I woke up this morning and I was supposed to go running. But my bed felt so lovely that I just couldn’t leave it. I didn’t want to hurt its feelings. But it put me in a fussy mood when I didn’t do it.
After I woke up, I started to organizing the children in order to get Cricket to her school early for an anti-bullying dance party. We were in the car before the I realized we were actually like 15 minutes later than we should have been. This made me a bit fussier.
Then I realized when I was watching her dance that I had forgotten my phone and my medicine at home. Awesome. By 8 am, I had failed like 758 times. PLUS I was giving up sugar starting today for 10 days, so this was turning out to be SUPER.
As I pulled into my driveway (which is off an alley), I noticed that a lone high school kid was just sitting in the alley. It was totally annoying because he was practically spread out over the entire road. I almost felt like running over his legs just because clearly he didn’t care about them. But, then, I thought, “I should do something small for him.” And then I didn’t want to do it. I was in a bad mood and I didn’t want to get involved with this random joe who didn’t pull his legs in when I needed to drive by. Selfish boy. So I just went in.
As I went in to get all my things (still forgetting my phone, to note), I reminded myself that I believe in doing small things. I could not ignore a kid who had clearly been put quite literally IN my path. Aggravating or not, he was there. I was there. Something small had to be done. So, I asked him if he was OK. Could I do anything?
And, guess what? He was fine. He even called me “ma’am.” That pebble turned out to be a VERY easy one.
But the best part of this pebble was the ripple effect. I had done something hard. Something I didn’t want to do. In light of that, all the other unpleasantness seemed like it could been conquered. I could go running with the kids later at the park if I put my clothes in the car. I could say no to the Sprite that I really really REALLY wanted. That one pebble spread all through the day (which secretly turned out amazingly well!)
It was awesome. Carrying just one tiny pebble made me realize that I could carry the other ones too. And so can you.
I adore you!
a strange mix of flavors 
You were successful today; I was not. I had a man ask for money today – gas money – and I didn’t want to give him $10. $5 would have been fine, but not $10. As I drove away, I saw that he in fact did need gas money – his hood was open and he did have a car, but didn’t have any gas. I have asked the Lord to forgive me, but it has been consuming my thoughts. Maybe I’ll go back there tomorrow and look for him again….
God has something bigger in store next time! God turns all to good!