There is a saying that my mother used to say frequently. This morning I read it in my Bible reading. Mother always said.... "Red sky at night, sailors delight. Red sky at morning, sailors take warning." What did it mean? Simple. If the sky was red at night, that meant the next day would be nice and calm. But if the morning brought a red sky, it would be a rough day on the water.
In Matthew 16:1-4 (NJKV) Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said to them, "When it is evening you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red'; and in the morning, 'It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.' Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah." And He left them and departed.
Arizona has some very beautiful sunsets. One can go out and look and see the beauty and feel the Presence of God just in the beauty of what we see. Others don't even noticed the majesty of beauty God is painting just for us. When I see a beautiful sunset - or sunrise - I love to pause my life for a few minutes just to take in its beauty and thank God for painting the sky.... and sometimes I'll even say, "just for me". Sometimes I need just a moment of beauty to remove the struggle of what I'm going through at that time. Have you noticed that? When struggles, disappointments, discouragements come.... when you see the beauty of the sky, the sound of a grandchild's voice, the laughter of a child..... all of a sudden you can find joy in that moment. Think back over the past few days.... have you been discouraged and disappointed with life.... and something has come to give you that moment of joy?
I don't know about you, but I live for those moments. Last week was a tough week at times, discouraging, disappointing.... and yet, I was able to have our granddaughter over for a couple days and my heart began to sing again. I believe that God gives us these little things to bring us joy and help us through tough times.
Yesterday was a tough day, but it wasn't so much about me. My work laptop computer decided to go black. I have a monitor hooked up to it and I could work with the one screen, but the laptop was black. Could not get a screen up. I would restart and it would come up, then start streaking and flashing, come up on the monitor and the laptop screen would go black again. At 8AM I was on the phone with IT. I was made very happy for I thought I may have to do a trip to Mesa. I really hadn't thought of it, but my company has a couple hospitals and other office buildings right in this little city in which I live. They have to have IT readily available to them for their needs - so we have a few IT offices here! I never would have thought of it - always just thought IT would be at the corporate offices only. I only had to drive about 5 miles to one of the locations to have my computer looked at.
After working online with two IT people and nothing working, a third IT person called me and suggested I bring the computer in and they'd swap it out for me. I went down about 11AM. He tried checking my computer to see what was going on. It wouldn't come up, but flashed the screen and streaked it.... so he decided that perhaps he could just swap out the screen. He came back a few minutes later that no, he couldn't, so he proceeded to move information from my computer to this other one. That took awhile because I also need visio and adobe pro added. It's separate because they are licensed programs. Then he uploaded Microsoft 365 as that is what we are using now. Teams would not load. He uninstalled Microsoft 365 and reloaded it. Still Teams would not load. I use Teams on a daily basis and we use it for meetings so I did need it. He had to go to a meeting that I had already made him late for, so I took my 'new' computer and came home.
I couldn't get on our internet. I went to hubby to confirm the password. Yes, that is the password, but it must be in all CAPITAL letters. Ok. So I went back and tried to input it. Nope, wouldn't accept it. I did this several times. I did it in all small letters. I did just the first letter capital and the rest small. Still would not accept it. IT contacted me to finish working on Teams and I told them I couldn't sign in on our internet. He confirmed it would be the password that was the issue. I asked hubby again. He grabbed his little book of passwords and said, yes, it was all capitals. Fine. I get my computer and go back to the the office so that the IT person could finish getting Teams loaded. We discussed my internet connection problem. He checked the system and again said it had to be the password. Once he got Teams loaded (finally!) I came back home. It was 3:45PM and my entire afternoon had been at the office. I asked hubby again about the passward and was assured what it was. Then I remembered a piece of paper that he had given me when we were still at the other house and had switched from one internet service to this one. I had come across it when unpacking and had put it on my desk in the other room. Never thought I'd need it, but thought I'd go check it just to be sure it didn't have a number or something added to it.
Low and behold.... the password had one capital letter and the rest of the letters were small. I thought I had used that before in all the other times I was trying to get on the internet, but apparently I didn't, for I inputted the password I found and it worked! I got on the internet and was able to connect VPN to the office. Hubby stood in the doorway watching me, and I told him he needed to change it in his book to make sure he has the right password written down. He looks at me and says "Oh it's not in my book because I know what the password is." I just looked at him. If h had written it down and given me the correct information, it could have saved me another trip to the office and saved me some time.
No, I wasn't angry, nor even frustrated. It's one of those times when I just throw my hands up in the air and say 'Lord, help me!' I wonder what color the sky was yesterday morning...... :-)
We ended the day out to dinner with friends, and coming home I realized that I was completely exhausted from my day. I hadn't really done anything, but it was the doing nothing that exhausted me. I did work an hour after I got home, and luckily I only had one meeting to get scheduled. Once I took care of that I was able to relax and get ready for our dinner plans. It was a very long day, but at least I have a computer that works - I hope! Will start in less than an hour so will see.
Life throws curves at us sometimes and we can either get angry and frustrated at it or we can 'suck it up' and just roll with it. We can make plans to get things accomplished and the little things interfere with it. How we react determines where we are at that time. Are we God-centered or self-centered. Is it all about US and our needs? Or are we relying on God to take what is wrong and give us the peace that He will make right what needs to be done? God's response may not be the response we WANT the situation to have, but His ways are always better. If we look at our circumstances that way, we will perhaps not understand at that time, but when things happen, you know that God is in control.
I don't know about you, but I'm grateful that I serve a God who loves me enough to intervene in situations to make them right according to His Word. They may not end up the way I want them too, but in time, I see His hand all over the situation. As you know, I struggle a lot in some situations. But it is God's hand that I hold on to in order to get through the tough times. Yes, I still get angry, I still get frustrated, I still get hurt. Sometimes it feels like no one cares and I fight the depression that the enemy throws at me. I refuse to let people get me down. Why?
Because my Hope is in Jesus. He is the author and perfector of my faith. He created my very being and loves me beyond all measure. And He is your Hope as well.
Going through something? Lean into Jesus. He is the Rock and Foundation you need to stand on.
Blessings!
