Totally Taffy Taylor

“Taffy, your aunt needs some help, and she called for you minutes ago. Why are you still sitting here?” asked Uncle Joe.

Taffy anxiously pleaded, “But Uncle Joe, I need to get to the next level of my game! And I am almost there!” A firm stare met her response. She nervously continued, “Why do I have to go help Aunt Maude? She’s coming up here anyway. I’m tired of always having to do chores around here! Don’t you know that it’s summertime and I’m just a kid and kids need quite a bunch of free time?” Taffy quickly crossed her arms and exhaled with a loud “Humph!” in order to help make her point.

Uncle Joe sat down beside Taffy and slowly removed his reading glasses from his face. He looked down at his hands, which were spotted from a lifetime of labor. Uncle Joe knew his great niece to be a genuinely gracious and loving child, well ahead of her years in maturity. He responded to Taffy’s argument, “Have you ever heard the word grumbling before?” As he looked up at her, he saw

Taffy shake her head.

“That word,” Uncle Joe explained, “is what you are doing, Taffy. Back in my day it was called yackety-yak or back talk. It’s what we all do when we complain and argue. The thing is, Taffy, God tells us in the Bible not to do it. He had the apostle Paul write about it to the people of Philippi. It says in Philippians 2:14 to ‘Do all things without grumbling and faultfinding and complaining’” (AMPC).

Looking down at her feet as they dangled off of the couch, Taffy softly said, “I’m really sorry.”

As he gently put his arm around her, Uncle Joe continued. “Where would we all be today if Jesus had said to His Father, “I can’t go to the cross right now. I’m busy trying to get to the next level. Why do I have to do it anyway? Don’t you realize that while I am on earth, I need some free time?’”

As she listened to Uncle Joe pretending to be Jesus, Taffy realized how selfish she had been acting. That was the worldwide wonder of her uncle Joe. He always managed to move everything over into the world where she lived. Once he painted the picture of how she really had been acting, Taffy was overwhelmed with conviction.

She wiped the tears from her face. Taffy squeezed her uncle Joe tightly and then jumped up to run downstairs. On her way to the basement, Taffy’s uncle could hear her saying, “I’m coming to help, Aunt Maude! Please forgive me for taking so long. It won’t happen again.”