“The Lord blesses you with a future not of suffering, but of
hope and success.” ~ Jeremiah 29:11
Becca loved travel; she enjoyed the
raw expectancy of each new adventure. But
today didn’t start off quite the way she’d hoped.
After a relaxing shower, she sat on the carpet in her towel
and took some deep breaths. Her heart
raced; she thought she might hurl.
Anxiety - reared its ugly, seldom-experienced-but never-welcome
head.
Face void of makeup and a gazillion ends left untied – her
day got worse when the taxi arrived 20 minutes late. As she closed the door and settled into a
filthy, torn backseat, the acrid smell of stale cigarettes and sour onions bombarded
her senses. The weather was gloom - too
wet to have fun, too lonely to be alone.
Once inside the airport she fell up the escalator. Stupid flip flops! She raced through the airport on bloodied
knees only to be pulled aside by an unfriendly TSA officer; she’d accidently
left sunscreen in her backpack. $25 down
the drain!
Gate 73 brought more irritation – lots of hyper kids, a
totally obnoxious businesswoman talking too loud on her cell phone, and 90% of
people staring at electronic devices. A
snippy gate agent told them their flight was delayed indefinitely. This day got worse by the minute.
When she reached for her second cookie, she sensed another
hand doing the same. Through the corner
of her eye, she saw the man remove a cookie from the bag. She was flabbergasted! This guy was stealing her cookies. Furiously, she grabbed as many of the
remaining treats as she could and devoured them.
The man smiled before taking the last cookie. She was appalled – how could anyone be so
rude? What else could possible go wrong
today? Finally the agent requested passengers
on her flight to board. Becca grabbed
her belongings, gave him a nasty look, and marched indignantly through Gate 73.
Inside the plane, she hoisted her carry-on
into the overhead compartment and settled down. When she opened her handbag to retrieve her book,
something else caught her eye - a bag of cookies . . . unopened!
It often seems like the moment an
awful day begins, there’s no way out! We're
doomed to failure until it ends. The key
to beating a bad day is to quickly convince yourself that what just happened is
no big deal. Thank God for those little
annoyances and save your energy for those truly horrific days.
Dear God, I’ve done alright today.
So far I’ve not been grumpy, ungrateful or selfish. But in a few minutes, I'm gonna get out of
bed and from then on, I'm really gonna really need Your help. Thanks!
