Monday, June 04, 2007

It's been a character building day....

A few years ago I read the book "It's Not Over Until You Win" by Les Brown. If you haven't read this book, or better yet heard him do it on CD, then you really need to get it.

This is the first time I had ever heard the term "character building day". As Christians we should not have "bad days", we should have character building days. God allows trials to test our character, to help us grow. When challenges arise are we going to trust him and have faith, or are we going to complain, get depressed, have negative attitudes, etc..? In other words "Be like the world."

Also, I think we should follow the example set in the movie "Facing the Giants".... "When we win we will praise Him, and when we lose we will praise Him."

I think, "When things are going great we should praise him, and when they are "challenging" is when He is seeing if we will still praise Him."

Normally, I wouldn't write about my sister "J", because she would just get mad. But, she doesn't read my blog anyway, so I'm going for it. :-)

Today was "one of those days" according to my sister. This weekend the radiator acted up. Today, there's a hole and it needs to be replaced. About $300 worth of "replaced". It's been at the mechanics for about 3 hours. We are waiting on his call to say it is fixed.

Nephew broke his glasses this weekend and needed to get to the eye doctor today. Took awhile to find a doc that took his insurance. We then had to cancel his appointment, due to the car, and reschedule for tomorrow. So, he is pretty much limited on what he can do with no glasses.

We had no hot water last night. Dear brother read the manual and figured out a tube needed replacing. So he called the gas company who said to call a plumber, who showed up only to find out that he had the wrong hose. So, we still don't have hot water. Although, due to loving brother heating water on the stove we were able to enjoy warm "showers". :-)

Now we are waiting for the plumber to call only to discover a tower is down and we have no phone service. ;-)

Are you hanging with me so far? :-)

I did manage to get dear brother to call the mechanic from work to let him know we have no phone service, so don't bother calling. The mechanic then let us know the parts house delivered the wrong radiator, but assures us it will be fixed around 4:30 pm. Brother's boss will drop "J" off at the mechanic's on her way to drop brother off at his 2nd job. Boss is a saint, but I think we are testing her patience today. ;-)

Are you still following me, people?

I have handled everything today with a smile, or at least I have tried to anyway.
Dear "J" has chosen to use this week as her vacation, therefore having no vacation in October, and has not chosen to allow this to build her character, or have a sense of humor. :-) The gall of some people. ;-) LOL...

You may thinking "Lose the Pollyanna attitude", "This is a little too preachy", "You're just being a slight bit too positive and perky"..... Maybe so, but I'm also not allowing my blood pressure to go through the roof, or have the entire household in an uproar only to come back to the same problems with no solution. Doesn't help.

Since this is already too much of a "motivational speech" I guess I will end with one of my favorite phrases from Les Brown. "When life knocks you down make sure you land on your back, because if you can look up, you can get up."

I'll climb down off of my soap box now. :-)

Love,
Wendy Darling


3 comments:

Princess LadyBug said...

Sorry things are so rough and I hope they get better soon. And don't worry about being too perky. If I were there you know I'd be playing the "glad game" with you. Us Pollyanna's have to stick together.

mamabright1 said...

I had the privilege of seeing Les Brown speak in person at a conference many years ago...and he is incredible...

I'm sorry to hear that your day wasn't what you would have liked...but glad to know that you were able to perceive it in the way God intended it...as a "character building day"!

blessings, mamabright :-)

WendyDarling said...

Hi, Mamabright :-)

I also had the privilege of seeing Les Brown at a convention. It was in the '90s at an Amway convention. He was terrific, which prompted me to read the book. He really is a wonderful speaker, and such a testimony!

Glad to have you visit. :-)