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I had to drop off my van at the service center. Again! Since moving cross country as part of my caregiving journey, it had been in the shop for problems four times in one year! I must confess, I was feeling very down in the mouth about it all.
To add insult to injury, five minutes after I left I realized I had left my parking pass in the glove compartment and had to go back to get it. My bleak mood turned even darker.
I stood waiting at the service manager’s desk as he went to look for it in the car. As I did so, God nudged me to start praising Him for all of this. As I thanked Him for this situation, He gently pointed out that I had remembered it while still close by and not when I was late and needed to hurry. As I continued to praise Him, I could feel myself relaxing. Even my countenance seemed to be lightening up.
The situation hadn’t changed, but my perspective had and it was, indeed, a wonderful thing!
“Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord,
always giving thanks to God the Father for everything,
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Ephesians 5:19b-20 (NIV)
Now it’s time for a confession. I typed this article, uploaded it to my site, only to discover it wouldn’t format correctly. After fighting with it for 30 minutes, and with no clue why it was acting this way, I gave up and deleted it. Starting over, I pasted the original into a brand new page, uploaded it again, same problem! I’m sure you’re probably thinking, based on what I wrote above, that I was just chirping away happily, praising God.
Sadly, the answer is, nope. I was getting rather frustrated and not too happy. But then (I love those words. God uses them so much in my life 🙂 ), God AGAIN whispered in my ear. He basically told me to go READ what I’d been writing. You should see the big smile on my face as I type this! AGAIN, He changed my perspective.
Let’s face it, as Sandwich Generation caregivers, life is going to have plenty of problems, bumps, irritations, and frustrating moments. But the Lord has promised to be there with us through all of them. And He’s promised to love us no matter how often we blow it. And He’s promised to bless us when we choose to praise Him and thank Him no matter what the circumstances.
So yes, I blew it, AGAIN. But then I confessed AGAIN. And wonderfully and miraculously, He forgave me AGAIN. And hopefully, I will hang on to His peace long enough to get this posted, and beyond. And if I forget AGAIN, I know He will remind me AGAIN, and we will continue this caregiving journey together always and forever. Now that’s a wonderful perspective!
P.S. After writing that, AND praying, I uploaded it and it all worked wonderfully. 🙂 Praise God!!!
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