Do you remember the story from grade school about the little boy who had the no good, rotten, stinking day? I was thinking about that after I had what seemed to be a really rotten day not too long ago.
It all started at Target. Which is crazy right? Like what mom can have a bad day at Target? That is just not how bad days start out! I moseyed into the store with my youngest on my hip after dropping the two big kids at school. I was desperately in need of some new undies. I also wanted to try on some things from the clearance rack because why not? I only had one kid with me!
I had picked up the smallest size undies because for the first time in three years my clothes are falling off rather than my pregnant belly bursting out of them. I was skeptical that they would fit though and I really wanted to try them before spending $50 for them not to fit. So I thought I’d sneak a pair in to try by stuffing them into a pair of the jeans I was going to try.
Well just as I stuffed a pair of the frilly undies into the pocket of the clearance jeans to sneak past the dressing room attendant, I noticed someone else had stuffed about 15 tags into the other pocket. I thought it was weird, but since I was trying to fly under the radar I didn’t think twice about it. I just tossed the tags into the cart and went to try on the things I had grabbed.
Flash forward to check out. I had finished checking out all my things only to realize that I hadn’t grabbed my bag from the car, and I couldn’t pay. So I swoop Jovee up and jet to grab my wallet. When I got back to the register I found two clerks hovering over my cart. I walked up as one of them was stating, “Well if she doesn’t come back when know where they went.” I interrupted them to try and plead my case only to find she wouldn’t let me talk. I didn’t have a leg to stand on though because I had no excuse for not reporting the tags I had found. Which DUH, were from clothes someone had probably my shoplifted! Yikes, I was in a mess!
I was frustrated that I was being accused of stealing and also mad at myself for being sneaky which could have gotten me in a lot of trouble in that moment. It was a rotten day for sure, and it didn’t end there.
I went on to pick the kids of from school that afternoon. As I was getting onto the on ramp I rear ended a poor lady’s van. We were all okay thankfully, but as I got home and reflected on everything from the day I just couldn’t help but feel like Alexander and think this is a really rotten day.
I wasn’t wrong that it was a bad day. It was a stinky, strange day indeed. The next morning Colby and I were reading in Genesis and I kept thinking about how many times God said, “He saw all that He made and it was good.” He really wanted us to know that didn’t he? I’m discovering there’s a lot of stinky parts of this life like suffering and all the things that make for bad days. Car wrecks and being wrongly accused, but that doesn’t steal from the good available to us in each moment, and the fact that we have a choice to dwell on the negative or think about the good in those scenarios. I could fuss and complain about how I was mistreated at Target or I can thank my God that I didn’t go to jail that day when I didn’t have a leg to stand on to defend the fact that I hadn’t stolen anything. I can complain about the ticket I got or I can Thank God for His protection and that our car still works and that all of the people involved walked away alive and okay.
We messed up way back in the beginning, and it caused a lot of bad to come into our life. It ultimately separated us from God, but it didn’t change who He is. He is good. Everything isn’t always all good, but there is good to be found in everything just because He is in it. So if you look for Him in everything there is always something good to be found even from stinkiest of days.
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