Lumps, Bumps, and Opportunities for Joy
only takes me about one hour to clean everything from top to bottom. We
blew off last chore day so in this case was doubly dirty.
small mountain of dishes that was starting back at me. Yeah, I let
those go too. I kept rinsing them off and stacking, but didn’t get back
to actually put the soap and scrubber to them. There stood two and
a half days of dishes blocking my view of the counter top.
As I started filling the sink for my first round, no hot water came
out of the faucet. Hummmm…. Maybe I didn’t allow enough time since
the showers to reheat the tank. So, I waited 15 minutes. Still no hot
water. Urgh!
Sometimes I wonder if God really does know how much we can
take before we break – at least I wondered that the moment I realized
the hot water heater went out. Not working. Yeah and there was a funky
smell coming from the wiring. Drat and double drat.
Seems like there have been a lot of lumps lately for the Frana clan.
Lots of unexpected bumps in the road. This was one of those bumps that
shot me out of my seat and sent me reeling. Kind of that straw that
breaks the back thing…
I sat on the bed with head in hands and prayed, “Lord, I don’t know
how to cope with this too. My house of cards is crumbling. So, you
must send help right away cause I’m having problems bearing this one.” I
looked up to see my daughter, Lily, coming toward me. She saw my face
before I could hide it. The tell-tale sign of the lip quiver that you
can’t hide, even from a five-year old.
“Mommie, what’s the matter?” “Honey, I’m sad and I’m not sure what
to do.” She gave me an enormous bear hug, as big as her little arms
could give. She looked right at me and said, “Mommie, I’m never going
to give up!” God gave her the words that He wanted to give to me.
That was what it took for me to stand-up and get going again.
We spent two hours at the laundromat dancing to “Single Ladies” by
Beyonce in-between loads. Then we attacked the mound of dishes. She
helped me dry them. We sang Christmas tunes while we worked. It took
almost three hours to get through the dishes because I had to heat up
the water on the stove and then use it to wash and rinse.
As I looked at Lily sleeping that night, I was amazed at how God’s little angel ministered to me to bring hope and joy into a pretty rotten situation.
I’m not saying it is easy to weather the bumps. What I am saying is we can
choose how we respond to the lumps we endure. Do we believe that everything that happens or doesn’t happen is filtered
through God’s hand and whatever He allows to come through His filter is
an opportunity for joy? Again, I’m not saying it’s easy. Just true…
