This Week is Brought to You by the Letter A

This week is brought to you by the letter A
…as in “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!”

As I am writing this post, it is Sunday night. I am SUPPOSED to have a blog post scheduled to go at 4 a.m. tomorrow morning, but I don’t. I am absolutely WORN OUT. We spent all day yesterday looking for a vehicle for me, so that I can go to work and do the things I need to do next week. We left the house to take the dog to the vet about 8:30 yesterday morning and, 1 ticked off German Shepherd, about 450 miles, and a new (to us) vehicle later, we got home after 7 p.m. last night. Since the vehicle we bought was used, we literally spent all day cleaning, working on it, doing minor repairs, moving stuff from my old vehicle, and trying to figure out all the buttons and gadgets.  This old girl is TIRED.

Y’all this last week has been SOMETHING ELSE. It seems like it’s just been one thing after another. A string of problems and inconveniences.  Let me give you a brief synopsis of the last few days.

Some days my work requires me to get up around 4 a.m.  Around my house, we have a term for that. We call it, “stupid early.” As in, “I better go to bed soon because tomorrow I have to get up stupid early.” I am not a morning person. At all. Even the SUN has enough sense not to be up that early, y’all.

This last week there were several days that I had to get up stupid early. Wednesday morning, I was on my way to work when my beloved little blue Jeep Liberty, (that has taken me everywhere for a really long time,) had a major malfunction. It was 12 degrees that morning. And I sat on the side of the road for over an hour before I finally got it going enough to kind of limp off the highway and down the exit ramp. When it wouldn’t go anymore, I ran up a little bank of grass and climbed a fence. My boss was kind enough to come pick me up from there and take me on into work where I could thaw out. My sweet husband took off work early to stand out in the cold and get it running again that afternoon. At least, it was running enough that my little Jeep limped back home, and we didn’t have to have it towed. Thank you, Lord, for that! But my poor little Liberty is dead.  I sure loved that thing.  It was a fun ride.

Thursday morning was stupid early again, but this time the alarm didn’t go off. By the time I got up I was supposed to leave the house in 12 minutes. Y’all, it takes me half an hour just to get my eyes in (contact lenses) and my face on (don’t want to be scaring any small children, donchaknow). I was rushing around, stressing, trying to get everything done. We have birds, and their food is supposed to be soaked in boiling water for 25 minutes before I give it to them. I decided to punt that morning and give the birds a dried fruit and nut mixture to save time. One of my birds, Lenny (who we affectionately refer to as the green chicken) was NOT impressed. He immediately began taking what was in his bowl and tossing it out, over his back, onto the floor. All the while giving me the “THIS is NOT WHAT I ORDERED” stank eye. I fed the rest of the critters and hit the door. I ended up driving my husband’s truck to work (he borrowed a vehicle.) I wasn’t late, but I didn’t have a second to spare.

Friday morning I pulled out of the driveway, again, stupid early, and when I got a couple of hundred feet down the road I accidentally poured about half of a coke into my seat. So there I was, trying to hold my hiney up off the seat while I put my husband’s truck in reverse, backed it up and turned it around. I ran back into the house and got a towel to put in the seat and dry my pants. A few minutes later I stopped to get gas, and to make a long story short, I ended up spilling gas all over my pant leg.

WHAT A WEEK. Three mornings in a row. Seriously?!  Thank goodness the work week was over or who KNOWS what another stupid early morning would have held!

So then I was driving to work, in an unfamiliar, uncomfortable vehicle.  I was irritated, angry, and feeling sorry for myself.

“Lord, my attitude stinks, and so do my pants – and they are wet.”

Almost immediately after that, I was ashamed of myself. I have so much to be thankful for, why in the world would I think it would be ok to sit and gripe about my week. Don’t get me wrong.  I know He is faithful, and He listens, and He cares about the everyday details of my life.  Let’s just be real, if He knows the number of hairs on my head, then He also knows my truck died and my pants smell like gas.  But what business do I have being upset when He has been so good?  There are Christians in other countries that are being killed for their faith, people battling life-threatening illnesses either personally or with their loved ones, folks with no place to live, people who are cold and hungry… And I am griping about some coke and gas on my pants and a big old blue hunk of metal and fiberglass.

I spent the rest of my half-hour drive praising God and thanking the Lord for all the blessings in my life that I could think of. He gave me such peace about it all.  I was laughing about the ridiculousness of it all by the time I got to work.

That’s life, right? Dolly Parton says, “If you want the rainbow, you have to put up with the rain.” How would we ever appreciate the good times, the blessings, and the sunny days the Lord gives us if we’ve never had to weather any storms?

1. 

Besides, I’ve already decided, this coming week is going to be a great one. Jesus is with me, so who cares if things don’t go exactly like I planned them?

 

Matthew 6:34 NIV    Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Philippians 4:6-7 NIV    Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.