It Isn't Always As Bad As It Seems

Things Aren't  Always As Bad as They Seem!

At  the age off 22, I became a foster parent. (What in THE WORLD were they thinking to actually give me a license to be a foster parent at 22???)  Anyway, on my first Saturday as a foster parent, I was going to be alone with a sick 10 month old and a very rambunctious 20 month old all day long. I pondered how I was going to take a shower. I decided to put the 10 month old in her baby seat and put her in the bathroom with me and put the 20 month old in front of the TV watching Barney...while I took the world's fastest shower. While I was in the middle of taking the world's fastest shower, the 20 month old brought me a bottle of ketchup. A bottle of ketchup!!! He had been in the refrigerator! I could only imagine what I was going to find in my living room and kitchen.  I imagined a mess that was going to take hours to clean. Was my carpet ruined? What about my couch? And so...the world's fastest shower just got faster. However, upon exiting the shower and checking on the state of the living room and kitchen, I could find nothing amiss other than the refrigerator door being left open. 

What I envisioned as a horrible mess, was actually no big deal. (I discovered on the next day, that while in the refrigerator, he had opened a 5 lb bag of hot dogs and had bitten the end off each hot dog. Thus...the need for ketchup!)

I told that story because it's funny and people can relate to being alone in the house with a rambunctious toddler. The point of today's blog is that things may seem bad, you may picture a really bad mess...but things aren't always as bad as it seems.


I don't know what's going on in your life right now, but I promise you, its not as bad as it seems. Sometimes, when we are hurting or struggling or in the middle of some difficulty, its hard to see past the pain of the situation. Trust God. The Bible ways He will never leave us or forsake us..he's a friend that sticks closer to us than a brother. Jesus is "touched with the feelings of our infirmities"...meaning that He feels our hurts and pain that we are going through. Thank God for Christian friends and family that pray for us and lift us up. (I don't know where I would be without them!) But they are only human and imperfect. We have a perfect heavenly Father who is there for us and working in our lives 24 hours a day!

Trust your perfect heavenly Father even when you can't see or feel how he is working. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. You may not be able to see how God is working in your situation right now, but I promise you He is working! Seek God first, and commit your situation to him. The Bible says that without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him, must believe that God exists and that God rewards those who earnestly seek him. In Matthew, the Bible also says to seek first the kingdom of God and God's righteousness and all these things will be given to us.

Have you ever embarrassed yourself because you said something to a person or made a comment, when you didn't really know the whole situation? Later, when you found out the whole story, you wished you had just remained silent and not said anything. I think we've all done that. Not only do we not know the whole story behind other people's lives, we also don't always know the "whole story" behind what God is doing in our own lives. Ask God to help you understand your current situation and to give you the faith to not complain and just trust Him about the things you don't understand. You may not know what God is doing "on the other side of the mountain".  Just because you can't see...doesn't mean he's not working.

Stop picturing the "horrible mess" like I did concerning the ketchup bottle.. Just trust God. The Bible says His ways are higher than your ways and his thoughts are higher than your thoughts.

Trust Him to handle your situation!