When Life Doesn't Let You Get What You Really Want

"Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces patience."   ... James 1:2,3

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Remember how the Universe was against Tom's and my having our carpet replaced? Well now it won't let us hire landscapers to trim the hedges.

Uh-oh.

One company promised to tackle them last Tuesday, but we got a couple intermittent rain showers and the answering service lady said the guys don't want to get their electric equipment wet. But I say what's a little electrocution threat? Ol' Debra's been known to take her battery-operated trimmer out in the mist and lived to tell the tale.

Well, I called Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, spoke to two ladies who promised I was On The List, then gave up. This morning Tom called a company who worked on our neighbor's yard, but he said it would be 3 weeks before they could get here.

Three weeks? We'll have to machete our way out of the yard by then. 

Our helpful realtor friend, Cher, recommended someone who sounds terrific, but he's based quite a ways away (relatively) and ideally, we'd like to find someone local. But he's still in the running.

Anyway, after I got Tom's email about the 3-week-from-now company, I thought, "I'd better listen to a Joyce Meyer message since my attitude right now stinks." I just picked a random one and it was perfect, all about the importance of keeping a good attitude because 1.) God asks us to, and 2.) so the small stuff won't make us insane. 

Then--even though I've got packing and cleaning galore to do because our new carpet arrives on Saturday (and Naomi on Tuesday)--I unearthed the hedge trimmer charger from the bottom of a box Tom packed yesterday, went out to the garage, got the battery and charged it. Then I stepped out into the foggy mist and trimmed the longest hedge (and again, lived), raked-up the clippings into a pile for later**, then hobbled back into the house... 

.. where I am right now, picturing myself all grey and 92 years-old outside with my walker, drooling, shaky, and trying to hold that 4-foot long trimmer up high enough to clip the hedge tops. At this rate, who knows?

Come quickly, Lord Jesus.  :)

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."   ...Philippians 4:13

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"A cheerful heart is good medicine,
    but a crushed spirit dries up the bones."   ...Proverbs 17:22


"This is only a test. This is only a test..."


"But He gives us more and more grace..."   ... James 4:6  
(What remains is for me to receive it rather than only use my own strength.) 



I'm guessing God thinks I'm more able than I believe I am since, four summers running, I'm still clipping these hedges. And that I'm not ready for such luxuries as landscapers.  (Oh, but wouldn't it be lovely...?)


** Eventually I clipped the other two hedges, the tops and outside sides, only. This was the most humid day of the year so far, oh dear, but it does feel wonderful to have those 75 feet of hedges back under control.




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So when did the royal baby grow up to be a little boy? My, my, my...

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