Okay, this day missed it's true self by one.
Let me explain. Today is Friday, the 12th. But there was enough bad luck, weirdness stuff today to be Friday, the 13th! I am not superstitious, but this one lets me know Satan is alive and well. I know I am on the right track when he is trying so hard to wear me down.
Everything started off great! I got my website up and running last night and did some tweaking this morning to get a fully (ahem) functional photographer's website up. I am still a ways off from having music and a beautiful slide show that I hope to afford to pay someone to create for me someday, but it works. It does everything I want it to do in the most basic of ways. So maybe I can spend some time on housework now.
Then I get a call from the Fox affiliate here telling me they want to do a story on Operation Photo Rescue. I was so excited! I gave them the number to call Becky Sell-one of the founders of OPR-and the reporter said they would call me back. I was walking on air cause I just knew this was the break I was hoping for. I had done a media blitz earlier this week to get some attention for OPR. My hopes were that they would do a local story so tornado victims would get the word, and then move to a full blown story on OPR with a referral to their web site to give donations. The reporter never called back.
I was feeling a little glum over this and the lack of sleep from all the web page stuff I've been doing the last couple of days was catching up with me too. My husband got home and I realized I hadn't checked the bank stuff to see if the paycheck came in and the bills all went out. So I did. Lo and behold, something had come in yesterday that I had forgotten. It caused FOUR overdrafts!!!!! Of course there was enough money to cover the 3 smaller things, but no! The bank pays the big one first and charges me OD fees for ALL FOUR! Tell me how is it that they can get by with that???
I won't go into what that does to the budget. I'll just say we will be eating alot of beans and rice for the next 2 weeks. What I do want to add about this is what it did to my poor husband. He cannot for the life of him realize that while it is a large sum of money, it happens and in the grand scheme of things, $140 is not that big a deal. Sure it will make things tight. Sure we will have to cut deep into our budget for the next two weeks, but we will survive. No one is injured or ill. We will not end up in the poor house. Our sanity is still intact...well that may be debatable. He just sees one thing. He has lost a day of his life. He worked one whole entire day...just for the bank. They got it and he got nothing. That's how he sees it. I agree it's frustrating, but I can't imagine how it must feel to him.
So the wall was just narrowly spared having a hole punched in it, although it may have a sizable dent, and I was left in a puddle over the guilt for forgetting to subtract that withdrawal from the account. I know he doesn't realize it, but I felt like he may as well have hit me. Okay, enough of that. I don't want to make him out to be a terrible person. Frustration can make you do really abnormal things and guilt can make you percieve things all wrong. He was most definately NOT blaming me, but at that moment, I percieved it that way. However I must admit that I will think twice before telling him if it ever happens again. Not that I think that is a better choice, but I don't stress like he does. Maybe I should just let him be blissfully unaware.
To top all this drama off. I got on here and found that somehow I had two identical posts on here and though I had gotten 2 WONDERFUL new comments today, they were missing! I think this upset me more than the bank ordeal.
Well, I think after this roller coaster day, and after all the time I have had to put in on the computer the last week, I am going to take a few days off from the computer. Before I go, I want to give God some praise and offer some encouragement. This is something I want to expound on at length, but now is not the time.
God is always and ever faithful. He is both just and full of mercy. He is both fearsome and worthy of adoration. He is deserving of all our praise. Even when things aren't great, he is worthy of praise. I will praise Him in spite of the trauma of the day. I pray that God gives me the strength and the wisdom to continue to praise Him-no matter what.
If you ever have a desire in your heart for something, but you have been waiting for something...confirmation from the Lord, money, time, or simply didn't know how to get started...NOW is the time to move. If God has placed that desire in your heart, act. Submit to God by telling Him you are going to start and if this is really what He wants, you will know when He steps in and starts to make things happen. I'm not saying that He will make it easy, but there will be doors that begin to crack open and paths that seem a little more clear. When you are doing what God wants, Satan will ALWAYS do his level best to make it hard. You can't let "hard" or "easy" determine whether it is right. Throw out the Staples "easy" button. But something someone says will seem like you were just thinking that very thought. Or you will turn around and find that, suddenly, you know what you need to do. Maybe unexpected money will come to you-usually in much smaller increments than you think you need, but it all seems to come together. Sometimes you have to fight to get to that point, but I believe that God will quicken in you whether that fight is against Him or against Satan. The point is that you have to START. You have to take a step. Get the ball rolling. God rarely drops opportunity in our laps. It does happen, but more often than not, He puts it on our hearts for US to do. I can't tell you how many burdens I have felt for one thing or another over the years-missions, children that need homes, various ministries-but nothing ever came from those burdens until this latest one. I decided to move. And believe me, it was not a directed, informed, funded, or even intelligent movement. But it let God know I wasn't dead.
See you guys in a few days.
