Respect the Potato

I love Food Network. I watch almost every show they produce. My favorites are the game type shows. I LOVE Next Food Network Star and Next Iron Chef. Recently, on the latter program, a chef annoyed his fellow contestants by continually spouting the same line, "Respect the potato." Granted, the challenge was about respecting your ingredients, but all the same it got me thinking. Imagine that. I get so frustrated with constantly hearing people say men should respect women. Not that I disagree. I certainly think men should love women and treat them with great courtesy. HOWEVER:

Women should also respect men.

Satan is a master at twisting truth. He almost never actually LIES, it seems. Satan takes a perfectly valid truth and distorts it, so it is a hurtful deception. One of the worst lies of our society is that men are held over women on a pedestal and women are put down and practically enslaved. Does this happen? Sure. But what about the scores of men on TV, movies, songs, etc. who are called "clueless", "stupid", and constantly treated like they are?

I do not think men should be "above" women, in the sense that they are superior, yet they are just as priceless a creation to God as women. God made Adam first, and LOVED him. He was GOOD.

Why is it that women can't treat men with love and honest respect, but they expect men to kiss their toes and bake them eclairs? Being a wife and mommy, I know that sometimes I'd like a break. I sometimes ask my husband to help me do things I normally do myself. There's nothing wrong with this. Similarly, he sometimes asks me to help him with things he normally does. Again, nothing bad about this. NEITHER of us is more entitled to courtesy and help than the other. BOTH of us are told by God to love and respect the other.

So, in retrospect, the potato is not the only starch worthy of respect. Respect the crackers. Love the pasta. Care for the bread.

Women LOVE your husbands. Treat them with respect. I'm no expert, but I am fed up with blatant discourtesy shown these men, especially men of God, by the women who should care for their feelings the most.