One of those days.

Have you ever had one of those days where nothing seemed to go right? You know what I'm talking about? I had one of those yesterday. In the morning, my computer wouldn't load up. I was scheduled to give my kids a big review for their TAKS test next week and the review was on my hard-drive. It drove me nuts. Not only were we not going to review, but now I had to come up with a lesson plan on the fly with thirty kids staring at me. Thank God for movies. LOL!!

Then I got a call from Tama that the cost to fix my car would be over $1000. My car has been out of commission since December, but Tama thought he found a mechanic that could fix it cheaply. Guess not. So now I have to decide if its worth fixing it or not. And our family is stuck with one car for the time being.

And then to top it off, we go to Bible Study and only one person shows up. We usually have between ten and fifteen. But last night we had one. I slowly said to God, "you gotta be kidding me." What could possibly happen next.

Well, what happened next was more confirmation of the fact that God works in mysterious ways. I was debating whether to go ahead and have the study or wait until next week until the entire group got there. But something tugged at me to have it anyways. And boy was it the right choice. It was like everything we read and studied was speaking directly to my situation. We talked about trials and the suffering servant. We read what James said about how we should consider it pure joy when we suffer. How we should count ourselves lucky to suffer for Christ. Paul said in Romans that our trials are "light and momentary when compared to the glory that awaits us." It was like a slap in the face. Here I was thinking I was having a bad day, yet I wasn't looking at the big picture. What I was going through weren't "trials." They were pesky little inconviniences. Paul went through a trial. Job went through a trial. And we all know what Jesus went through.

As we drove home last night, I just reflected on the lessons God had taught me. That we should embrace our troubles because they give our faith an opportunity to grow. That through trials Gods grace is made evident and His power magnified. And finally, it was humbling because I was thinking how disappointed I was to have such a small turnout, yet God was telling me that the lesson last night was really for...me! So the next time you think you're having a bad day, embrace it, step back and see what God is trying to tell you.