Say What, Now?

Please welcome my friend Emily Conrad to the blog. Today she’s sharing a story about a time she misheard her husband. Hilarity and deep thoughts ensued. Bear in mind as you read that the word brat, in addition to being a derogatory term for an ill-behaved child, can also be short for bratwurst. Enjoy!

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I stared at my husband, certain I’d misheard him.

“What?” I asked.

He drove on oblivious, like no unusual sequence of words had just tumbled from his mouth. The passing countryside offered no clues to help me decode his statement. He glanced over like my cause for confusion was as much a mystery to him as his declaration had been to me.

“What did you just say?” I prodded. “Because it sounded like, ‘I would hate to live on the same brat as a crumbling world.’”

Wouldn’t we all.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m from Wisconsin, so I like brats, but can you imagine the grease we’d encounter, living on a ballpark sausage? Add a crumbling world, and the situation couldn’t get much worse.

In all seriousness, I do happen to think this world is passing away. 1 John 2:17 says it is.

And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

Thankfully, as believers in Christ, we’re promised a much better, more secure home than any dwelling we have now. In fact, I’d suggest that compared with our eternal homes with Jesus, our current houses will look even less appealing than the idea of a processed meat home sounds as you read this.

Do you ever think about that? How much better an eternity with Jesus will be than anything we experience here?

But back to the question at hand. Had my husband really specified he would hate to live on a brat with a crumbling world?

Sadly, no.

I was so far off that he had to stop and think for a while before he was able to recall his words.

Finally, enunciating carefully, he repeated himself. “I’d hate to live on the same property as a rundown building.”

Oh. Yeah, I guess. Not as much as he’d hate living on a brat, I’d bet, but something tells me he hasn’t put as much thought into that as I have.

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In addition to spending time contemplating what it would be like to make her home on a processed German meat product, Emily also does some fiction writing. Check out her author page to learn more about her and her work. If I’m not mistaken, the paperback edition of her book Justice releases this week. I read it a few months ago, and you can find my Goodreads review here. Congratulations, Emily!

I’d like to thank Emily again for being here. Have you read her book? What did you think? Make sure to drop her a greeting and a few words in the comments.

Happy Monday, everyone! May your hearts be light and your coffee effective!