Emily and Tuesdays

You know that book "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day"?  I figure they could have just called it "Alexander and Tuesdays" and it would have meant about the same thing.

This is a classic book. Everyone should read it.  

So as to not exaggerate: no, every Tuesday isn't terrible. In fact, I enjoy the things I do on Tuesdays very much, but since I have scheduled things from 8am-10:15pm, the day just gets long.  This past Tuesday was no exception and on top of that, Tuesday was a hard day for me due to some pretty bad pain flaring up in my left elbow.  I wish I could say I dealt with it with enormous patience and was grateful that this is the first time since about November that it's been this bad, but I didn't, and I wasn't.  It was just plain old hard.

During Spring break, when I was working with my piano teacher from back home, I told her that some of the old pain seemed to be coming back.  She mentioned that familiar saying: "Three steps forward, two steps back".  It's a true statement and I realize that forward progress is being made with my wrists/elbow/piano technique, albeit very slowly.  But sometimes, when I'm in the middle of walking backwards, all I notice is that the light at the end of the tunnel suddenly looks farther away.

Relient K got it right in their song: "Forward Motion is harder than it sounds, every time I gain some ground I gotta turn myself around…"

It is a comfort beyond explanation that God's Sovereign Will will be done in my life. As CS Lewis puts it:

"There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done', and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way'."

*I pray that I can learn to say "Thy will be done" and not begrudgingly fight God every step of the way. 

*I am thankful He takes my stubborn heart and gently breaks it.

*I rejoice that He never decides I'm too much trouble and moves on. 

*I am grateful that He is faithful, and good, and patient.

**Tuesdays may be hard, but I have never gone through a Tuesday without the strength of Christ bringing me through.

**My elbow may not be fully healed but I will never touch a piano without God giving me the ability to move at all.

**I may never fully comprehend why I go through the things I do, but nothing will happen to me that the Lord has not planned from beginning to end.

"I am confident in this:  that He who began a good work in me will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ." Phil 1:6