Lessons Learned at Breakfast - Grit & Grace

“There has never been a sadness that can’t be cured by breakfast food.” 

Ron Swanson

Breakfast of champions.

I’m not really into breakfast.  Let me clarify:  I am not really into breakfast, but I am REALLY into breakfast food.  I’m just not very hungry first thing in the morning most of the time.  For as long as I can remember, my desire to break my fast usually doesn’t happen until closer to what most people consider that snack-before-lunch time.  I’m a creature of habit, with most days starting with a smoothie at around 10amish, so having a BIG breakfast is considered quite an event for me.

All that to say that I rarely get together with others for breakfast.  Morning or afternoon cup of coffee?  Yes, most definitely.  However, a couple of months ago, I found myself with a rare opportunity to have a more-than-smoothie breakfast with a dear friend.  She was visiting from out of town, as she does just about every summer, which made breaking my fast with a big breakfast out extra-special.

L and I have been friends since the third grade.  Third grade was a really long time ago, by the way.  About 4 decades ago, to be exact.  To say we’ve been through some stuff together would be an understatement.

Apples and oranges.

Similarities and differences – the apples and oranges of any relationship.  As we sat there catching up and enjoying our breakfast, something struck me in a way I had never noticed before.  You see, the common ground we were finding as friends was intentional.  As people, L and I have many similarities, with almost as many differences.  Our similarities didn’t make for great conversation, and neither did our differences.  Our similarities and differences haven’t determined the longevity of our relationship either.  Instead, it has been the beautifully infused combination of the two, which has been one of the key components of our friendship all these years.

We’ve met each other where we’re at, both literally and figuratively, over the course of our relationship.  L and I have similar family, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds.  We grew up attending the same schools, including college and university studies.  We even graduated with the same undergraduate major.  With all the similarities, though, there were plenty of differences to go around.  She was into sports early on, and I didn’t discover my heart for sports and fitness until adulthood.  I stopped at just a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology, while she continued on through to earn a PsyD. 

Different seasons. 

Different trials. 

Different choices. 

Different journeys. 

Differences. 

Our common ground has been forged through the ups and downs of a long history in relationship together.  A long history of being there through thick and thin, of meeting each other where we’re at no matter where that is.

Food for thought.

Our relationship has been a great example of what a profound effect that can have over the course of a lifetime.  Sitting together for breakfast that morning, it dawned on me that our differences hadn’t really gone away.  In fact, we’ve had a whole new set of differences come up in adulthood.  We don’t meet each other at our differences: work from home mom versus work outside the home mom, public school education for the kids versus home education, living in New York versus living in Florida.  We don’t meet each other at our similarities, either.  We simply meet each other where we’re at, which includes a colorful combination of both – what we have in common, and what we don’t.  

We listened.  We shared openly.  We laughed.

There were questions, challenges, and stuff that we agreed to disagree on.

Honesty.  Kindness.  Encouragement.

Similarities.  Differences.

It all gets washed away and mashed together to form something radically different.  Intentional common ground.  

What you have in common, what you don’t have in common, they kind of just disappear when you simply choose to focus on the person sitting in front of you.  The person just as they are.

This gives me fresh faith for the relationships where meeting each other where we’re at is still difficult.

I guess breakfast really can be the most important meal of the day.

Becky is a Miami native, and has lived here all of her life. Married to her husband for over 20 years, they lead a very active lifestyle along with their three teenagers and Riley, their rescue dog. Becky loves to teach, and has had the awesome privilege of home educating her children for over twelve years. When not teaching academics, Becky loves to equip, encourage, and empower women through the teaching of her group fitness classes. Becky and her husband lead various ministries, and their family loves to serve the community through the countless opportunities provided over the past twenty years+ in their local church. She enjoys filling her “free” time with reading, writing, watching movies, and just spending time with the family. Becky has a passion for living her life with grit and grace, and encouraging others to do the same.