My Bad Day

My bad day started at 5:45 this morning. I woke up and I was grumpy. I prayed on the way to work this morning, "God please let me get over this so I can glorify you." It was a hard day going back to work after a hard weekend. I spent the weekend in Kentucky with family for a devastating funeral. Everything happened so fast. One morning I woke up in Monroe, the next morning I woke up in E-town Kentucky. Anyway, going to work today was hard. Everyone around me was living life as always and I just had this feeling in the pit of my stomach that wouldn't go away. Every time I started to feel normal, something would remind me and I'd start over again. So I worked a long, stressful day at work with this feeling in the pit of my stomach. I'm finally off and (30 minutes later) I make my way to the car. Aaaaaaand, I have a flat tire. I came inside and told Michael and, luckily, we were slow enough that he could come outside and help. On the way back out to the car I stepped in gum. I laughed but was a little annoyed. (I hate gum anyway.) Then, as Michael pulled out the spare tire, I felt something wet land on my sholder. Instantly I knew. Bird poop. I'll be honest - I cried. It mostly had to do with that feeling in the pit of my stomach. But also I was mad at life. Anyway, I went inside and wiped off the bird poop (and I gagged, not going to lie). When I came back out and Michael got the spare on my heart sank. The spare was flat, too. So we ended up putting the spare in Michael's trunk (which meant taking it off and putting the flat back on) and driving it across the street to a gas station. We put air in and and drove back across the street and finally we got it fixed. And I had a Bible study to go to. I was 30 minutes late. 

My favorite phrase in the Bible is "But God." It's always followed by God saving the day. I have things to be thankful for in this situation that I can't deny. Like I'm SUPER thankful that I wasn't stranded. I had a flat at work and my husband was right there to save the day. I'm thankful that there was a gas station conveniently across the street. I'm thankful we were slow enough for Michael to step away and help. I'm thankful that nothing bad about my day actually mattered. Nothing takes away God's love for me. Nothing takes away my salvation. So often we let these things get to us and we forget how insignificant they are in the long run. A flat tire doesn't matter to the kingdom of God. Being 30 minutes doesn't matter. What matters is how we react. One thing I've learned at my job as a leader is that how we react to a problem is much more important that how we solve a problem. It doesn't matter how we fixed a problem if we tore down 5 people in the process. That took me years to learn. Everyone looks to a leader when things go wrong. Leader panics, yells, or cries, the team falls apart. But if a leader can hold themselves together, they can hold the team together. Maintain what you've got before fixing what you don't have. Anyway, the whole time I knew I had to be smart about my reaction. I knew no one would blame me for being mad - especially after such a hard week. I knew a lot of people would get angry. But I knew there were teenagers inside who knew that I love God and they would be watching. And I knew Satan was hoping I would slip up. 

I'm proud to say I didn't get mad. I was sad - yes. Exhausted - yes. But I knew it didn't matter. I live for the Kingdom of God, not for my own happiness. And, one more thing: I'm really thankful that bird poop didn't land on my head!