2 Clogged Toilets and a Rotted Mailbox
This past Sunday afternoon our entire family was past the point of exhaustion. The previous week Chris had been out of town. He returned Thursday night only for me to leave on Friday. I failed to get the kids to pack for their student retreat that started that evening, so I punted the responsibility to Chris as I headed out the door. All of the chaos of the last several days collided as we returned Sunday to a house that had not experienced its normal Saturday cleaning. Laundry was mounting. Dust bunnies were hopping. Kids were sleeping and I was bemoaning that in less than 12 hours we were going to start another week all over again.My pity party continued when I realized that somewhere over the last few days both of our downstairs toilets had mysteriously clogged themselves and the mailbox had rotted through at the base and fallen over. Nice. Feeling super classy at this point.The Lord has a sense of humor though because as I picked up my phone to look ahead to Monday's appointments, I remembered that I was scheduled to spend the day writing on contentment. Double nice.Then it dawned on me. I was all worn out and spun up by what in Twitter land would be referred to as #firstworldprobs. There are painful issues that we experience and it is critical that we learn to find peace even when we are in the valley. But how much of my time do I choose to be discontent over absolutely trivial issues? How many days would others be thankful for but I choose to gripe over?I will follow up this blog with one on how to find contentment in the midst of pain, but perhaps we first need to do an honest analysis of what is keeping us from experiencing peace. We can't let the enemy keep us half empty over full toilets!We must remember to think on what is true, pure and lovely. The next time you sense your blood pressure rising determine if the source will have any impact on your life one month from now. Ask yourself, will being troubled by this circumstance make anything better?