February 13, 2008

It was on my calendar. Saturday night, birthday party for a friend of both my girls. They were looking forward to the party. About Thursday, I ws told it was an overnight. Oh boy, now how do I handle this? What about church Sunday morning. I try to teach them that God should come first, yet, I didn't want to tell them they couldn't go because of church. In my daily prayers, I ask God to help me teach my chickadees (that's what I call all my grandchildren) to love and honor Him in a way that they won't resent Him OR me to a point of rejection. So, I asked God to work it out and left it at that. It's now Saturday evening, the girls are packing their gear, sleeping bags, pillows. It looked like they were going on a weekend camping trip. I'm feeling a bit anxious because I really didn't think they would go for whatever reason, but without ME telling them they couldn't go. When it was obvious they were going, I said to their dad, "What are we going to do about church in the morning?" He replied, "I don't really know." As they walked out the door, I kissed them both goodbye and watched the van pull away. By this time, I'm very upset. I don't know if I was upset with myself for not saying something, upset with them because they left, or upset with God because He didn't take care of it for me. I stood in the middle of my kitchen, I three up my hands and said, in quite the angry tone of voice, "Ok, God, I try to do everything You ask me to do, you put these kids here in my care for me to raise in the faith, I make sure they get to catechism and church every week, what do You want from me??? Whey didn't You do something here??OK, if YOU want them in church in the morning, then YOU put them there!!!" I stomped to my bedroom, like a spoiled brat would do, and plopped myself across the bed and pouted. About 30 minutes later, the phone rang. It was Reinna. "Grandma, we're coming back home." "What do you mean, what happened to the party?", I asked. She started to laugh and I heard Chasey laughing. "Well, the party was LAST night, so we're coming back so we can go to church in the morning." I couldn't believe it. I sat up on the side of the bed, feeling very ashamed for the temper tantrum I displayed before God. I thanked Him over and over, but not before I asked Him to forgive me for not trusting Him. That situation is one many that I could go on and on about, but this was just another reminder that God is in control. HIS way of seeing to it they went to church was far better than my way would have been, because most likely, for me to tell the girls they couldn't stay over at this party would have maybe caused some resentment of their faith, not to mention not being very happy with me. God handled it in a way that no one was upset, in fact, it was quite humorous that they walk up to this house packed like they were, and I could only imagine what those people were wondering. We all laughed about it and everyone was happy. God does have a sense of humor, too and HIS method for accomplishing obedience was perfect....AS USUAL.