lessons from the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

I just had to pay tribute to this book (one of my favs as a child) since I felt like I was living in it Monday (for more about that, see last post):

But I found that God has been teaching me a few things lately, partly through that day (and the preceding and subsequent crazy weeks), but also through just reflecting on my life lately. Just a little summary for you:

• First of all, I was able to share the story of my very unfortunate car week with the girls at Wired last night as an example of the way God is teaching me to trust Him especially when I don't understand what the heck He is doing. We were talking about how God knows what He's doing and that we can trust Him even when we can't see what that is and I thought this was a perfect example.
• God has really confronted me with my attachment to material possessions. I never considered this a big problem for me and I wasn't that upset about the fact that our cars got dented but I did realize that I was mourning the loss of the things we could buy with the money we will be spending on repairs. Turns out, I really like nice things. I like vacations, going out to dinner, buying things for the house, just picking up random things that I see at Target...and I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with those things. But God has been challenging me to check the importance I place on them in light of how much He has blessed me already and how unimportant they are in the eternal scheme of things.
• ""Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30...Pretty self explanatory but this was the verse presented by a speaker at CMDA (Christian Medical and Dental Association) yesterday. Besides being just the encouragement I needed, it make me realize that I complain too much. No matter how heavy my load, it is light if I let Jesus help me carry it...or better yet, give it to Him altogether.
• God has been showing me an inconsistency in my desires and how I actually live my life. As I was worshiping last night at Wired and singing "King of Majesty/I have one desire/Just to be with you my Lord," I really meant it, but then at home a couple hours later I was yelling at Jamie about something stupid. See, my desire is to follow Jesus and to live my life in a way that glorifies Him but often that's as far as I go....desire. I get lazy at the work that goes into maintaining a relationship with God that allows me to live my life in a way that glorifies Him.

As you can see, God is teaching me a lot...Just wish He didn't have to get my attention with terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days ;)