Chocolate Covered Chicken Feet

When I was eight or nine, there was an honest to goodness chef in our church.  I was duly impressed by this.  She not only had bold ideas about food but a bold personality to go with it!  This particular year, she decided that it would be fun during one of our church gatherings to have the men participate in a bake-off, and the women would be the judges.  In most churches, it was exactly the opposite, but this lady believed in equal rights for everyone, and this was the year that the women would get a break!  The one stipulation was that the baked good had to be entirely from scratch.  She repeated that rule over and over until it was lodged in everyone's brain.

My father was the Pastor, and in a sermon not too many weeks before, he had told the story about growing up on a farm, the next to the last child of poor farmers.  There were many children in his family, and they often had other "foster" children with them, as well.  At any given time, there may be 7 or so kids around the table. His older siblings were already grown and married by the time he was born, but the home table stayed filled.  In fact, the preacher always made his way to their home most Sunday afternoons.  Daddy told how there wasn't much food, but they made do.  The Pastor and his dad would get first choice from the plate of fried chicken, and then they would go down the line by age.  When it came to Daddy, he would often get stuck with the chicken feet.  He didn't complain.  He learned to get everything out of those scrawny feet imaginable.

Some of the people in the church were just horrified that their beloved Pastor had to eat chicken feet.  They just couldn't wrap their brains around that.  (Having lived in China and seen them packaged in the snack aisle, I firmly believe that people not only eat chicken feet but enjoy  them, as well, but these Americans had never heard of such.) People had talked about that sermon for weeks, probably forgetting the real message but definitely remembering the chicken feet!

On the night of the bake-off, the table was covered with many cakes, pies, cookies, bars, etc.  One dish remained under tin foil as the lady chef and her team of judges made their way down the table with their forks.  When they got to the dish, they peeled back the wrapper to find....chocolate covered chicken feet!  My mother had gone out and asked the butcher for the chicken feet, boiled them,  and she and Daddy had dipped them in chocolate!  Then she tied little bows around them and painted their toenails red!  It was hilarious to every person in the room but the chef!  She was so flustered that she, a woman of many words, was speechless!  Daddy really had a moist, delicious Kentucky Wonder spice cake off to the side, but he just had to put those chicken feet on the table!  After all, she had insisted that the goods be from scratch!

Proverbs 17:22 says, "A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones." People had been feeling so bad for my father.  They just assumed that his childhood had been terrible since he had to eat chicken feet.  The truth is that every story I have ever heard about him as a boy is downright funny...knee-slappingly so!  He doesn't have a bad memory about his youth at all!  Certainly not in regard to eating chicken feet or working in the fields or having one outfit and one pair of shoes.  He doesn't even think he missed out when Christmas rolled around and he and all the other children in the house got one red rubber ball to share.  Perspective is the key.  We can look at meager circumstances and begrudge our lives.  We can begin to be bitter and crushed and waste precious time, wishing for things we don't have.  The only thing we are doing is drying up the bones of our souls.  Instead, we should awaken each day with joy in our hearts.  After all, "the joy of the Lord is our strength!" (Nehemiah 8:10)

Claim the joy that revives and strengthens you!  Scratch your way out of your pit of despair! Your circumstances will undoubtedly get better. ... It's not like you have to eat chicken feet or anything!


My absolute favorite chocolate bar:  I just cannot live without Lindt Excellence Chili Dark Chocolate Bar. I usually keep one in the house somewhere. Just one little square is all I need to warm my mouth and keep me happy! You can get them in common stores like Target.  If you have never tried it, at least do so once.  You may hate it, and if you do, please give me the leftovers! But...you just might be hooked!