Day 65 – Victory!

Day 65 – Ahhh….the lessons that we learn if we truly listen! Today AGAIN was a challenge. You must think I am whining by now. I really am not….or at least I'm not intending to. I am truly amazed by the constant stuff being thrown my way. Today's lessons were blessings in the long run but nonetheless, a challenge.

The morning began at 2:30 AM when I could no longer sleep. Sleep has been somewhat of a commodity for the last 8 months or so. My alarm was set for 6:30, so I choose to think I was just early for my alarm! I awoke needing to fix a hose to our dishwasher as it began leaking last night. Long story made short, our house was built by people that shouldn't be in the business of building and there are MANY things in this house that are complicated. Our water lines are just one of many things I could mention. When you shut our main water line off – the water still flows in certain areas and not in others. I'm no plumber – but that is BAD! Luckily, the other night – I had bought a special shut off valve (called a no sweat valve – so you don't have to sweat getting to the main) specifically for just that hose so that I had a fighting chance of shutting off the leak. Thank goodness God planted that idea in my head the other night. It afforded me time…time to get other things done before tackling the hose.

Then, last night – our computer crashed. My poor daughter could not print her paper that was due and there was not even a hope of trying to fix it in a short bit of time. I am pretty computer savvy and this problem seemed virtually unfixable. The computer wouldn't even boot up. She was so distraught and I tried to e-mail her teacher but her response was that she would learn a hard lesson as she had asked ALL students to put their work on USB drives so they wouldn't have this issue. My daughter didn't and as a result had to pay the consequence. I felt sad for her but knew that this wasn't horrible in the grand scheme of things. What was horrible was that I had several tax documents that were on that computer and our taxes are due NOW. I contacted the accountant and begged for time and thankfully, he had no problem with that.

I am not trying to chronicle my life to whine….REALLY!!! I want to share my little victories in today.

1. I was able to get to Home Depot and Lowes and buy the right sealer to get my pipes sealed properly. God had me look at the right things and check the right information and it made it possible for our dishwasher to work again.
   
2. I was able to get the computer fixed…even though it wouldn't even boot up. God gave me the right things to look at during the right time and I was able to get it to work. I am under no delusion that it was me. The irony in that was that I had told my daughter that as soon as she re-typed her outline and other items needed (which took 2 hours), the other computer would probably reboot. Guess what?! Literally 5 minutes after she got done and printed – it rebooted. It was a wonderful opportunity to share with her how God was probably working in that situation to have her learn.
   

These may seem small but they could have completely robbed me of joy today. Also, I learned some wonderful lessons along the way. It was NOT an easy day but God walked with me every step. I tried to thank Him every step as well. He blessed me with a wonderful Drama practice today and with great discussions with each of my children. He blessed me with calm and peace tonight and peace of mind with the computer and dishwasher. Sounds goofy – but I probably wouldn't have slept tonight knowing that there were things that could be worked on.

As I was doing my mile (yes, I really do them), I was thinking about the armor of God. I love that set of passages in Ephesians 6. However, I love what he says right afterwards:

Ephesians 6:19-20

¹⁹Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

As we go through each day full of challenges, it is an opportunity to show Christ. I will work diligently on not complaining or whining but rather share the victories that are in each day. May we all be fearless as we bring the mystery of the gospel to life.