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Ever have one of those days? Yep. That’s today…and many other days.

I can see why we are encouraged (Philippians 4) to think about good things. The bad or frustrating or unplanned or inconvenient things would just keep us down if we only dwelt on those things.

About Me

I am a fixer. I like to fix things: old pieces of furniture, issues (health, money, spiritual, emotional…ALL) of loved ones (be them human or pet), cars, whatever. I like to help. I like to fix.

I want to see things and living creatures be well and happy. It brings me joy to see people be at peace with the Lord being all He created them to be. I enjoy seeing things and people in good running order and being able to enjoy life and have fun. That’s me. I guess that’s the way God made me. It’s intrinsic. It comes naturally.

Challenges

I overthink. My Little Blessing says I cry over everything. Not everything, but a lot. You know why? Because I empathize probably to an extent of not always the most beneficial to my own well-being. It’s not just real-life situations either. It’s movies too. Not just those based on real-life stories, but even fictional stories that I KNOW are fictional. I can be quite proficient at feeling the pain of someone else, as well as the anger and hate. If a discussion gets emotionally charged, I feel it. I don’t mean just notice it, but I actually feel it down in the depths of my being, which I’m trying to change but am quite challenged at doing so.

Today’s Challenge

So today, I’m trying to relist over 100 listings I had on an “unnamed” selling platform that had been “lost”. They were “lost” by their system…meaning it shredded them like a confetti shredder and ejected them into outer space beyond the reach of mere mankind. Yep. So as I begin the monumental rebuilding of the listings, I run into a “technical issue” with the very first one! I call for help, and the agent was very nice…but couldn’t resolve the issue saying it was “weird” and they’d “never seen this before”. Can I tell you how many times in my life I have heard these same phrases used in regard to something I’ve experienced with computers and “technology”??? But I digress.

While I’m talking to the agent, I look over at my office caddy. (You know, the little desk companion three-drawer stack beside the desk with plastic drawers and coasters on the bottom?) It seems…slanted. (It’s one of those moments when you tilt your head to see if you can confirm what you think you see.) How can it be slanted?

Second Challenge

While he has me on hold (for the second time because my issue is so “weird”), I take all the drawers out of it and everything off of it because I realize I have to turn it upside down to see what’s up. The plastic collar for the coasters have cracked in the back, thus the coasters in the back are no longer in place. OK. I can’t fix the collars (which is frustrating in itself since I am a fixer) so I just remove the coasters but now I have a caddy sitting on a scratch-able wood floor with no coasters. Now I must dig through all my “moving stuff” to find those squishy-on-one-side-and-felt-on-the-other discs. (You know what I’m talking about, right?)

In the End

I get the coasters and put it all back together and in place. The agent tells me all he can do is file a report and hope the issue is resolved sometime in the next week. That’s that. Neither is fixed but at least one is usable again while the other remains in a disconcerting holding pattern.

What’s my Point?

OK. I’m getting to that. My point is, there are always lots of negatives in life: some more grandiose and world-shaking than others (and today’s was pretty trivial), but plenty of negative none-the-less.

BUT…there are also just as many, if not more, blessings each and every day! Even the very ability to breathe is a blessing! Somehow our attention is always drawn more to the negative than the positive, the bad than the good…but why?? It all comes down to temptation and choice. What do we do with the negatives we see or feel or think?

I could choose to focus on the issues my loved ones have to deal with that I can’t fix (and sadly, sometimes I do…scratch that….far too often I do), or I can redirect my thoughts to Who CAN take care of things and people (even if it’s in ways I don’t understand).

Resolve

A long time ago, I realized something that I often have to remind myself of: I am not the Savior. I am not Jesus Christ. It’s way too big of a job for me. I can’t do it. I am incapable of doing it. There is no way that I could ever do it.

Does that revelation mean I don’t care about people or stop trying to help them? No. It means I realize: I must ask God what He wants me to do…if anything besides pray. It means I can only do what God shows me to do (because more than that can be damaging both to me and the one I want to help), and must be at peace with that (no matter how a battle within it is for me). It means that I must accept that sometimes all I can control is how I react to a situation, and that I cannot control anything else.

I still feel deeply. I still tend to dive into empathy. I’m still tempted to worry. But I am learning not to let these rule me.

When we keep our mind (our thoughts) constantly, unwaveringly on God as our source and help, He will keep us in His perfect peace…because we trust in Him. (Isaiah 26:3)