Monday, April 25, 2011

Lost and Found, or rather, Foolish and Humbled

We had lost Marin's glasses.  Super.  Sometime on Saturday between Wal-Mart and home, they had disappeared, and Kristoffer and I were feeling sick to our stomachs, and we hadn't even had any Easter candy yet.  What a fantastic way to start out our Easter morning, somber and grievously frustrated.  In order to have a new pair covered by insurance, we at least needed to find them, however smashed and broken they may be.  Insurance and warranty's don't cover 'loss'.  "Just incredible.", I thought to myself as I sat on the coffee table.  "First, a $200 car repair to kick off the weekend and now this....Lord, please help us find these glasses."  I silently prayed.  Kris and I kept talking over where they might be and we concluded that since they weren't in the car or her car seat, she must have dropped them in the Wal-Mart parking lot.  We hoped more than expected that to be the case, in our house, it's always the worst case scenario.  Through all of this self pity and frustration, I kept thinking that perhaps they had fallen into the Carl's Jr. bag I had thrown out the night before.  Marin, in her tantrum-meltdown from no-nap said she was hungry, so since we were far from home, we concluded a single small hamburger from Carl's Jr. wouldn't kill her.  I had picked the onions off and set the bag on the floor underneath her carseat.  She then promptly fell asleep.  "No," I thought, "...there's no way her glasses would be in that bag.  She fell asleep with her glasses ON.".  And again I thought, "Maybe I should have Kris go out and check the garbage can to see if they're in that bag.....no, they are most certainly NOT in that bag.".  Kristoffer decided to drive to Wal-Mart in hopes of finding the glasses, so he left, and 5 minutes later, came into the house, glasses in hand.  Relief swept over my entire body.  "Where did you find them?!"  I asked incredulously.  His reply?  "In the Carl's Jr. bag in the garbage.".  My eyes widened, "How did you think to look there?" I asked.  "I sat in my car," he said "...and smelled those onions from yesterday, and I knew they must have fallen into that bag, so I checked the garbage.".

And there you have it.  My Easter morning lesson on listening to the promptings of the Spirit.  Who am I to ignore what the Spirit is trying to tell me?!  The only word that describes how I felt is Foolish.  I felt decidedly Foolish.  Here the Lord was....trying to tell me where my daughters glasses were and save us the grief, frustration and cash, as I sit there and say "No, Lord, clearly you're wrong!".  Foolish indeed, and humbled.  It's a good thing He didn't give up on me and decided to go and prompt someone else who might listen, my husband! I work so hard to save money in our family, and this was the biggest test of all and I failed!  I have learned my lesson and have been adequately humbled by this experience.  Next time around I listen more closely.....and we check the ANYTHING that goes in the garbage!

2 comments:

Tabitha said...

I have SO done that. Thank goodness the Lord doesn't just give up on us!

Mrs. Carter said...

Your sister is so right! Don't you love the lessons He teaches us though? Cute story Samantha :) And Miss Marin looks SOOO cute in her glasses!