And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.  Ezekial 36:26

Jocelyn picked Beados as her project this week. She meticulously arranged the teeny-tiny beads in a certain pattern in the little tray that holds them in place before you spray and seal them. But every few minutes, she’d bump the tray by accident, causing the beads to get all jumbled. Each time she did, her frustration level rose.

When it happened the fifth time, she lost it! She burst into tears and said she was NEVER doing Beados again! She started dumping all the beads back into the box, trying to erase any and all signs of them.

I hated to see her give up. I knew she was capable of this project; she just needed to cool down. So I told her to leave everything as it was, and go ride her bike. She said okay, but repeated, “I’m NEVER doing Beados EVER again!”

Half-an-hour later, as I was getting into the car to go do an errand, she came into the garage with her bike. She was soaking wet and beaming!

She told me that right when she was over-heating from riding her bike, it started to rain. “It was perfect,” she said. “I was so hot! The rain cooled me off. I had so much fun riding my bike in the rain!” Then, before I could even suggest it, she said, “I’m going to go do Beados now.”

I was so proud of her,and I told her so. Her smile grew bigger as she closed the basement door to head upstairs. Two seconds later, she opened the door back up and yelled, “This is a great day!”

Aren’t we all like my eight-year-old? No matter what our plans or projects are, they never go smoothly. We’re always bumping up against obstacles that jumble the pattern of our day. As our frustration level rises, we wonder why we even bother to tackle a project for work, plan fun things for our kids, or attempt to take some time for ourselves.

That’s the moment we need to change it up. We need to leave everything as it is, step away, and do something else: go for a walk or run, sit with our Bible, play with our kids, whatever. When we do, God rains down graces on us, cooling us off and returning us to center.

Then, and only then, are we truly prepared and fortified to get back in there and do the hard, but possible, thing in our day. Then, and only then, do we realize that the day that started out crumby and frustrating, actually turned into “a great day” after all!

Questions for Reflection:

     * What things are getting the best of me lately?

     * Have I tried stepping away and changing it up in the heat of the moment?

     * If so, how did that change the direction of my day?

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