Eventually.  I’ll get caught up eventually (maybe).

As a 5th grader, I read Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume gave me insight to all the changes going on inside my pre-teen body. As a middle school girl, I snuck my sister’s copy of Forever (also by Judy Blume); what I read there intrigued and shocked me about relationships that older teens were having. Looking back now, I’m quite surprised my parents even allowed that book into our home!

I’ve read books about relationships that bloom into life long love affairs. I’ve read books about far away places where czars & czarinas live in lavish splendor. I’ve read suspense novels filled with so many plot twists and turns that many chapters need to be re-read just to make sure I didn’t miss anything along the way.

While these have all enlightened me or left me with a moral nugget or two, no book I’ve ever read compares to the inspired word of God in the bible.

The Word Is Alive – Lyrics by Casting Crowns: The Bible was inscribed over a period of two thousand years. In times of war and in days of peace. By kings, physicians, tax collectors, farmers, fishermen, singers, and shepherds. The marvel is that a library so perfectly cohesive could have been produced by such a diverse crowd over a period of time which staggers the imagination. Jesus is its grand subject, our good is its design, and the glory of God is its end.

I was born and raised in Florida.  For most of us in this state, the ocean and it’s creatures are a big part of our culinary lives.  Fish, shrimp, crab, lobster, scallops, clams, oysters…you name it, it has been served in every home from the west coast of Pensacola, across the Panhandle, and all the way down to Key West.

Every home that is, except mine.  I have never been a huge fan of seafood.  Sure, I’ve choked down my fair share of fish sticks in elementary school when it was that or go hungry.  I’ve played nice at social events and swallowed a bite or two of the nondescript white rubbery substance they tried to tell me was “baked fish.”  I even pretended (rather unsuccessfully) that the fried fish I smothered in ketchup was really chicken nuggets during a neighborhood gathering (sorry DG!).

Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t bother me to be around seafood or others enjoying it, just please don’t make me eat it.  Invite me to join the gang when you head out to a seafood restaurant. I’d love to come and be a part of the evening, but don’t laugh when I order the chicken.  Let me help out at the next fish fry.  I will batter your de-boned hunks of red fish, mix up the most amazing cheese grits you’ve ever had to go along with it, but throw a steak on the grill for me please?

In the end, the honest truth is that I do not like seafood.  If I went the remainder of my entire life without ever having to see, smell, or taste another bite of it, I would be just fine with that.