Food Job & other mistakes

By Shelby Dee

I think Mama told you all that I recently ran my first marathon. It was the accomplishment of a goal I set three years ago. The marathon I chose to run was a point-to-point race. So there weren’t a lot of people cheering us on along the way.

But I kept my phone with me and texted Mama nearly every mile. She’d text back too. She and Dad even filmed video messages at one point. I told you, I wasn’t trying to win the race. But I gotta tell you, some of the texts I received were so funny.

The last seven miles were pretty tough for me. My feet hurt. My hips hurt. I was hot. Putting one foot in front of the other was getting difficult. And all I wanted was to be done with it already.

As I was completing my last mile, texts from Mama became more frequent. And then I got this one: Food Job!

I knew she meant “Good job” but her mistake made me forget about the blisters on my feet and the burn in my muscles and the aches in my joints for just a moment. She made me laugh and run harder toward the finish line just around the corner.

Sometimes in our worst moments it helps to look for joy. And sometimes when we think we’ve made a mistake, that mistake can lead us places we never thought we’d go. I wouldn’t have smiled or laughed if Mama had sent her intended text. I’d already received dozens of similar encouraging texts. My inbox was nearly full of them. But somehow she hit the wrong key and a “Food Job” was just the right kind of encouragement I needed to finish the race with a smile.

I hope in 2012 we all look for the reasons to smile, and we remember: Food Job – not all the typos we make in life are truly mistakes.