When life doesn’t go as planned, I usually react in one of two ways: either with equanimity and grace—because I’m with people I want to impress—or with grumbling and complaints—because I’m with my family, and they love me no matter what. Neither response follows Paul’s call in Philippians 2:14-15 to do all things without complaining or grumbling, so that I can be the light of Christ in a dark and twisted world.
For the past few weeks, my days were full to over-flowingly busy, even before life didn’t go as I had planned. The beans were coming on in my daughter’s garden, which means we were canning beans a couple times a week. We finished the first batch right before I went to Chicago to promote my new book Sharing Love Abundantly after it released. When I got home a few days later, there were more beans. I was fine with that, because I had planned time into my schedule for canning season.
My daughter and I were confident we could maintain the household and our job duties, even though we were short a few adults. My husband went home to Alaska for a week; my son-in-law started a second job, so he was gone more than usual. Even so, we were handling things well until the when-life-doesn’t-go-as-planned thing happened: I hurt my back.
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The kind of hurt that takes days and weeks to heal.
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The kind of hurt that means a person can stand or lie down, but not sit.
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The kind of hurt that means a person needs 5 minutes to move from stand to lie down and visa versa.
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The kind of hurt that means an ice pack for 10 minutes every hour.
Had I been in Chicago when the injury happened, I probably would have responded with equanimity and grace. But I was at home, and you can most likely guess how I responded. As a caregiving parent who lives in the world of “when-life-doesn’t-go-as-planned,” you probably understand my less-than-gracious response and perhaps identify with it. I hope that you, like me, want to respond in a more God-honoring way the next time your life doesn’t go as planned.
Source: Special Needs Parenting- Key Ministry
