Lesson Learned

Stress has a way of ruining a perfectly good day. If you let it. I did just that Sunday. We had a great day planned to celebrate our oldest daughter's birthday. Everything was in place. I thought that I had too much to do so I decided not to go to church. Then it all started to unravel. My husband was called in to work for Sunday and since he works evenings that meant he would miss the party. My stres level had risen and I went to bed early only to wake up with an asthma attack--brought on by the stress.

I felt much better in the morning and went ahead prepping the food for the evening's meal. After washing up the dishes, I got a knock at the door. It was my downstairs neighbor. He said that both his sinks in the kitchen filled up and overflowed onto the floor. He called the landlord but thought it best for us not to use our water until we found the problem. Being Sunday we had no way of knowing how soon the landlord would get here to fix the problem. It was already after 1:00 pm and I had so much left to do. I began pacing and basically having a meltdown. At 3:00, I decided to call my daughter and cancel the party and reschedule for Monday evening. She started calling guests and I started calling guests. By the time we had called everyone, the problem downstairs had been fixed and I had one of the worst migraines I've ever experienced. When I looked at the clock, it was only 3:30! We could have had the party that evening after all. But in my stressed out, freaked out state, I couldn't think past everything going on.

When the day was coming to a close, I realized something. I never once stopped and prayed. In fact, I had put all the busyness of the preparations first and didn't go to church. I had defeated myself before I even started. Oh, all my plans would have worked out as far as time goes but I didn't ask God to bless my plans or the day. The same situations may have still happened anyway but I would have been better able to handle the stress. I would have been filled with peace and would have known that God would work everything out in the end. He knows how important it is for us to celebrate our family and I believe that that blesses him also. But I chose not to include him.

Why do we do these things to ourselves? Why do we forget to ask God's blessing on things? We just go on and make our own plans without remembering Proverbs 16:3, which says:

"Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed."

And:
"For God is not a God of disorder but of peace." 1Corinthians 14:33.

And especially,
"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33

I am absolutely positive that if I had remembered my Lord from the very beginning of the day, I would have had a beautiful, peaceful day--even with all that went wrong! Lesson learned, Lord!