“And give thanks for
everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Ephesians
5:20
It’s easy to get caught up in complaining or self-condemnation
without even knowing it! Something bad happens and you wonder,
“What did I do to deserve this?”
“Why does this have to happen now?”
“Really!?! I have to spend more money?”
Recently I had a very bad day that was controlled and fueled
by extreme anxiety. I had chewed all my nails down, fidgeted all day,
constantly doing something other than work, all while feeling guilt for all of
it. My day ended with me crying and asking my husband and worship team to pray
for me.
Melinda, a fellow worshipper on the Elevate worship team,
gave me a great word of encouragement and it has stuck with me since. I can’t
remember the exact verbiage but here is the gist. Sometimes we go through just
junk. Instead of complaining we need to be praising. Praise Jesus that he would
allow such junk to take place because it gives us an opportunity to lean on
Him, seek Him, and become stronger, more equipped individuals. We may need to
walk through things so that we can help others who experience the similar situations.
Praise through it all. It’s as simple as that.
Sometimes I believe when things don’t go our way I feel the
Lord is protecting us from things that he doesn’t wish for us to walk through.
There are times we catch ourselves and heed to His warning before going any
further while other times we force our way through, blowing through all the
stop signs. We may not always see what is on the other side and I’m okay with
that.
I had not realized how deeply the advice from Melinda had sunk
in until this past weekend and when I did it blessed me to the core.
Friday evening the Hubbs and I decided to take a last minute
trip to our family ranch. Like literally last minute…we had just cooked dinner
and decided let’s pack up and go and we were out the door by 7:30 that night. His
parents and grandmother would be there and we wanted to be there as well. We
love being around family and working around the ranch.
The catch to our last minute trip was that we would have to
be back in time to lead worship for our 1st-3rd grade
kiddos on Sunday morning. This would mean we would have to leave the ranch by
5:30 at the latest on Sunday morning to be there for first service! But hey, we
were going to the ranch so we were okay with our time of departure.
We had a great time while we were there. The Hubbs took care
of some skunks, chopped firewood, and we even cleared a path for a new road.
Cathy (My MIL) and I went to town and picked up Gi (My grandmother-in-law) and
stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few things. By the afternoon we were
all back at the ranch enjoying each other’s company. It was a busy day that’s
for sure. The thought of having to leave the next morning before everyone was
up made me a little sad.
Saturday night before bed the Hubbs and I decided to pack up
the car so we wouldn’t have to bother with it so early Sunday morning. Remember
me saying we had to leave no later than 5:30? Yeah, that’s too early to be
packing up! Long story short, in the process of packing the car up, both sets
of keys managed to get locked in the car.
“Ugh, we have to be at church tomorrow to lead worship! I’m
the ONLY ONE scheduled!” I thought to myself. What are we going to do? The Hubbs
quickly began the process of trying to break into our car while I walked
around, laying my hands on the car, touching the locks, and praying that the
Lord would give us the miracle of unlocking the car for us! I mean, He is the
creator of EVERYTHING, the Healer of sicknesses, the God of Miracles! He could
surely unlock my car if He wanted to….but He didn’t unlock the car.
About an hour goes by and I told the Hubbs, “Babe, I think
we need to leave it alone. We can call someone in the morning. I think we need
to take this as a sign that we are not to go in the morning. Who knows what the
Lord may be protecting us from! Let’s not force the issue.”
We hated having to send the email that there was no one to
lead worship and that we would try to be there as soon as we could! But I knew
in my heart he Lord would provide a worship leader for the kids, he would
provide us a way to get home, that we just needed to trust in him.
The next morning we called the Pop-A-Lock guy and he said he
would send someone out. We weren’t given a time so we just went on about ranch
duties until they got there. I mean, waiting in the house sure wasn’t going to
get that car unlocked any faster right?
The Hubbs and I got the golf cart and drove around the place
to see if there was any movement from animals (pigs, deer, nutria, etc). We
went up to the tank to see if we could spot a Nutria (also known as a River
Rat) but what we found instead were two large Water Moccasins. We killed them
with a .22 rifle and headed to the house when we heard the car horn sound indicating
the Pop-A-Lock guy had arrived.
He unlocked the car in 10 minutes and a $100 check later he
was on his way. It was hard to have to write that check, it was hard to see the
damaged we had done by trying to break into our car, and well, by that point it
was almost 10 am. Last service started at 11:45 and with a 3 hour drive ahead
of us we knew we wouldn’t make it in time for church.
We could have beaten ourselves up and did there for a little
bit.
“We should have just stayed home and this would have never
happened!”
“I should have never put my purse in the car!”
“We should have never tried to break into the car because we
caused more damage than good!”
“We missed every service of church this morning because of
all of this mess!”
It could go on and on but I decided to not allow such
nonsense to happen! I looked at my husband and said, “Let’s praise God for
this! What can we be thankful for?” Our list is as follows:
- Praise God that we were able to pack up and go last minute to the family ranch!
- Praise God we have a savings account to pay for moments like locking our keys in the car!
- Praise God we got to spend more time with our family than we had originally planned!
- Praise God that we got to stay because had we not there would be 7 Water Moccasins still slithering around that tank!
- Praise God that He watches over us!
- Praise God that even though we were not there to serve at church that others were able to step up and share their talents! I know it blessed the kids and those who served!
- Praise God that we had the honor to take Gi home, saving other family a trip that would make their trip home a little bit further.
- Praise God that we got to sleep in.
- Praise God that the $100 we spent for the Pop-A-Lock guy was maybe a $100 that guy needed.
- Praise God that even though there was some damages to the car that it can be fixed and that really the car is just a material object.
- Praise God for going before us and taking care of everything we don’t even know about.
- Praise God that through this experience we have learned lessons and seen the growth in each other that has taken place through our marriage
- Praise God that we had the opportunity to work some more on the ranch and help out Randy & Cathy.
- Praise God that the roast we prepared for college student at church was able to feed our family Sunday lunch.
- Praise God that we were able to watch a church service on TV with our family and able to have a small discussion on the lessons learned.
- Praise God for our health!
- Praise God that even though something bit me on the neck that nothing serious came of it!
- Praise God for the precious time I had with my MIL
- Praise God for the time the Hubbs had with his dad
Praise God through it all!
So our weekend was fun, quick, frustrating, stressful, and blessed all in one! Praise God for our weekend away!
I hope this encourages you to praise the Lord through all
your circumstances good or bad. It really does help to turn your attitude
around! How many blessings have we missed out on because we were too focused on
the negative? Who has time for that? If you struggle to praise find a close
friend or family member that can help you to list all the reasons to praise
God!
