No Matter What

Okay, folks. Pop quiz:

After about three hours of sleep, you wake up late and tired, preparing to begin your busy day. During the course of said day:

1. You discover that you made a nasty financial mistake that was totally preventable but you failed to prevent it. It cost you $100, and infuriated your husband, who just took over the finances and who hardly ever loses his temper;
2. In spite of your frequent warnings, lectures and attempts at protection, you find one of your children writing inappropriate things on your computer while the child is supposed to be writing an essay about their favorite president;

3. You leave with just enough time to pick up an Amish neighbor to take her to an appointment she has in ten minutes and your U-joint falls out of the bottom of your Jeep in the middle of the driveway;

4. You find three library books that are so overdue that they're now considered lost.

What do you do? What DO you DO???

Did you answer with any of the following?

1. Hide in the back of your fruit cellar with the lights off and bawl uncontrollably, determined to never come out of the dark, damp, cold corner again;

2. Get angry, hurt and frustrated beyond description, feel like a failure as a mother and homeschooler, and consider going to work full-time at McDonald's in order to put all of your children in boarding school;

3. Hang your head, call your husband out from the house, who, upon seeing the defunct U-joint lying on the ground, immediately spouts an obsenity, even though he rarely swears;

4. Apologize profusely to the librarian and worry that they'll never let you take books from them again because you're such a careless loser with no concern for the library's well-being.

If you did respond like this, then you and I are so very much alike.

When days like today happen, my first tendency is to get very angry, very hurt, very defeated, and very bitter.

"Great, God! Thanks a lot! I mean, look at all I do around here, and this is what you give me? This is the thanks I get? Thanks. Thanks a whole heck of a lot."

When I do that, I have the right idea.

I just have the wrong attitude.

It's like I tell my kids, don't EVER use "Thank You" as an insult. It's not meant to be a sarcastic, derogatory thing. It's meant to be GRATITUDE. It's meant to be APPRECIATION. It's designed to be received as PRAISE. If you're angry, tell the other person you're angry. Don't use mock gratitude as a weapon.

God tells us to be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.

Thirty-three times in the NIV Bible, we are instructed to give thanks.

I realized as my nightmare day went on that I was guilty of using mock gratitude with God. What he really deserved was my sincere, gratitude, my deepest thanks, my heartfelt praise.

No matter what.

After all, let's think about this:

1. I've been asking my husband for FIFTEEN YEARS to take over the finances. Why? Because I SUCK at money issues! I'm too emotionally driven to make good decisions and I have a tendency to, ahem, push the envelope, shall we say? Making this big financial mistake just after my husband committed to taking over the money was a big wake-up call for both of us. It scared us straight, I guess you could say. I was devastated to disappoint him. Now he sees how stressful it is to make money mistakes and why it's so important for him to take over, and I see how much he wants to get it right and find myself completely accountable to him.

2. I was there, at home, when my child decided to investigate inappropriate content on what I thought was a harmless kids' internet game (Warning to readers: if your child plays Runescape, put a stop to it NOW!). Some children have no parent available to intercede when these things happen. I was there. I'm still here. I'm able to have a conversation with my child and discuss these issues with my child...even though I'm still trying to figure out just how to do that....

3. What if I'd been on the road with my passenger and her children when my Jeep's U-joint when clanking to the ground? What if my husband had been on the expressway with all of our children in the Jeep, like he was last night, just minutes before he pulled the Jeep into our driveway it promptly lost a very imporant component that is now hanging off the vehicle?

4. I actually FOUND the library books. I returned them, had a fee of $3.00 each, and didn't have to pay for each book in full, which would have been another financial disaster of over $50. The librarian was kind to me and didn't ban me from using the library again.

And these are just the positive aspects that I KNOW about. I am instructed to give thanks NO MATTER WHAT. Even if I can't SEE the silver lining around that foreboding thundercloud.

Tonight, as our family sat around the table preparing to eat a meal together, my daughter, Sweetheart, asked if she could pray. In her biggest, most faithful five-year-old voice, she offered her words to God:

"Dear God, thank you for everything that happened today..."

No matter what...

She didn't say, "Thanks a lot, God," or, "thanks for giving me the stuff I wanted," or, "thank you for all of the good things that happened."

She said, "Thank You, God. Thank You for EVERYTHING."

I could learn a lot from that girl.

"Thank God in everything no matter what the circumstances may be, be thankful and give thanks, for this is the will of God for you who are in Christ Jesus the Revealer and Mediator of that will."

~1 Thes. 5:18, Amplified Bible