When life gives you lemons . . .

There are just some things you can never predict. Take today, for example. I woke up this morning only to find that one of the tires on my car had sprung a slow leak. This also happens to be the day where it's a bit of a challenge getting everyone to work with just three cars and four family members. My only option was to head to Pep Boys where, thankfully, my Dad had already called ahead to let them know I was coming. Mom is going to pick up my sister and take her to work on her lunch hour and the lovely folk at Pep Boys let me drive my car to work and then they drove it back to get the tired fixed or replaced.



To use a Monkism, here's the thing. I could be frustrated and angry at this bizarre delay, particularly since it's happening at this time of year when everyone is crazy busy. But what good would getting frustrated do me? High blood pressure for sure and that annoying little wrinkle between the eyes. No thanks. Instead, I choose to look at this event as God's goodness in preventing an even worse problem. I don't know what might have happened to me on the road this morning if I hadn't refilled the tire with our air compressor. It could have literally blown apart on my way to work and flipped my car over. It was just a fluke that my mother happened to notice my tire as she was hopping into her car. A lot of little "coincidences" had to happen for me to actually realize there was a problem and get the car to a place where it could be fixed. That's what I call the grace of God.

Life is full if these little odds and ends that throw us off our pace. Instead of letting them bother us, we need to embrace them as being a part of His will. Not the easiest thing, I assure you. But this morning was a good morning. I had a lovely chat with the lady from Pep Boys who came with me to work. I would have never met her otherwise. That's a little Christmas miracle.

I guess what I'm saying is that you shouldn't let any little quirks this month get to you. I know it's a busy time and things will go "wrong" because that's human nature and weird things happen. We can't control life but we can control our approach to life. You never know who's life you might bless in the parking lot when your car needs to be jumped. Or who might bless you because of a slow leak in a tire. God knew what He was doing, just like always.