I recently celebrated my 69^th birthday. My wife surprised me with an amazing gift. She spent three months researching and consulting with friends of ours to find the right one. On Saturday morning I was upstairs when she shouted, “Your birthday present is here.” I thought Amazon had delivered a package only to come downstairs and see a large truck at the front of our house with two men preparing to lower the lift gate. I said, “Woman, what have you done? After a couple of minutes in back of the truck, the delivery men emerged and began lowering a Pit Boss1100 pro-series pellet smoker gas grill combination. I couldn’t believe it. I said Babe, this is way too much! Are you crazy spending this much money on my gift? She said just say thank you! I turned gave her a huge hug and said thank you! I really enjoy grilling, and our old one was on its last leg, but I never expected this.

I spent the next week reading the monstrous instruction book that came with the grill to become familiar with it. So, a week later I decided to complete the set up and the “burn off” session required before using the smoker to cook meat. I read the instructions multiple times and began following the written steps. I’m much more of a visual learner than written, but I followed each step until the manual gave an instruction that I couldn’t for the life of me figure out. Either the instruction booklet was wrong, or I was just an idiot. I revisited the previous steps trying to follow the instructions and found the temperature of the grill wasn’t the only thing rising.  I was getting smoked! I became increasingly agitated and more vocal by the minute. Why couldn’t I follow a simple instruction?  My wife overhears all this and says “If it’s causing you this kind of grief and trouble, I’ll return it and just buy a regular charcoal grill.

In my frustration at not being able to complete the needed burn off steps, I overreacted and shouted at her No! Stop it! You’re taking the joy out of this. Uh, apparently her comment had nothing to do with me losing joy, I was already doing a good job of that based on the way I was acting. Her comment simply triggered something going on inside me that I needed to deal with. Instantly, I realized I’d just messed up big time. I tried to regroup and apologize but she was hurt and said, “You yelled at me.”  I couldn’t believe how stupid and insensitive I had been.

It hit me like a ton of bricks – I had yelled at the “gift giver!”  I yelled at my wife, my best friend, my mate in life! I yelled at the one who had lovingly saved, sacrificed, and spent hours of her time to give me this lavish gift. I allowed a bit of time to go by and regain our composure and sincerely apologized to my beloved wife.  A short while later she came along side and together, we were able to complete the “burn off”. By the way, the purpose of this step is to burn off any residue and rid the inside of the grill of any foreign matter so that the grill is clean, ready to be used.

I am writing this post the morning after this all transpired and as I replay it in my mind and reflect on what I had done, I was moved to tears at how I had yelled at the “gift giver” the day before. My wife Tammy is a gift from God to me! You don’t yell at a gift, you love, treasure, and cherish it.  As I continue to ponder this, I sense the Spirit of God whispering into my heart. Ralf, remember, I AM the ultimate Gift Giver. I gave my Son Jesus Christ to pay for your sins, so that you might have life and a relationship with Me. My Son through His death on the cross provided the “burn off” you needed to make you clean and ready to me used for My glory! James 1:17 says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” I’d like to personally encourage you to never yell at the gift givers in your life.

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