Have you ever had a week where you felt like something was missing, but you weren’t quite sure what it was?

I had that kind of week last week. She felt something was missing and couldn’t figure out what it was.

Last week was typical in many ways. Everything seemed to be going as normal as normal could be. But I had this nagging thought in the back of my head that I was missing something. I really couldn’t handle it.

At first, I thought maybe I had missed my Apple Fritter. My New Year’s resolution for this year was to eat only one apple fritter at a time. And as far as I can remember, I haven’t missed one so far this year.

So, it wasn’t an Apple Fritter I was missing. It was something, and it was starting to make me nervous.

I pulled out my weekly planner to see if there was a meeting I had missed or forgotten. I was very careful, and everything I was supposed to do last week I did. And yet something was missing.

I went back to my weekly planner for five or six weeks and nothing was missing.

Maybe, I thought, he had a meeting he had forgotten to schedule. So, I asked the Gracious Mistress of the Parochial House if she knew anything that I missed.

Well, it sure was a mistake. He had a whole list of things that, according to his schedule, I had forgotten to do. It was almost a book full of “missing activities” that she thought she needed to catch up on.

I should have known better, but after completing all of his “tasks”, I still had this little itch that there was something missing.

Once again, I made the mistake of speaking out loud and mentioning that I felt like I was missing something.

That’s all the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage needs to hear, and once again, she was on her game and gave me a whole list of things she thought I was missing.

You’d think at my age I’d know when to keep my mouth shut. But it was bothering me because I was missing something, and I don’t like that. I like to do my job and get everything done as quickly as possible.

I went to the bathroom by chance, I looked at myself in the mirror and I saw that it had been a long time since I had a haircut. I thought this was probably what I was missing. That would surely solve my anxiety.

So I went to the hairdresser, got a haircut, and went home. I was smiling all the way home because I thought I found that lost thing of the week. I try to cut my hair every couple of weeks and sometimes I mess up and get out of a rut. But now, the haircut was done and I was headed home.

When I opened the door to go into the house, I started to get that itchy feeling again that I was missing something. The haircut wasn’t really what I was missing, so I went back to square one.

As I was pondering this, my wife came up to me and said, “Could you go to the supermarket and buy some things I need for tonight?”

Of course, he was willing to go do some shopping. I’m not a shopaholic, but when I’m given a list, I can shop.

I had just put the last item in the shopping cart and headed over to the checkout counter, and then, there it was!

I never thought it would solve my itching problem at the supermarket. But there it was. I was walking down the candy aisle, and there it was; several shelves full of CHOCOLATE.

There were all kinds of chocolate candies on those shelves. I just froze and looked at all that CHOCOLATE and let the atmosphere fill my mind.

My wife can’t eat chocolate for some reason, but I love chocolate. We haven’t had chocolate in the house since before the pandemic, which may explain my nerves. Nothing is more relaxing and comforting to me than a cup of Joe in one hand and a delicious chocolate bar in the other.

My only problem at this point was what not to buy. The chocolate that I like the most is the one that I am eating at that moment.

Without judging, I selected one piece of chocolate from every shelf in that aisle. I filled my basket with chocolate candies. When I got to the cashier counter, a great weight seemed to lift from my shoulders, and a peace seemed to enter my life that I had not experienced for some time.

Driving home, I started thinking about how I was going to get my wife through all this chocolate. I quickly put that aside and focused on the delicious piece of chocolate she was currently eating.

I thought of a wonderful verse of scripture. “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, do, and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:9).

God’s peace is what most people are missing in their lives today.