking fruit juice and smoothies, my throat was feeling 100% better.   I didn’t like what I had to eat but following the doctor’s orders was just what I needed to heal.

Not being able to eat what I wanted reminded me that you can’t always get what you want but God will always give you what you need.   Philippians 4:19 says it best, “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”

Shewanda Riley can be reached at lovehangover@juno.com or www.shewandariley.com.