INSPIRASUNS

Yesterday, after church, we joined our friends at breakfast (as has become the routine). We went to one of our four places of choice. When we were seated and had our coffee, we started looking at the menu. We all noticed that it was different. It was considerably smaller; they had taken many things off the menu. I understand that, if it’s not selling, then remove it. However, there were some good things on the menu that we missed. We also began to look around and noticed subtle changes in the decor, and the place just “felt” different.

After breakfast, I made the grocery store run, and my husband headed home (we had driven separately as I had to be at church early). Anyway, our local grocery store is different than most. It’s hard to explain, but picture a sports bar and grocery store rolled into one 🙂 . They have the best meat and produce in town. I don’t go there weekly because of the location, and also because it’s usually packed after 11:00 a.m.

Well, I got there yesterday, Sunday, at about 11:15 a.m. I figured I was fine; it was a Sunday. Wrong. The parking lot was packed, and it was filled with people upstairs (yes, two levels, the upstairs is a bar and restaurant area that hosts live bands weekly). As I grabbed my cart and made my way around, I noticed music coming from upstairs. What the heck, it’s 11:00 on Sunday, I thought. I found out shortly after from the guy at the meat case that there was a high school rock band competition taking place. “What?”, I thought. Seriously, it’s a Sunday morning, and based on the point they were at, those people had been there for at least an hour 😦 .

If you are like me, you’ve probably been following the recent changes at Cracker Barrel. I used to love that place. I could spend hours wandering around their store, and of course, I couldn’t miss the candy section. When they started to make changes years ago, I wondered what they heck they were doing. Now, the recent change in the logo, again, what the heck? This used to be the place that people flocked to after church on Sunday. I remember going in on a cold winter morning and walking past that warm fire, headed for a cup of coffee. It was awesome.

This morning, as I was thinking about all of these recent situations, I felt sad. Things have changed a lot since the old days. The days when you spent Sunday with God and family, when stores used to be closed, and families enjoyed their time together. Schools and extracurricular sports teams would never have dreamed of scheduling a baseball or soccer tournament on a Sunday morning. The days when restaurants served good food with a smile and didn’t try to be everything to everybody. If you didn’t like what they served, you just went somewhere else.

I don’t know what the answer is. Maybe I’ve become my parents, talking about those good old days. I know this, those days when God and Family were first, especially on Sunday, well, they weren’t so bad. I’ll keep remembering those times, and I’ll pray that Father can help us get back there.

And yes, I’ll even say a prayer that Cracker Barrel will change back to the old logo, keep the antique decor and awesome shop, and….bring back the “egg in a basket” please 🙂 .

2 Thessalonians 2:15
So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.