Many years ago, Judith Viorst wrote a story called “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.” I know that it has been many years ago because I read it to my children when they were little and my youngest is in his mid-thirties now. But I digress from my main topic which is that yesterday was that day for me. It started okay. Devotions? Check! Get ready to go to a church luncheon? Check! But then, the text came. The one that said my daughter got her package that I sent but it had nothing in it except a note saying that it had arrived in Pittsburgh without anything in it. What?!? I had sent her a Christian book that I had reviewed and that I thought she and her older children would really enjoy, and now it was gone. Disappeared between here and her home. I was livid! I was very upset that the post office could not be trusted to deliver mail. It was even more upsetting that it appeared that the envelope had been slit open at the bottom. Huh? No machine did that, I thought to myself. So…a thief! A thief who steals Christian books? Seriously? So, I went to my luncheon, enjoyed talking with friends and eating my packed lunch since I couldn’t partake of what was prepared (too much sodium), then my husband and I headed to the post office so I could talk to the man there who sent the package for us. He gave me a number to call. When I got home, I called and a lady names Jackie gave me another number to call. What I discovered is that there is no such thing as “customer service” at the post office. So, I am still dealing with that problem today, but with a new attitude. More about that later. My second phone call was to Lowe’s because I am supposed to have a new stove delivered today, a gift from my Colorado brother for my birthday. I didn’t really want a new stove, but Steve wanted me to have one since our oven stopped working several years ago and he knew that I had been using small toaster ovens to bake things. Anyway, bless my little brother’s generous heart, when he came to visit at the beginning of this month, he took me to pick out my stove and paid for it. But since Lowe’s didn’t have one in stock, they set up a delivery date almost three weeks later and told me that they would call about the time of delivery today. So, since I hadn’t received a call and it was late afternoon, I called Lowe’s. Once again, it was almost impossible to get to talk to a real person, but at last I managed to talk to Alex in appliances. He checked on my stove and came back to the phone and told me that it hadn’t arrived yet. I was irate with the whole situation and told him that was not acceptable. He told me he would call me back with a new delivery date. Since he didn’t call back after an hour or so, I called and asked to speak to a manager. Darrell checked what Alex had told me and called me back to tell me that my stove will be delivered today. (Who knows how they found my stove so quickly?). By this time, I had a headache, tried to relax and that just wasn’t happening, so I went to bed early, read and went to sleep. Now, do you see what is missing in this whole scenario of my terrible day? I didn’t pause to pray. I prayed for a couple of friends at the luncheon. But I didn’t pray about my frustration and out the window went my joy for the day. It was as if I forgot for about sixteen long, tortuous hours that God is sovereign. He knows what happened to the package. He knows my frustration over the whole stove thing. He knows, period. And I forgot. So, I am confessing here to all of my online friends that I am choosing to make today a a better day. No matter what happens, I am determined to stay in an attitude of prayer and thankfulness to my Father in Heaven. It may still be a terrible, horrible, very bad, no good day…but I will have my Father to lean on and that will make everything okay.

In my devotions this morning, I read about Elisha the prophet and the axe head that fell into the water.

And as I read, God spoke to my heart and told me that He is there with me through everything that will happen today. If my axe head falls into the water, I only have to tell the Lord what is happening and He will take care of it. Does iron normally float? Of course not! Am I a normally calm person when something (like the arrival of a new stove) disrupts my regular routine? No, but today, I am leaning on the Lord to be my peace, the calm in the storms of my life. I choose to rejoice and I hope that you do, too. Blessings!