Perfection

Easter's coming up. Actually sooner this year as compared to others. So that means it's time to dig out the Easter baskets, load up on candy and boil the eggs. I love hard boiled eggs. This year due to the ducks, we are going to decorate hard boiled duck eggs. I might even get brave and attempt to blow out the eggs so we can keep them longer.

Hard boiled eggs are interesting. Everyone has their own way of doing them-start with cold water, add vinegar, leave them on for 10 mins, no 15 mins. My problem is remembering to start timing once the water boils. If I can catch it, then I usually end up with good eggs. If not, they have that greenish color around the yolks. Not harmful just not as pretty to look at. Then you have the peeling part. Did you know that the age of the egg is a key in successful peeling? Or so I have been told. For the most part, by trial and error, I've found that to be true. Fresh eggs just don't peel as well. Instead of having eggs available for deviled eggs, they end up as egg salad sandwiches.

People are like eggs too. Some like to be hard boiled-gone through a hard boil and well aged before the world gets a peak at the insides. Some have hard shells, impossible to crack and every now and then there's a bad egg in the bunch. We all run across those types. Over the years you tend to get a feel for them. The hard boiled old biddies that you think are soft and kind inside when really they are just overcooked, not too pretty to look at and have a bad taste. The bad eggs are getting easier to see now . Got that stink all over me once or twice and now know when to avoid.

Over time we realize that there is no perfect way to do any one thing. We all have our own ways of doing it. Sometimes we rely on the advise of others. Sometimes it's best to avoid it. The so called experts lead us to believe that what we are doing is right and good, yet those experts are only in it for their own good. Or even worse, their expertise comes from 10 or 15 years of impatient errors, the attitude of being superior and just plain ignorance of the real world around them. It gets easier to figure those bad eggs out, but sometimes in our own haste we are the ones that end up with egg on our face-being the fool for trusting in them.

As we seek that perfect hard boiled egg, it's easy to forget that perfection is an impossible goal. There's been a saying in the dog breeding world that we are to strive for the perfect example of the breed. We will never be able to have it, but it's a worth while goal that along the way has times where we have to back track but if we persist forward, continually making improvements, we will get close. It's those that start over again and again and oh, let's see how many times have they had to get a new bloodline or new dog just because their first attempt at perfection wasn't what they thought it to be? First off, once we attain perfection, what would there be left for us to do? Second, think about God. Where would we be if he started out with perfection-no Adam and Eve had a flaw, how else where they deceived by the devil? God is constantly adjusting the recipe, adding a dash of this, dollop of that, asking us to forgive, repent, confess, to move forward and to constantly seek our own personal perfection that in all honestly, will only be concluded in Heaven.

Till then, I'm going to adjust my hard boiled egg recipe again. Start with cold water, no vinegar, but carefully watch for when it starts to boil. Maybe this year we can enjoy our colored eggs in the basket and then be able to make some darn good deviled eggs.

Psalm 18:32 "It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect."

Later gators....
C