No Matter What....

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 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.

For many of you, the past couple of weeks have included spring break.  I have always paused in amazement as one can view social media at the end of this holiday week and see beautiful photos of beautiful people in beautiful destinations.  I would not define my family's vacation as beautiful, or would I?  Despite the fact that my teenager and young adult have traveled to other countries, they have not visited many important cities across Texas.  That is largely because it takes longer to cross Texas than to visit another country...I'm not even kidding!!! On the first official day of the break, we loaded the car and headed to San Antonio.  In my younger years, this was a 4 hour drive; however, our drive turned into a significantly longer trip due to endless construction.  If you decide to make this trip anytime soon, just follow the orange and white barrels....you'll get there!!!  We ran out of food provisions as the drive time lengthened, and people in the vehicle began to turn on one another.  Thank you, Jesus we did arrive safely.  The second night of our trip, the day when the time "sprang forward," I sat in an emergency medical clinic with my daughter.  The late hour of 12:00am was actually 1:00am. Thank you, Jesus for outstanding medical care right across the street from our hotel.  The next morning, as I poured my first cup of coffee, the loud shriek of a screaming baby caused me to almost have multiple accidents.  Thank you, Jesus for the waiter named Gregg who had so many great jokes to distract my family.  After breakfast, we excitedly loaded the "Hop On, Hop Off" bus for our first tour.  As soon as we sat in our open-air seats, located on level 2 of the double decker bus, the wind picked up. Within seconds, it started raining. Thank you, Jesus for the most entertaining bus driver who made riding in the rain a blast!  Finally, we arrived at the Space Needle.  The very high winds and light rain made it impossible to view anything clearly from the observation deck.  Most of the time, I viewed my own hair!  Thank you, Jesus for the chance to laugh uncontrollably 700 feet above the city.  It had been a long time since my family of four had laughed that hard together.  On our return trip home, the fuel lid on my car malfunctioned.  It would not release, and we needed more gas soon.  Thank you, Jesus for the wonderful Kia employee Adrienne of Austin, Texas who reassured us that everything would be ok...as soon as they disengaged the fuel lid!

In December of 2016, my son broke his collar bone, my daughter underwent two surgeries, our goldfish passed away, our lakehouse flooded and our septic tank became clogged with a "wall of tree roots."  I learned everything about a septic tank in an hour-long tutorial session with a nice man named Jeff, the proud owner of a septic tank business.  Jeff's business card had the beautiful saying, "Thanks for flushing our business down the drain!"  I still cringe at remembering him tell me all about...yep, THAT'S ALL TRUE!!!  I reflect back on that time within our family and wonder, "How did I survive that?"  This is what I know.  I prayed all the time.  Each day started with prayer and ended with prayer.  Every day, I identified reason(s) to be thankful and wrote them in my journal.  Each page became a collection of beautiful blessings woven into the tapestry of some true stress, heartache and pain.  Those blessings showered my soul with indescribable cheer.  Most importantly, I strived to not "lose sight of the forest for the trees."  How often do we find ourselves tied in knots over a trivial problem, a small struggle?  How often do we lose sight of the big picture?  The big picture is glorious.  The big picture reflects God's grace, His peace and His tender mercies.  Reflecting back, the "big picture" of the San Antonio trip was indeed beautiful.  Pray. Thank God. Find cheer.  No matter what....