More than "I'm fine.."

Our Daily Bread
Today is another day where God's leadership is obvious in my blog entry.  I wrote the Simply Saturday section before reading the Our Daily Bread devotional.  They are pretty much in sync!  Praise God!  I should not be surprised!

The devotional gave two great examples of being more than "I'm fine".  Isn't that what we all say when someone asks us how we are?  Isn't that what we expect to hear when we ask someone that question?  ha!  We are reluctant to say anything else even though we may be hurting inside.  We are reluctant to be a sounding board when someone has the "I need to talk" look in their eyes.

The reassuring fact in all of this is that God can work in every situation.  Paul wrote about how some of the unfortunate things in his life turned out for the good of proclaiming the Gospel!  How can we see God working our lives?  Take a read below at my experiences from this week.  We are so much more than "I'm fine".   Praise God!

Lord, you give us more than we can understand or accept.  Please help us rely on you to conquer and not be just "fine"!  

Simply Saturday
Perseverance in practice
I haven't said much about this except to close friends, but I have had a tough week.  It started off by hurting the middle finger on my right hand.  Fortunately I can still type.  I haven't taken the time to have it seen by a doctor.

I committed to what I thought was a busy, but manageable, weekend of church activities.  I am managing even without any of the help I planned to receive from friends and family.  God is so good and has given me the skills to plan, organize and execute those plans!  Things are working out.  I will even have time for some rest today and tomorrow (all part of the plan!).

I also came to a "let's just be friends" agreement with a guy I met on match.com.  We had a great visit week before last and both thought we wanted to attempt the relationship even though there were some obstacles.  The decision to be just friends was mutual.  I told him it was a shame that someone you liked so much also set off so many alarms in your head!  Yikes!  God will lead me to the right place and time to meet my special man.  God used this latest experience to remind me that an attractive, caring man can and will be attracted to this silly old bear!

The even that almost pushed me over the edge, and it pushed me close, was finding out that my mother was in the hospital.  I was not contacted by anyone.  I had to do a Sherlock Holmes to figure out why my aunt and I couldn't reach her to wish her a Happy New Year.  Apparently, she fell on some ice.  She hurt her hands, ankles and back.  She had been in the hospital since Tuesday.  She told me last night that she will be transferred to a rehab center today to finish healing.

Yes, I try to learn from every situation in my life.  The lesson this week is a repeating one that I need to hear over and over -- it is not always about me.  I did better in some respects.  I did worse in some others.  I was very hurt when some folks didn't take the time to call me, only giving lame excuses for not calling anyone in the family.  I tried to get Mom to understand why that was important.  She didn't want to hear it.  Oh well.  I made it clear to her that I was not upset because she couldn't come down to help me this weekend (that was the "it wasn't about me" victory!).  I was upset because no one else was contacted.  My second victory was calling the folks that needed to be called to let them know what was going on.  They really appreciated it.

Focus and perseverance.  Remembering we are not alone.  Remembering to be thankful for each blessing along the way.  God is so good.  Praise God!

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Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. - Hebrews 13:8