I Stepped into a Big Mess

The weather has turned a little warmer and I was so excited to wear flats. If you are not from a cold weather state you may not understand the joy that one would feel to wear flats! But for me, putting flats on and not boots is rather exciting. It means that spring is just around the corner.

On this warm night, as I stepped out in my flats with my husband it felt so good to be just a little bit warmer. I was excited because we were going to a restaurant that we had not been to before. As I went to get out of the truck, icy cold water met my flat and surrounded it. I had stepped into a gigantic puddle. You see warmer temperatures mean that the snow begins to melt and when snow melts, puddles happen. You know that feeling when you're excited to wear flats and your foot submerges in icy cold water? Yes, that's the feeling that I had the great displeasure a participating in.

Bless my sweet husband, because he got back in the truck let me get back in, move forward (a modern-day chivalrous gesture) this meant I was able to jump out onto dry ground! After drying off my soggy shoe and foot, we had a fabulous dinner together!

This must be the week for messes however, because Monday morning when I arrived at school there was a distinct odor of sogginess in the hallway. I'm not sure what happened first. It may have been the odor or the water dripping from the hall ceiling or maybe it was my friend Mark who was cleaning the floor which was now soaked in water? This messy situation occurred because when the snow melts, sometimes roofs leak. The day was spent dodging the dripping ceiling, keeping children away from the mess and watching with amusement as the paper people who adorned my classroom door flapped in the wind of the fans!

Last night the theme of messiness continued.

This time it was a joy to be a part of.

I have been teaching an English class for parents and their children to learn English. These families come from a variety of countries and speak multiple languages. Faithfully the arrive on Monday evenings for a few hours to learn and practice their English.

Some of my time during these evenings is spent time with the children. On this night we were going to paint pictures. The children's ages range from four years up to 12-year-olds. There's a variety of skill levels and as you can imagine painting means a lot of different things to these children. For an hour it was great fun to watch their creativity and at times gasp in anticipation of the mess that was going to occur as their paint left the paper onto the tables. But this mess was fun to watch and participate in because of the pure joy that it brought to these children.

Today another mess! I was co-teaching a lesson and had a student climb all over me, cause disruptions and basically detour the lesson that other teachers were observing! Not exactly the best lesson I have given.

All of these messes got me thinking about messiness in our life and the control that we often want to have to make things just so.

We have plans and often times those plans don't work out exactly how we envision them.

We want things in a certain order!

Our homes

Children

Friendships

Spouses

Lessons/presentations

Careers

Checkbooks

We have designs for many things and often we're disappointed because, to us it appears to be a mess.

I would encourage you today to embrace the mess. To look at it as an opportunity to trust God more. To look at what he has planned instead of what we have planned.

For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.Jeremiah 29;11

God tells us that "His ways are not our ways" Isaiah 55:8

He tells us that "He wants to work all things out for the good"! Romans 8:28

He says "He'll go before us and be our rear guard" Isaiah 55:12

If that doesn't invite messiness I don't know what does. I need someone to come after me and clean up!

Have you been in the middle of a mess recently? are you wondering what good will come out of it and how you're going to clean it up?

Today embrace the mess, look for the good, and find joy in the midst of wherever you are because, His plans are perfect!