"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus" 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Can I confess something? I'm pretty good at being joyful and thankful when I'm in Church, when I'm hanging out with my life group, or even when I'm having personal devotion time.  But when the chips are down and I'm looking in the face of adversity, I'm not always that good at it.  Who's with me? I have a feeling I'm not alone in this.  Just today, I left work very harried and stressed after a hectic day, drove across town to pick up my daughter from after-school care.  It was hot, I was sweating, and I had an appointment at 5:00 at Dunn Brothers.  When I got to school my daughter was having a dramatic meltdown because her ice pack had a hole in it.  I talked her down, threw the ice pack away, signed her out, got her into the hot car, buckled her in listening to her chatting about her day and all I could think about was a frosty cold iced mocha at Dunn Brothers.  I put the key in the ignition and turned.  Nothing.  What? No, my car can't be dead - it's a new(ish) car! I tried again and it made a horrendous sound.  Ok, one more time.  Nothing.  I called my husband who had just picked up the baby across the river and he agreed to come get me.  I told him to pick us up at Dunn Brothers.  It was a short walk and I was not missing my appointment - let alone my iced mocha!

I happened to be meeting Miss Lori Noe so that she could show me how to post on this very blog.  I bought my daughter a muffin and a water and ordered my caramel mocha.  Lori arrived just as I was getting my coffee and trying to get my daughter settled and my computer booted.  It was then I realized that they had served me a HOT caramel mocha.  Did I mention I was already sweating? I didn't have time to change my order because my husband was on his way to fix my car. No biggie - I'll just sweat some more.

Lori and I tried and tried and could never get the wi-fi in the restaurant to work.  We even asked the employees and they re-set something or other and it still didn't work.  Lori gave me good enough verbal instructions to get me in here (and I'm hopeful this works!) and by that time my husband had arrived with the baby, so we piled into his van and drove back to the school where he revived my car battery with a jump and the baby screamed the whole time.  At this point, my nerves were shot. AND WHAT WERE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT DINNER?!!! But I had to have a new battery, so Nick sent me to Wal-Mart to have a new battery put in and he took the kids to McDonalds. 

On my way to Wal-Mart I started thinking about how trying the evening had been already, how exhausted I was, and basically throwing myself a little pity party.  And then it hit me.  My husband is going to be out of town tomorrow night.  What if this had happened tomorrow night? And then, suddenly, I was thankful.  Thank you, Lord, that my husband was home tonight and able to come help me and take care of the kids! Thank you, Lord, that it happened in a safe place and thank you, Lord, for (I never say this) Wal-Mart whose auto department is open late and got me fixed right up.

God meets our needs and He takes care of us in every situation. So relax and enjoy those bumps in the road... At the time they may seem like deep potholes, but in hindsight they were probably just rumble strips to keep you awake.

~Liz Roberts