Not a fan of change...... But this layout change was LONG OVERDUE!

Hi All:

As you can see........ you are now viewing my blog on a pretty pink background. It almost killed me to let go of the beautiful, blog template. However, to upgrade to the new blogger "layouts", I had to. It is nice for a change though to see a bright pink. I still have the background saved on the computer, along with my old template...... just in case I ever wanna go back. HAHA

This week has been loooooooooong. I really thought a snow day was in the mix, but it didn't happen. Hopefully this week will bring one. I really should be working on my work for my classes this semester. I have this theory that if I can spend countless hours working and get all my homework completed ahead of time, my life will be a lot easier. That theory worked wonderfully last year when I did such with a couple of classes. I have already worked some, but I feel so guilty when I am taking "me" time instead of getting something done. Is that a female thing or what?

So, I want to share with you a couple of thoughts. Two situations, very different, yet similar.

One occurred 3 weeks ago today in Corbin, Ky. It was the week before my surgery and I was out with my parents because I had been in bed for days with gall bladder attacks. We had a great dinner (grilled chicken salad for me) at Cracker Barrel and decided to head to Wal-Mart. Boy..... did satan have a field day with that. As my dad drove down the aisle (let me pause to say my dad is the most humble, considerate man I know) slowly we came upon a car waiting on a parking place. That space just happened to have a large van and an older lady going very slow at putting her groceries in. Being the females that we are, my mother and I convinced my dad to go around the car so we could go on down another isle. He did and much to our surprise, 2 other spaces had opened up further down the aisle.

I told dad to just pull into the closest space and so he did. OK, ARE YOU READY FOR THE DRAMA? We had barely pulled in when we heard a horn sounding behind us. It startled us all. My mother and I turned around and glanced out the rear window to see the car that we had went around coming straight at us. The car came a few inches from our back bumper and then the driver, a middle aged lady, unbuckled her seat belt and marched up to my dad's window. Now dad, being the calm person he is, rolled down the window to see what on earth was wrong.

The lady started screaming "EXCUSE ME! EXCUSE ME! WHY DID YOU TAKE MY SPACE?" Dad tried to explain that he didn't, rather he took a space further down the aisle since she was waiting on the other space. She wouldn't have it. She kept yelling and yelling. Now, I have changed a lot over the years. I use to be more "mouthy" than I am now. I have actually been praying to be able to "turn the other cheek" for the past few years. I take a lot and never say anything back because I believe that Jesus would want me to show kindness to others instead of the anger that they show. However, my temper got the best of me on this day.

There's something about biting your tongue when it involves you, yet when it involves those that you love, you tend to lose your grip a lot easier. I kept thinking about how my dad had done nothing wrong and I could feel the anger boiling inside of me. I spoke up just as she was leaving and said " You need to grow up and act your age." That did it! She was back. The next part is kind of funny because she called me a "young lady in the backseat" to which I replied "I am not young, thank you very much!" However, dad told her he would give her his space and we ended up parking across the aisle in the other space that was even closer (GO FIGURE?).

As we got out of the car, I was still hot and letting satan take hold of that. I said to my brother, "some folks need to head to church" and the lady apparently heard me. She replied, "some folks need to stop judging." Believe it or not guys, even though I know this lady was completely in the wrong for what she had done; I know that she was right about that statement. Even though I did not mean what I said as a judgement, it sure sounded like it. And even though I didn't mean for her to hear it, she sure did.

So I bet you are wondering what happened next? Well, she actually followed my mother and I around in the store and came right up to me in the make-up section and stared at me. I rolled my eyes and pretended to not even see her. I then vowed that if she continued to follow us, I would let security handle it. However, she didn't and the next time I saw her, she was at her car waving her arms frantically to two college aged boys as she told the story. I only watched that inside the foyer of Wal-Mart as to not get the whole thing rolling again.

The second story I want to tell you about deals with a personal situation and obviously I am going to be brief because I do not want to be too detailed with such. I began tutoring this past week. I was pretty excited to have the opportunity to work with my students after school and so I was in a good mood Monday evening as the tutoring began.

I walked my students to get their snacks. I found another student that would be staying with me from another grade. Now, that student is a sweetheart. He really is. But, my rules given by my boss were to ONLY work with my grade level and 5 students per day. I already had surpassed 5 barely, so this would continue to break that rule. That wasn't what bothered me. It was the fact that we had denied other students this opportunity because they weren't at my grade level. It was a rule that I had no control over. However, I believe in being consistent because not only does it keep a lot of situations from arising but it also helps to be fair to everyone.

Much to my surprise, another colleague did not see it this way and voiced her opinion loud and clear to me in front of everyone. I realize that this colleague is a different personality type than I, however, I strongly felt that a response in such manner was uncalled for. To make a long story short, I spoke up for myself (in a Christian way) and mentioned it to my boss so that she could handle the situation. I then stressed the whole rest of the evening because I absolutely hate conflict.

The situation has since been handled and things are fine. However, I have come to realize that not everyone in this world can be a "good buddy." I am naive. I always believe that I can get along with most everyone, and most of the time I do. However, it really hurts me when I run into a situation that involves someone that I have trouble getting along with because they have a preconceived notion that I am something other than me.

Now, why did I tell these two stories? Good question. I wanted to share that I'm not perfect. HAHA Yes, its true, Alesha is a big screw up a whole lot of the time. I'm kidding! We all know I'm not perfect, I have never claimed to be such and I never will. I messed up in the first situation by opening my mouth and letting my wicked tongue take over. And in the second situation, I messed up by stressing over a situation that I should have just given to God at the first second of stress and let it go instead of running wild with it.

It's at times like these we discover that we are so dependent on God. We know that we are, but sometimes we forget. And satan can really get his claws deeper in us when we mess up because we let him beat us up and tell us we are failures. He's right, we are failures....... EVERY DAY, EVERY WAY, EVERY MOMENT, AND WE ALWAYS WILL BE. However, we only see this magnified when he uses it to bring us away from Jesus. If it were totally about what we do, how good we are, how good of a job we did; we would never amount to anything. We have to remember (and this is for me) that no matter how much we mess up, God is still in control and still taking care of things for us.

You know something else. I don't dislike either of the two folks that I was involved in conflict with. I have nothing of substantial importance against them. Yes, there are going to be people we don't necessarily "jive" with, but that doesn't mean that we can't pray for them. Have you had a situation like these? Are you angry with those who hurt you? Join me in a prayer for those folks.

Dear Heavenly Father,

I come to you today in complete humility. I know that I am nothing without YOU! Please forgive me for sins I have committed against fellow believers and nonbelievers. Please help me to bite my tongue and to turn things over to YOU instead of harboring them inside so that satan can use them against me. Please forgive those who have hurt me in the past and in the present. Please shine your light in their life so that they may see YOU in all your glory. Bless them Lord and provide opportunities for them to make things right in their lives with you and with others. Bless me to make things right with you and with others daily as well. Show me those that I hurt intentionally and unintentionally and forgive me. Help me to make things right in all situations so that my light will not be dimmed with sin. I praise you for all that YOU are, all that YOU always have been and that all that YOU always will be.

In Jesus' Precious and Holy Name I Pray,

Amen.

I feel better just praying that again. You never know, there may be someone that you have unintentionally hurt throughout your day. Maybe they are feeling this way, too. It's a good thing to request for discernment in our everyday lives. God is sooo Good!