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Just Enough
With coffee or advice, know when to say when

by Bob Haslam

Coffee, please," I told the waitress.

Quickly, the waitress filled my cup so I could sip away while deciding what to order. I added cream and sweetener to suit my taste. Just the way I like it, I thought.

The waitress returned to take my order, armed with a coffee pot. Since I was the only customer in the place, she hovered over me. Suddenly, blup! Eager to please (or hoping for a larger tip), she topped off my coffee and left.

I forced down just enough of my spoiled brew to add a little more cream and sweetener. I took a couple of gulps and then … blup!

Again she destroyed my tasty blend. How could she do this to me?

This time, I set my cup down on the far side of the place setting next to me. The meal arrived. I smiled. Then, an arm shot in front of my face.

Not again!

Once more I repeated my cream-and-sweetener ritual. Hurriedly, I drank my just-right coffee.

Between bites of sandwich, I realized the waitress wasn't the only one who's given more than the other person really wanted. I thought of times I've been asked for advice. I found just the right words to say. But I didn't stop. I kept adding more.

It's happened when I've disciplined my children. I said the proper fatherly thing. I made my point. Then, I uttered one sentence too many, causing resentment.

Life situations often call for a mixture of humor and seriousness, praise and correction, rhetoric and restraint. For both coffee and counsel, finding the right blend is worth the effort.

A Christian Reader original article.

Sign language When my son first learned to read and we'd be in the car, he'd call out every sign he could decipher along the way. One day he spotted First Baptist Church. "Wow," he said in awe. "Is that really the first Baptist Church?" —Karen Mechtly Every week the sign outside our church posts the title of the upcoming Sunday sermon. One week the pastor was preaching on Matthew 14:22-33—recounting when Jesus walks on water. The pastor's clever title—Water Aerobics—caused quite a stir. Twenty calls came into the church office asking "What time are the classes and how much do they cost?" But the two calls the pastor laughed over most were the ones from members of the congregation asking where the church pool was located. They had never noticed it. —Ann Jeffries While traveling on Tunnel Road in Asheville, North Carolina, we discovered Tunnel Road Presbyterian Church, whose signboard boldly claimed it as "The Light at the End of the Tunnel." —Linda M Boyd

Copyright © 1999 by the author or Christianity Today International/Today's Christian magazine (formerly Christian Reader).
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