I’ll tell you a secret, I don’t like fire. We used to heat our home with a wood burning buck stove. While the warm heat on a winter day was wonderful, I hated adding wood and using a poker. I’m not too keen on “fiery/heated situations” either. Temper flares, scams, hiring people that don’t fulfill their service etc. I’m not a fan. It’s a rare day when I get upset and even rarer when I’m angry. Life happens though so occasionally we all have our moments. If you check out you current top 12 emojis, it might give you a little picture of your life at present. Here are mine: 🔥❣️😊🍁🙌😂🤪💓😁😴🥰🤟🏼. Last week there was a mad face in there which is so unlike me.

Here’s my question, how do you handle fiery heated situations or things that make you angry? Well, we are all human and it’s a natural emotion. So we are bound to have moments of anger from time to time. Yet, how we face those moments is key! Ephesians 4:26 says, ““Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath,” (NKJV‬‬) It doesn’t tell us to not be angry. It tells us not to “sin” when we get angry. Ways we respond “in the flesh” are usually sin. Last week I responded in the flesh by cursing. (I did a lot of repenting too) I was SOOO upset. In a “nutshell” we hired a man that was recommended by a friend, to do some drainage repair work. We thought we were hiring him, but he wasn’t here much and sent two young people out to do the work. It was pricey and they did a poor job, not fixing our problem AND the girl signed her name in a concrete slab! I kid you not! There was supposed to be a one year warranty on the work but we had much trouble getting the man to come back out. There was much miscommunication due to him speaking Spanish. My husband and I had a really hard time with all of this. We had gotten ‘poor work” one too many times and I was not going to let it slide. So we were all angry. Whew! Last week was not good, not at all! Here’s the thing, responding in negative ways when angry drains you physically and emotionally. A friend from high school reminded me that we should praise God in our hard times. She was exactly right.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 it says “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (‭NKJV‬‬) (emphasis mine) Ouch! The Holy Spirit will really correct us! It didn’t matter if we had been “shorted” I needed to rejoice, pray, give thanks and “Let God be God”! Saturday evening, I told my husband I was going to take a hot detox bath (epson salt, baking soda and organic lavender essential oil). While soaking, I decided to wear my cochlear implant processor so I could listen to worship music via Bluetooth technology. I put my hair in pigtails so it wouldn’t get wet, laid back in the hot water to de-stress. I listened to Central Collective music. You can check them out on YouTube and Spotify. As I listened I began to sing and then sign the songs. My guardian angel got a good chuckle! I began to release all that was troubling me. It had really drained me. As I soaked, prayed and worshiped, I felt a shift in my spirit. I aimed to give this “drainage project” to the Lord.

Monday morning the guy came out with his worker to fix some of the issues. He was not happy about it. My husband watched as they worked to make sure it was done right. My husband came in and said, “They don’t like me. They said they would work this one day and that was it.” (Remember we paid several thousand dollars for this work plus there was a one year warranty on the work.). I felt in my spirit, we were to show grace. I said, “Why don’t we provide lunch for them and let them know we appreciate them returning to work on the issues.” I will tell you, grace goes a long way in softening people. They worked hard all day and the job was much improved, and the girls “writing” on the concrete was removed. Now God willing, the system will work well when it rains to move water away from the foundation.

A friend sent me the sweetest text earlier today telling me how she saw humility in me. I told her it was something God was refining in me through the fires of struggle. I kid you not. Living with hearing and visual limits is no joke. It’s hard and requires me to surrender daily to God’s power and help. (And help, HE sure does!) I reminded her of my “bad” week last week. She knew because she had been praying for the situation. I told her we are all being refined by daily life. Lord help us choose well. Yesterday those men saw God in us and they saw grace. God gives us grace and we ought to pour it out on others. I pray God will bless them for doing the right thing. I’m grateful for the lesson!

Have an amazing week!

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