SHOO!!

My precious friend Kay Day once told me a story she heard about how Abraham's job was to keep the birds off of the sacrifices for God. Now before I get in trouble for misquoting my dear friend, let me get to the relevant part. So many times, when we have some kind of God blessing in our life, the birds come to try to steal our joy. Like Abraham, we have to chase them away. In Kay's story, the answer to the bad things that come in our lives is to yell, "SHOO!" and chase the negative that comes away.

Yesterday, I needed to remember to yell, "SHOO!" I had an amazing morning. An empowering afternoon. God blessed me with some wonderful and unexpected gifts.

Then the birds swooped in.

I found out my email hadn't been working. For someone who works from home, whose only contact with her boss and coworkers is via email, not having email is to have my lifeline completely cut off. Plus, being on the ACFW board, I'm missing out on decisions and communications about items that need to be done yesterday. My most important tool is gone, and based on the lack of information in my inbox, I had no idea what I'd even missed. Given that I have some major things in the pipeline right now, this is the worst time for it to happen. Not that there is a good time.

Turns out hubby was doing a nice thing for us and switched our email server to something that would save us a lot of money. However, he didn't tell me in time to get the changeover made without interruption to my service. I've been working on fixing it ever since.

Then... I find out that for the third time, my childcare plans for two conferences I'm attending this summer have fallen through. One conference starts in less than two weeks.

To be honest, I was more than a little upset. And I didn't have anyone to be mad at. Hubby truly was doing a nice thing, he just forgot to tell me. My childcare plans- the person who can't do it now has a really good reason that I think is more important than watching my kids. I was mostly frustrated that I've worked so hard to keep my life's machine moving smoothly and the world kept tossing wrenches beyond my control into the works. Not fair.

Plus, there was the real worry of finding solutions. I went to bed last night with no solutions. And as I lay there, tossing and turning, all I could think of was, "SHOO!!"

Tonight, I'm going to bed with more options, no resolution, but with peace. Not because the situation is now perfect, but because I am choosing to chase the birds away. I have a lot of wonderful things happening that I am happy about. I have a good life. And I am choosing to cling to my joy and the promise that God is bigger than all these things that keep coming up.