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Grandma's Slop Bucket
by Steve Higginbotham
February 3, 2007
One of the childhood memories I have of my grandma and granddad's house in Reader, West Virginia was the "slop bucket" they kept by the kitchen sink.  Now, for those of you who don't know what a slop bucket is, it was a bucket that contained all the scraps from previous meals.  My Grandma didn't have a garbage disposal, so following a meal, the "scraps" from dinner went into the slop bucket.  When it filled up, my Granddad would take it out back and bury the contents of the bucket. 

Now this particular "slop bucket" had a lid -- because it needed one! There was no use in exposing the decaying scraps from previous meals.  Those meals were over, and those remaining scraps were sealed up and to be buried in the back yard by the garden.

If only we all had and used our own personal "slop buckets."  What do I mean?  Well, how often do you get into a little fuss with someone, and before you know it, you dump out the scraps from previous conflicts?  Things that should be forgiven, resolved, and buried away, never to be mentioned again, often reappear when we find ourselves in confrontation. 

Listen, when something finds its way into a "slop bucket," that's where it needs to stay.  Put a lid on it and when it gets full, go bury it.  Give it some thought!

Copyright © 2007, South Green Street Church of Christ, Glasgow, Kentucky
Permission is granted to copy these articles.