That old saying...

So, there is this old saying, "God only gives you what you can handle..."  I have decided that this saying in nonsense, and have since told God the same thing!  Hopefully He does not become to angry, but sees how much He has been throwing at me recently and tames the onslaught of "punishment" for a while.  But, just for a thought provoking moment, let's think about it.

God only gives you what you can handle...

It is an interesting thing to think about.  Why is it that we have this saying, and most people follow it...but then people also curse God for the things that happen to them?  And by no means am I perfect with this...in fact today I yelled at God, asking Him when He was going to stop throwing things at me.  I live a fairly good life.  I have a roof over my head, a car to drive, a job to work, a man to love me and friends to accept me.  The school district pays me a decent amount of money...but it is my job to learn how to save it.  It is the petty things we blame God for though...

"I'm in a hurry - why are you making me hit all the red lights?"
"My last ticket was about to drop off, why did you put the cop there?"
"It is my wedding day, why did you make it rain?"

Or, we're selfish enough to ask for things and curse God when we don't get them, instead of thanking Him for what He does give us.

"Please, if you just let me pass this test, I promise I'll go to church."
"If you help me land this promotion, I'll donate money to a homeless shelter."
"Dear God, please let me win the lottery."

Believe me, sometimes I envy those people who don't hold as firm a belief in God as I do...because they can curse other things...or thank people for the gifts they receive.  Sometimes it feels like a burden to thank a higher power for something, but us "good Christians" find it easy to blame our higher power for things that go wrong.

I know perfectly well that if I had left earlier, hitting the red lights would have just been an annoyance.  I know perfectly well that had I not put so much on my Best Buy card, I would have more money in the bank.  I also certainly know that if I took better care of MYSELF, I would not have landed in the hospital yesterday.  So, why am I cursing God for these things that happened to me?  Shouldn't I be saying, "Thank you, God...for allowing me to have one more day on Earth...one more day to tell the people in my life that I love them.  Thank you."  Did I?  Well, now I did...but no.  I said, "WHY DO YOU KEEP THROWING THINGS AT ME??? DON'T I DESERVE A BREAK?"

So maybe that old saying really means that God only throws as much at us as we can handle, until we realize that it is really a blessing, because it makes us think.

"Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict."

--William Ellery Channing

"God, grant me the serenity to accept things that I cannot change; The courage to change the things I can; And the wisdom to know the difference."

--Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr

We've finally moved in to the house, and have been living in it for about a week and a half.  Most of the boxes are unpacked and I just have to take them somewhere to be recycled.  John went back to Ohio and not even 24-hours after he left, I face planted on concrete in Umatilla; and not even after I week I have used three of my four sick days (one of which occurred when I blacked out and nearly fainted in front of the 22 students in my first period class).  Needless to say, it has not been an easy first week apart.  (And I have blamed God for quite a bit of it...but I did thank Him for not making my face smash in to the concrete).


Wounded elbow from my "Superman Slide" when I hit the concrete!

The saying right now is, BE POSITIVE!  No more negativity - this has not been working out well.  Every time we close one door on a negative situation, it feels like ten more open up...then all ten of those are closed and twenty new problems arise.  There is a never ending struggle here and it should just stop!  Though, on a positive note, Best Buy has now officially stolen most of a paycheck and the computer is now mine, free and clear.  (Yes!)

And such ends the randomness that is this latest blog post.  :)