Life Lessons With Kombucha Tea

We've all heard it said, "The best things in life take time." Well...a few weeks back I started brewing our own Kombucha Tea. A friend first told me about Kombucha a few years ago in Nashville and I have bought it by the bottle at Whole Foods ever since. The whole process to brew your own takes about 7-10 days for the tea to ferment. All that to say, by the time the 7-10 days are up...we are always so excited to drink the tea! We got a glass "honey jar" that we keep in the refrigerator and the goal has been to fill up the jar with kombucha. Each time you make a batch, the tea multiplies. So this past time we were sure to have a full "honey jar" of our recent concoction. The time had come to take the jars of our fermented tea and pour it all into the one jar - and sure enough - it was filling to the TOP! We were pumped!! {If you're curious about the whole Kombucha making process, you can google it and there's a lot of info on i!}

Oh what a night!!

After the tea was poured, I was in the living room working on a project and Brandon was sitting on the couch with me. A little time had passed and then B got up to go get something in the kitchen. The next thing I hear is, "Oh no. Babe, oh no. Oh my goodness..." I was thinking to myself, "What in the world could it be?" Sure enough, I get up and walk towards the kitchen and notice that the floor is completely SOAKED with our Kombucha Tea!! Oh my GOODNESS was right. We opened the refrigerator and it was POURING out of our (once full) honey jar. The kale, broccoli, quinoa, ketchup, barbecue sauce, carrots, hummus, almond milk, mustard...everything was SOAKED with kombucha. When the refrigerator was closed last, the side of the frig tapped the knob on the jar and literally poured out ever since we went into the living room. 

Here is all that was left in our honey jar!!

It was quite overwhelming to say the least when we realized 1) what a mess had been made and 2) how the very thing that we had worked so hard towards and waited so patiently for was now GONE. Instead of letting out words of frustration, my precious husband leaned against the counter and started praying...asking God to give us patience!! Slowly my frustration from the long day PLUS the kombucha spilling turned towards a peace and a revelation. Peace from the Lord and a revelation that this is life. Sometimes you can't help to prevent big messes...!! It reminds me of how my Mom has always said that she once had a neat house and a place for everything...and then she had kids!! She realized when she had children that she could either focus on keeping every little thing perfect OR investing in relationships. Needless to say, I don't remember ever thinking the house was out of control but I DO remember my parents always being there for me. Even though we do not have kids yet, I feel like the Lord is using this "teachable moments" to open our eyes that things aren't always going to be perfect...there's just no way! Instead, take things as they come and put on your cleaning gloves and the tunes and do as Dad always said, "Enjoy the journey!!" SO thankful for the great teammate the Lord has given me in Brandon. Even with the major spill the other night, I used this opportunity to do a deep cleaning of the refrigerator and only put back in the clean items. Then Brandon mopped the floor! Bless him!!

Closing statement from the man of the house: “Sometimes it's hard to pray when all you're thinking of is cuss words. It usually starts like this: 'Lord, I don't want to pray. I'm mad. Help!' And the root of it all is really selfishness. I've had a long day and this is the last thing I want to deal with. [Note: Everything seems to always break at once!! Car, washing machine, etc!] Cool to see how the Lord uses each of these things to humble us and bring us back to our need for Him."