It really can be a YES day!

I cannot tell you how many days I have literally wasted, squandered, tossed aside, because I chose to ignore God's blessings and allowed satan to have his way in my heart.  I know that sounds dark and scary (and it is), but that's about as real as it gets.  I type those words, however, with a hope that I will in "all my tomorrows yet to be" choose to claim God's power and reject the notion that the devil has the power to destroy anything which God has so masterfully created.  But, let me give you a sample of a day "gone south."

"I woke up this morning - LATE - because I hit the snooze button on my alarm clock too many times (I hate that).  I make a made dash to the bathroom, take a look in the mirror and realize that this has GOT to be a "shave day" (shave day falls into a pattern I have created: shave on Sunday, but not on Monday; shave on Tuesday, but not on Wednesday; shave on Thursday, but not on Friday or Saturday; and start the cycle anew on Sunday).  At best, that shave is going to add another 5 minutes to my hurried prep time.  I jump in the shower and bathe off as quickly as possible.  After showering, I storm into the closet to find something to wear.  The very outfit that I think I have to wear that day is composed of a pair of pants and a shirt that needs ironing.  This day is already busting my chops - AND IT JUST STARTED!!!!!!  I don't have time to iron the shirt, so I take it to the laundry room to put it into the dryer for a "tumble iron" - OH MY GOODNESS, wash woman (that's a less-than-flattering title I give to my wife on mornings like these) has left an entire load of clothes in the dryer.  Now, I have to unload the machine and sling my shirt in.  O.K., this is multi-tasking I suppose - I can get the rest of me ready while the shirt is going through the process of "tumble ironing."  Finally dressed I sprint to the kitchen to take my morning medications.  OH MY GOODNESS, medicine woman (follow the pattern of slanderous tone and accusation) has neglected to fill my medicine box.  I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!!!!!  I get one day's worth of medicine together (just the essentials) and swallow them with milk - yes, mouth to the jug, for there is no time to pour milk into a glass (literally).  I grab all my things for the day, rush out the door, get into the car, crank up and BING, the dashboard light pops on indicating that I have LOW FUEL.  I'm ignoring it - I'll gas the car after school.  Take Nick to school and head to work.  And wouldn't you just know it, some senior citizen has picked MY morning and MY route to take a much-needed tour of Cairo.  So, I ride her bumper (dangerously close) all the way to work, flip into the parking lot, realize I have two minutes to get in and sign in, holler in frustration and declare, "THIS IS SHAPING UP TO BE ONE OF THE WORST DAYS OF MY LIFE" - all before I see the first student of the day.  "Those kids BETTER not cross me today, or I'm going to take their heads off!!!"  And there you have it, an entire day ruined - not what I had "planned" for at all."

Do you ever do that?  Go ahead and answer that one honestly - I'm basically blogging this for me.  It's just a huge pity party, and I've handed God's day to satan on a silver platter.  Not what I had planned?  That's a joke, "planning" would have changed the entire morning.  But good things CAN come from "plans gone wrong."  It's hard to believe, but VERY true.

The invention of the humble Post-It Note was an accidental collaboration between second-rate science and a frustrated church-goer.  In 1970, Spencer Silver, a researcher for the large American corporation 3M, had been trying to formulate a strong adhesive, but ended up only managing to create a very weak glue that could be removed almost effortlessly.  He promoted his invention within 3M, but nobody took any notice.
Four years later, Arthur Fry, a 3M colleague and a member of his church choir, was irritated by the fact that the slips of paper he placed in his hymnal to mark the pages would usually fall out when the book was opened.  One service, he recalled the work of Spencer Silver, leading to an epiphany – the church being a good a place to have one – and later applied some of Silver’s weak, yet non-damaging adhesive to his bookmarks.  He found that the little sticky markers worked perfectly, and sold the idea to 3M.  Trial marketing began in 1977, and today you’d find it hard to imagine life without them.

Yep, Silver probably felt defeated and out of sorts.  If he allowed himself to "put on" the spectacles of negativity, his vision would have been clouded by the fact that he was looking at his "gift" from the wrong perspective. UH OH, ain't that what I did with my "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day?"

So the solution is that easy, my friends.  Take a day or situation or conversation that is going south and turn it around by shifting the focus from "negative" to "God is in control."

"God, give me grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.  Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, taking as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it, trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to Your will, so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with you forever in the next." 

It really can be a YES day!


Selah (סֶלָה )