the unexpected

I think I may have alluded to this in a previous post but it has *recently* come to my attention that I have a problem with optimism. I guess I've always known it but lately I was asked to take a test to help me assess areas of weakness in which to further develop as a leader and this was an area noted. All of that to say, I think because of my heightened awareness of my proclivity toward pessimism (and inflexibility and a rather low ability to deal with stress-- nice combo, huh?) I have looked at the events of a day a bit differently.

Take this morning for example. We awoke in the wee wee hours of the day to a dog with some bowel issues. Poor Steve had to get up and let Baxter out several time through out the night. Well, there must have been one time that got missed because as I was getting out of the shower Steve let me know that there was indeed, a mess waiting for us in the living room-- and Turner found it!! If there is a pool of diarrhea somewhere, leave it to Turner not only to find it, but to sit in it. New outfit for Turner and for Steve (who had to quickly rescue baby from poop pool w/o thinking through what that meant for his outfit.)

Between the two of us, we got the nasty mess cleaned up and back to normal. It did manage to leave a black cloud hanging over my head the rest of the morning (resulting in me needing to apologize to a co-worker later.) So I came home, rushed the kids off to a nap and decided to fix myself a cheesy plate of nachos and watch a re-run of Roseanne. (Just what the doctor ordered for a someone trying to over come pessimism, indeed.)

Then, it must have been the Lord, I came up with a better plan... spend time with Jesus. I had a great time putting some thoughts on paper and reading my Bible. And this is what I found:

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and LEARN FROM ME, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (ahhh... Matthew 11:28,29)

Now, that's a cure for pessimism! Yeah, crap happens! And sometimes it happens all over your living room floor, and your kids sits in it and you're a jerk. But there is hope, a way out and rest! I've got a long way to go before someone accuses me of being an optimist, but for the rest of the day I'm gonna hang on to this one. Tomorrow I'll tackle stress-tolerance over a re-run of Mama's Family and the book of Job.