I’m a very picky eater. I don’t know if it was because when I was growing up, I really just liked peanut butter sandwiches, and cereal and no one ever forced me to try anything new, or if it was my tongue that exclusively likes the bitter taste.  I’m pretty much like Mikey from the Life Cereal commercials, except pickier. Whatever it is, I don’t like a whole lot of foods that don’t make my blood pressure raise. I like hamburgers, pizza, fries, and other such things, but I don’t always necessarily like the stuff that lots of people put on those things.

For instance, I definitely don’t like onions or pickles on burgers, I don’t like fruit, peppers, mushrooms or onions on pizza and I don’t really like chili on fries.  I always ask fast food to take things off my burger and only order pizza with pepperoni.  One of my least favorite things is mustard. I don’t know if it is the smell, the texture or the fact that it stains everything it touches, I just don’t like it.

They say faith is like a mustard seed, you only need a tiny bit and with a little help from other sources, it can grow to a mighty, um, you know, whatever a mustard plant looks like. Come to think of it, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen what a mustard plant looks like.

Regardless of what it looks like, my mustard seed is pretty small, more than a typical seed would look like. I am lacking a little bit of the old faith right now — whether it be in humanity right now, or just in my personal situations. My mustard seed feels a little more like a mouse turd seed right now.

I suppose that we all get that way sometimes. I get that way a lot, but you know, that’s because I’m an introvert and we internalize everything. We don’t rage against a boss or co-worker, wife, son or daughter, we monologue it in our heads.

Something recently happened to me and that’s what I did. I kept a calm demeanor with the people I was dealing with, but inside my head was raging. How could they do that to me? Why does this keep happening with me? Why does my mustard seed keep getting stamped into the ground over and over?

Maybe it is signaling that I need to make a change. Again. I keep wondering what I’m supposed to do because the seed keeps getting buried. Perhaps that is why I hate mustard so much. Maybe I need to grow a candy tree instead. Or start a pizza farm. It seems like way more people would be interested in a nice healthy pizza tree instead of stupid mustard plant.

Something to think about for my next venture. Growing my faith through a pizza tree.

Who’s with me? Anyone want to experiment on starting a pizza tree farm? How great would that be for a Hallmark movie?

ARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH

Bitter Mustard Seed Ben