The Right Way (03/24/2026)

I watched as she started to set the table. She put all the silverware on one side of the plate. I stepped in to help her. I said, “Let me show you an easy way to remember the right way to set a table. My daughter taught me.”

She looked at me puzzled. So, I continued. “There are two sides to the plate, left and right. Now the word left has four letters. So does the word fork. The fork goes on the left. And the word right has five letters. Knife and spoon each have five letters. K comes before S, so the knife goes first next to the plate and then the spoon. Last of all, extend your hands in front of you. Now curl your index finger to your thumb on both hands. Your left hand forms the letter b and your right the letter d. The bread plate for b goes above the plate on the left. The drink glass goes above the plate on the right. Ta-Da!”  She looked at me, rolled her eyes somewhat, and said dismissively, “Whatever.” And then she set the table her way. And I didn’t say another word.

That was nearly 10 years ago, and I still remember it like it was yesterday.  I wondered why one would ignore the right way when it was available.

But then I realized that I’d been guilty myself multiple times throughout my life of dismissively telling the LORD, “Whatever” and doing life my way rather than the way He’d shown me through His teachings and example. Our Savior is “the way and the truth and the life.”  Jesus’ way is the right way. Since then, when I ponder my day and realize I’d not adhered to what He taught or what He modeled, I recall my table setting lesson and humbly and contritely tell my LORD, “I’m sorry.”

Today, as we continue our Lenten journeys, let us consider all the LORD has taught us and shown us. Let us seek to take in “the right way” to live as children of God, as disciples of Christ, as temples of the Spirit. And let us seek to deny ourselves and “our way” because we trust in our LORD. Let us accept with all our being His love and acknowledge that following Him faithfully will lead us to our true selves, to the ones we were created to be and are called to be.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.